Friday Night Heat

Summertime in Texas is hot. We are deep into the July weather pattern of hot humid days, afternoon thunderstorms, and steamy nights.

Reports from the coast were good (even though I was in Chicago for a couple of days) and as the work week came to a close a plan was hatched to visit the 1st Street Pier on Friday night.

I've been trying to get Jared back to the salt water for some time and things worked out for him to join us on this trip. We ate a quick supper at the house and headed south, arriving in Palacios well before dark. We made a pit stop at The Point and got some "fresh dead" at the Bait Shack and drove to the jetty to see whether we might want to start there.

This photo, demonstrates for all readers of the blog, that Tracy is indeed an excellent photographer. Nice Shot! After surveying the scene, we decided to head back to the familiar seawall near the pier instead of getting sprayed with saltwater and slipping on the slick granite.


The wind was blowing a little but I was optimistic that it would subside after dark.
Before long we were catching small drum, croaker, pinfish, and an occasional hardhead.

"Lady Redfish" continued her run by catching two reds. These guys are too small to keep but fight like the dickens.

Jared was pleased to catch the bigger of this double drum haul.


Tracy's double spot redfish. I spooled her up with some new line (14# Crystal Berkley Fireline) and a hand tied, carolina rigged, #8 VMC cone cut, super sharp, saltwater, treble hook with fresh - never frozen white gulf shrimp. Nothing but the best for these magnificent fish!


Here is a closeup of the Brute of the Bay, the Prince of Palacios, the Golden Glamour of the Gulf....

OK, back to the fishing.

We moved out to the pier after sundown and Jared began catching sand trout on shrimp.


Tracy and I switched to the old stand by - the tiny TTF glowing double shad rig and caught some of our own. The speckled trout were few and far between but we each caught lots of fish and everybody caught at least one speck.




We got to see a beautiful moonrise over the bay. Here is a picture and below is a video to try to give you the full effect. (I wish I would have had the bigger camera!)

"Red Moon in the day the fish are away
Red Moon at night will turn on the bite"

I made that up myself...I'm sure it will catch on and become a new classic!