| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Peyote
Finger Mullet
Joined: 07 Jul 2015
Posts: 11
|
 Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:23 pm Post subject: Looking for a few tips for my upcoming trip |
 |
|
I'm headed to Bob Hall pier next week with my boy and we are hoping to catch some pomps, redfish, maybe some black drum or a bonnet head. I've fished the pier before with some luck so I'm hoping this works out again.
I'm trying to limit how much bait we have to buy, but we are going to be fishing for a while. I'm thinking about buying a few crabs, some frozen mullet, and frozen squid and shrimp. my plan is to fish with the frozen stuff while I try to catch some live bait. I have a drop net for crab...but are there any crab to be had off of BHP? My other method will be to try a sabiki rig to get some mullet or pinfish, then fish those live.
Hopefully my frozen bait will hold me over while I try to get some fresh. I've never used a cast net and don't own one so I don't want to mess with that.
Any other ideas for getting bait while at BHP?
other questions:
I've heard people talking about fishing the first or second gut, but how do you spot it during the day or at night?
Do you need to be at the end to have a good chance of hooking a shark?
Do you typically use a fish finder rig for most fishing out there?
Thanks! |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
hickroots07
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 01 Nov 2011
Posts: 1714
Location: cc, TEXAS!
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
When I used to fish the pier I personally liked about 3/4 of the way down for sharks and bull reds. Close to the last cleaning table. You could hammer sharks there at times but we never got anything bigger than 4 ft. Slot reds/trout/pomps/whiting are usually closer in the 2nd and 3rd guts. You can spot the guts by wave break action even at night. The calm between where they are breaking usually signifies a gut. The baits you suggested should get you on some bigger bait fish as well.
It's also sheepshead time. They are usually right at the T close to pilings. Try live shrimp straight down from the railing. You'll know if they are there because everyone will be fishing this way if they are. Good luck!
_________________
Great captains, the stuff of legend, are made not by what they have caught, but by what they have given back. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Peyote
Finger Mullet
Joined: 07 Jul 2015
Posts: 11
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Thanks! Is there any point in watching the tides, or is it more of just fish when you can? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Donnie
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 1248
Location: Near pins
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Peyote wrote: | | Thanks! Is there any point in watching the tides, or is it more of just fish when you can? |
I was just there several times in the last couple of weeks, and Hicks notes are dead on. I landed a bull red hooked in between the second and 3rd gut (or line of breakers) , and lost something very large, probably a shark in the same area, that ran straight at me and under the pier.
To my pier gear, I added a pier net - that was pretty heavy duty, they have them at Roys I;m sure.
But the thing that has worked for me on the pier these last several weeks - was moving around - not getting decent size whatever, then move down toward the sand more - or move out about where the breakers are starting - which would be where the sand bar starts, a place on either side of the gut - where , at times fish will gather. You dont know and we cant tell you where - because it changes, and you just have to move around, change stuff until you figure out what works.
There was a spot - monday couple weeks ago, the president holiday, a couple was fishing about 30 yards from the T - and they were catching (sand trout, whiting, gafftop) 4 or 5 times more than everyone else, he was underhand casting so , not more than 20 yards out from the pier. Apparently there was a 'hole' there where fish gathered - they were using small baits - small hooks - if I had had my gear that day, I would have fished near them but with bigger baits. Of all the fish he was catching, there should have been some bigger predators around.
_________________
Don - permanent prescription of salt water therapy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Donnie
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 1248
Location: Near pins
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:00 pm Post subject: |
|
|
And baits, the best will be shrimp or crab flavored fishbites, then try mixing that with shrimp - or maybe small bits of cut whiting/sand trout.
_________________
Don - permanent prescription of salt water therapy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Peyote
Finger Mullet
Joined: 07 Jul 2015
Posts: 11
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 2:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Yeah I just read your posts about fish bites and will definitely try them. If I'm trying for pompanos are there any sea lice to be had on the beach? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Donnie
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 1248
Location: Near pins
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Peyote wrote: | | Yeah I just read your posts about fish bites and will definitely try them. If I'm trying for pompanos are there any sea lice to be had on the beach? |
What most of us call sea lice - are those big nasty looking things - last ones I bought were 4-5 inches long, hard as a barnacle. Are you talking about the ghost shrimp that you dig out of the sand with a 'shrimp sucker' ? I have heard them called all kinds of things. 20 years ago, me and the kids would 'suck up' a bunch of the ghost shrimp from those little holes in the sand at the water line - and catch just about everything near by. But now, down on pins , I hear that its illegal to use these shrimp suckers to pull these guys out of their holes.
And back to sea lice, they are typically used for the big black drum, called 'big uglies' around here.
_________________
Don - permanent prescription of salt water therapy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Peyote
Finger Mullet
Joined: 07 Jul 2015
Posts: 11
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Oops I guess I meant to say Sand Fleas!, the things that kind of look like craw dads with no tail or claws |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Donnie
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 1248
Location: Near pins
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2018 3:52 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Peyote wrote: | | Oops I guess I meant to say Sand Fleas!, the things that kind of look like craw dads with no tail or claws |
Yep, we called them ghost shrimp.
_________________
Don - permanent prescription of salt water therapy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ratherbefishing
Member White Shrimper Boot Club
Joined: 20 Oct 2008
Posts: 868
Location: Arlington, Tx
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 12:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Donnie wrote: | | Peyote wrote: | | Oops I guess I meant to say Sand Fleas!, the things that kind of look like craw dads with no tail or claws |
Yep, we called them ghost shrimp. |
Ghost shrimp would appear to be an alien life form or very mutated shrimp.
Sand fleas or mole crabs are used in Florida for catching Pomps. In my time fishing the coast, the ones I found were very small. And, I have not seen one post here on catching them here in Texas.
Good luck!
_________________
| SailBad the Sinner wrote: | | What isn't located behind a What-a-burger in Corpus? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rustynail11
Horse Mullet
Joined: 11 Feb 2016
Posts: 128
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| You can also buy SandFlea scented Fishbites, I have caught a lot of Pompano using those in the surf at PINS |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Central Scrutinizer
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
Posts: 3583
Location: Flour Bluff
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Use the Search function up top, and put in "mole crab AND ghost shrimp" or "sand fleas AND ghost shrimp", and you can get a free education on the difference among them.
Some of the pictures are not there anymore (THANKS FOR NOTHING, PHOTOBUCKET!!!!), but it will get you straightened out as to what is what, and all the regulations about them on PINS. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Central Scrutinizer
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 14 Jul 2009
Posts: 3583
Location: Flour Bluff
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| rustynail11 wrote: | | You can also buy SandFlea scented Fishbites, I have caught a lot of Pompano using those in the surf at PINS |
So who sat down and determined what a Sand Flea smelled like, at FishBites, for them to manufacture these?!?!  And you thought your job sucked! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Donnie
Full Grown Flour Bluffian
Joined: 06 Mar 2006
Posts: 1248
Location: Near pins
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 3:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Central Scrutinizer wrote: | | rustynail11 wrote: | | You can also buy SandFlea scented Fishbites, I have caught a lot of Pompano using those in the surf at PINS |
So who sat down and determined what a Sand Flea smelled like, at FishBites, for them to manufacture these?!?! And you thought your job sucked! |
I think it proves that there is a place for everyone. So these creatures that we use the tube pump looking device to suck them out of the little openings at the edge of the water, as he described them, pink/red, quite fragile, softshell crawfish looking things - must be candy / crack to fish because when I used them years ago, fish attacked, what are they ? I just googled up the things - and they are called ghost shrimp and its on the internet - so there is now no doubt - they are ghost shrimp.
My daughter was quite familiar with sand fleas and she was very acquainted with them at that resort known as Parris Island. Apparently there was a big demand to do pushups in the sand - with sand fleas, and I doubt that was on the Parris Island Resort brochure.
_________________
Don - permanent prescription of salt water therapy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Peyote
Finger Mullet
Joined: 07 Jul 2015
Posts: 11
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 4:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
A couple of other questions for you guys...
can you crab from BHP? Hand line or net? I'm thinking about chicken necks inside pantyhose and whether a crab claw would get tangled enough to drag his supple bum up to the pier. Otherwise it's the ring net approach.
Also, when you use the fishbites, do you just put a sliding sinker on the line and let it drift out? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
