Spring Break 2010 - Vol. 3

Slight delay since I published Vol. 2.  So, didn't go fishing that day.  Still too foggy and the wind was blowing out of the west, which is not good for East Matagorda Bay.  Did some shell hunting back on Surfside Beach.  We ended up with a number of nice Lightning and Pearl Whelks, Lettered Olives, Angle Wings, Pen Shells and one Murex.  Got online and ordered a shell id book from Amazon.  We are going to start keeping a log, the same way we do with birds. 
Fishing got rescheduled for Friday.  Went to bed early Thursday night for a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call.  Needed to be on the road by 5 a.m.  So, Alyssa calls at 11 p.m. to check their directions.  Then they brought Sherlock in and he barked for an hour.  I tried putting a pillow over my head, but that dog has a penetrating bark!
Despite the short night, I got off to a good start Friday morning.  Met Capt. Gene in Sargent.  We loaded up and headed out.  No fog, gorgeous weather.  Stopped for live shrimp and some dead bait, too.  Wind started picking up almost immediately and it continued to blow all day long.  Kept the bay muddy and we had little success drifting over the oyster reefs.  No trout and no keeper redfish.
To fill the ice chest we hit one of his honey holes.  Caught 19 nice black drum, kept a limit of 5.  Also caught about 9-10 sheepshead.  Kept a limit of 5.  They were the biggest sheepshead I have ever seen.  The largest was almost 7 lbs. and the smallest was 5 lbs.  Caught two  on one line at the same time.  Thought I had hooked a monster!!  Also caught two stingrays and a number of hardhead catfish.  Which are just a nuisance.  Hooked and broke off two big fish.  Never got them close enough to know what they were.  That's one of the great things about saltwater fishing, never know what you might hook up on.
The rest of the weekend was all about food.  Cooked some drum Friday night.  Put on a dry rub and sauteed in a little olive oil, served with Matagorda Bay Sauce.  (Our new secret recipe.)  Saturday night we fried some of the sheepshead.  Used a beer batter.  Spencer did the frying when Tamie and I went to meet a real estate agent to look at a nearby beach house that was for sale.  Hmmmm.
Beach was amazing on Saturday.  No surf.  You could have waterskiied out there easy.  We did get out the camera and binoculars to watch a pod of dolphins go right by just outside the surf.  We were able to watch them for almost 45 minutes.
Sunday morning we got up early.  Packed up the cars and cleaned up the beach house.  On the road by 10 am.  This is a great beach house in a great location.  If you want to stay on Galveston Island, call me and I'll put you in touch with the owners.
Still no pictures.  Having trouble with the camera's memory card.  Spencer is working on rescuing what can be rescued.  Hopefully, we will have them all soon.  My proof for my fishing story is on that card.  Course, if Spencer can't save them, my story can get better and the fish can get BIGGER!!