The BAYOU just isnt the BAYOU anymore

[slammin-em]

ive been fishing in chocolate bayou and bay since my dad took me out when i was just a little guy, i can remember going fishing between lutes marina and woodys bar catching almost my limit of red fish. Also fishing the lights, just not but before hurricane ike came through we would catch so many fish it wasnt even funny. The bay still produces good number depending where you go but does anyone else agree?

Slammin-em

[gregr1971]

I concur!

[KennyWayne]

There are no fish in Chocolate☺ I think they are all in Trinity. I'm gonna try in the morning, got blown out Wed.

[slammin-em]

i mean if you fish the bayou hard im sure you can still get some good fish but still wont come close too what you use to catch.

[Gulfcoast13]

I always fish the bay, but I hear good reports from the bayou from time to time.

[Muddskipper]

What I have found is the fish get spooky when they are run over, time and time again.

Chocolate has been gaining in popularity again over the past few years being so close to Pearland and alvin, and the populations there are getting bigger.

[buoy37]

I blame this site!!!!

If people would stop posting pics, reports and starting groups dedicated to Chocolate, things would be like the good ole' days.

[Chongo]

It is all Midskippers fault. Not that he caught all the fish but that he brought everyone he knows out there and showed them around.

[Shortystillsurfs]

Chocolate bayou should be restricted to alvin and Liverpool residents only.

Go home grimmes!

[Lutes Marine]

I have to disagree ... There are still not enough people on Chocolate . I know because my beer cooler and grocery rack and bait tanks are not empty yet. Call me sell-fish but my wife is high maintenance.

[brerrabbit]

Traffic on Chocolate has picked up considerably over the past several years. Time was on opening day of duck and deer season if we saw more than 5 boats on the bay it was a lot. This past weekend there was a bunch of folks out. Course it was a bluebird day not to great for ducks so many may have chose to fish instead. I used to love Chocolate because so few folks went there regularly but traffic has definately picked up. I think it's because of sites like this and a whole lot more people starting to fish. In the late 60's and through the 70's there were not many folks fishing because it wasn't cool. Since then it seems to have become very commercialized, and a lot more people are giving it a try. I remember having all the birds on the bay mostly to yourself but now it seems like every time they pop up you get five boats fighting over them.

[Shortystillsurfs]

Thumbs up rabbit. I agree I was on the other board yesterday and noticed a report that listed several great catches and even dropped a few names while doing it. Then the guy concluded by saying there was more boats at the ramp than in years past. Wtf!

Don't even get me started on the guys that give guided tours ...
It's kinda like duck hunting the worst person you can show around is a new guy with a boat. Leaves no desire to learn spots of their own.

Nobody padded my @$$.

[brerrabbit]

I'm with you on the report thing shorty, in years past you never heard anything on the reports about Chocolate and I liked that just fine. I will talk a little about catches when I go but I gotta keep a few things close to the vest or the whole world will start showing up on the bay. I keep up with it because it's where I fish and I have a buddy that owns land that fronts the bayou that he runs cattle on. He is there a lot and fishes so between him and myself we keep each other up to speed on where the fish are. I have been fishing Chocolate on a fairly regular basis for over twenty years and have drug a lot of fish out of that place.

As far as the guides go, I don't care much for those guys. I have seen them on occasion in Chocolate but mostly they run in from West Bay and the Intercostal. They blow in fish for twenty minutes and if they don't catch anything they blow right back out. They have no respect for where you are and what your doing and have spoiled a good area for me more than once. I just hope they never stay to long.

[buoy37]

The 2004 boat ramp has become very popular over the years for fishermen wanting to access West Bay and the ICW vs driving all the way to Galveston.

Chocolate Bay's shallow spoils will sort out who stays and who goes. They still have me on high alert. I have met a lot people that say "F that place! I tore up my boat last time I was there."

[brerrabbit]

buoy37,
Your right about some folks not fishing in the bay because of the spoils. That's okay by me. It can be done but you have to spend some time to learn your way around and that takes time. I have fished Chocolate for over twenty years and feel like I know it pretty well. I don't have a flats boat either. It's a v-hull center console with a 90hp Johnson and a Great White trolling motor stern mount. I can get anywhere I need to in that bay and have at one time or another. Maybe I'm getting old but a lot of people these days don't want to spend the time to learn a bay but would rather run high speed from one place to another when they think the fish are not there. Me on the other hand would rather take my time read the signs like the tide, the wind, the temp, and the salinity and find where the fish are without running so far and wide. I do okay and usually only burn about 4 gallons of gas a trip in a 22 year old boat and a 23 year old motor. Then again maybe I'm just a cheap sob!