Surf fishing should be great

Thursday, the beach front had settled down to a nice rolling surf under southeast winds of not more than 10 to 12 knots.

Water clarity was excellent all the way to the beach.

If those conditions hold through the weekend, surf fishing should be excellent.

Lots of sand trout are being caught in the bays, and reds are stacking up around the mouths of drains into both East and West bays.

No tarpon reports as of press time Thursday; however, conditions are ripe for action on the big silver kings.

Tito, from the 61st Street Fishing Pier, called in at 4 a.m. Thursday to report continued good action on bull reds.

Along with the oversized reds, pier anglers are catching slot and rat reds, sand trout, whiting and black drum.

Richard Eberle fished the pier Wednesday night and landed four bull reds to 46 inches. Large chunks of mullet were the bait.

Eberle asked that we remind anglers to be careful when releasing bull reds.

Use a landing net rather than toss the fish back in the water.

The 15-foot drop from the pier can be too much for a large red.

Jack Nichols and his wife, Anita Palfrey, fished off the Galveston Ship Channel Wednesday night and landed a bunch of sand trout and ribbonfish.

Anita had 30 in the ice chest and Nichols added a lot as well. Live shrimp was their bait.

Mickey Marshall and Dave Freeman fished the mouth of Greens Lake late morning Thursday and came close to limiting out on reds.

Their tally was five slot reds and at least 20 throwbacks.

Live shrimp fished under popping corks was the bait.

Terry Manning returned from a morning of fishing the shoreline from Virginia Point to Campbell’s Bayou with a stringer of seven specks, two reds and a large black drum. All of the fish were caught using Texas Trout Killers and Cohoe minnows.

Bryan Treadway reported lots of bait up in Chocolate Bayou and the water was not in bad shape.

Treadway will be hosting Lute’s Marine’s Fishing Tournament on Saturday and is in need of flounder fishermen to bring in live ones for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department portable tank that will be located at Lute’s that day.

The fish will be transported to Sea Center Texas over in Lake Jackson for use in the breeding.

To get your catch in the Reel Report, phone Capt. Joe Kent at 409-683-5273, or send an e-mail to reel.report(at)galvnews.com. There’s no charge for this service.