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porkchop · Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2005 10:04 pm Post subject: I can't catch a break

I don't know what it is but I can't catch any fish in this state. Since moving down here last month I have been fishing often and so far I have caught a perch and two sand trout off the pier on the NAS and then tonight I caught a ladyfish and a croaker at red dot pier. Everyone around us was catching fish and I was using the same set up. One guy even caught a nice sheephead with dead shrimp. I can't figure it out. I have caught more fish with the cast net. Anyone have an idea? Or is it just saltwater fishing beginners bad luck?

reef-rat · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 3:51 am Post subject:

What is happening is that you are getting all of your no fish days out of the way early. This way you will not be getting skunked later when you are depending upon your catch for supper!
I have been fishing saltwater for several years now. When I first started, I would have days that I did alright and the next day would be a water haul. As a matter of fact just last month I returned with only my boat and a good time! What I have noticed is that the difference between being successful or not may be very minor. Several months back I was fishing by the Nueces causeway. I couldn't get a bite, as I was pulling up my anchor I saw a sheephead. I started fishing off the other side of the boat and had a limit of sheephead in about thirty minutes. Sometimes the fish are on one end of the reef/area and sometimes they are at the opposite end. It changes with the season of the year, phase of the moon and tide. If you read some of the posts earlier this year when the drum were at Indian Point Pier you will notice that they were talking about casting from a particular spot on the pier in a particular direction. Why the fish were usually only in that one area, who knows? Also the fish seemed to bite better: at different times of the night, weather conditions, etc..
I have started to keep a detailed log of my fishing trips and it seems to be helping. When you write it down sometimes a pattern will show up. Also there are general annual patterns, like the drum run in the winter at IPP. Right now, redfish seem to have a preference for shallow (6-12") of water. They will be hanging out around the shorelines where baitfish are plentiful.
Hope this helps. Also, if the guy next to you is catching fish, ask them if you are doing anything different.
_________________
When it's all said and done,
more was said than done.

mastergunner · Horse Mullet Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 264

We have lived here for 2 1/2 years and I still haven't caught a flounder. The fish will come, for years we had been vacationing down here and I never caught an oversized red or drum and then in a period of about 6 months I caught 6 with one red going 41.5 inches.
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Hardheads should be the state fish of Texas

Big John · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 12:16 pm Post subject:

Don't feel bad, that is why it is called FISHING and not CATCHING.

I usually don't have too much luck from a pier, and normally don't fish them, unless it is at night under the lights or Bob Hall pier (if it would ever open). If pier fishing is what you like, you have to wait for the fish to come past you.

Try casting your bait about 3 to 10 foot beyond where the lights hit the water. That will put you on the edge of the lit area under water. Big fish will use the darkness to ambush prey just inside the light zone, and tend to travel past the pier in that zone.

Try the Marker 37 pier on the othe side of the causeway from red dot. It sits right on the ICW, which can be reached with a little effort and a long rod. We were out there one night, and I was reeling in nice Gafstops 2 at a time, while no one else was catching much of anything. I was the only one throwing out into the canal. Everyone else was fishing closer in under the lights.

If your going to sit in one place, try the surf, as schools of fish move up and down the beach more rapidly than they tend to in the bays. That's not always true, just a rule of thumb.

Good luck, and don't give up!

Keep trying and you catch one! I have yet to catch an oversized redfish, lol, they have all been under or slot sized. I have lost a couple though, one right at my feet!

Eventually you will go out and be the only one to catch a fish while the others watch. Just don't give-up, and try to enjoy just being out there.
_________________
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke and hungry the rest of his life!

John Sullivan
Native Corpus Christian
Currently Displaced in San Antonio

SALTYDOG · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 1:37 pm Post subject:

Porkchop,

That invite is still open for you and your family. I sent you a pm with my phone number on it.

I would like to go the 25th. Call me if you are interested.

I belong to another club you might know about. NAFC. It originates from your neck of the woods and they have a "Take a Vet fishing Program" going.

If you did not get my PM let me know

Cliff
_________________
SALTYDOG AKA Cliff McKay
(the surveyor)
#1 Fishing Partner is Lorna
My Betterhalf for 25 years

porkchop · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:20 pm Post subject:

RedFish Chaser · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 2:28 pm Post subject: Re: I can't catch a break

SALTYDOG · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 4:08 pm Post subject:

I will be at about the 20mm on Sunday.

Annual Father's day coffee at sunrise trip. Hope the conditions stay good. If you see a big green F-250 with a wood box on front stop by and introduce your self.

You did not say where you were going on the beach but good luck. Look for good spots where bass would hold in a river. fishing the surf is similer but still different. Specks and reds are predators and lazy the same as bass. anyway GOOD LUCK

Cliff
_________________
SALTYDOG AKA Cliff McKay
(the surveyor)
#1 Fishing Partner is Lorna
My Betterhalf for 25 years

porkchop · Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2005 4:31 pm Post subject:

I am not sure where we are going yet. But if we are out that way i will stop by and say hey.

I just had my first redfish for dinner tonight. It was delicious!! Critter getter caught it last night and gave it to me. He caught it last night in the surf, a nice 27" red. That is who I am going fishing with on sunday. It is his fault I got so hooked on fishing, LOL! He lives right next door to me. His wife and him are two of the nicest people you will ever meet.

I need to get my jeep finished but I have been to wrapped up with fishing to finish the restore.

Guest · Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 7:58 am Post subject:

Let me know if you want to go "catching" and I will take you with me. We will throw your live bait back in the water and pull in some reds and trout on topwaters and plastics!

porkchop · Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:35 am Post subject:

Thanks for the offer. When you going next? Went out this weekend and actually did some "catching", LOL! Check out my post in the Fathers day at the PINS thread.

Guest · Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:44 am Post subject:

Let me know if you have an email address and I will let you know next to I head out. I don't fish PINS but do have plenty of local wading spots that I have caught plenty of fish out of.