We may have learned something from Sunday’s windy conditions. The wind triggers red snapper to feed. While limits of the popular food fish have been easy to come by for most offshore anglers this season, there started to be a lull in action Saturday.
Sunday, however, was a different story, as reports from our local party boats indicate that sow snapper were hitting.
Patrick Lemire, in his report for Williams Party Boats, commented on what a difference a day makes. The Capt. John fished the choppy seas 60 miles southeast of the jetties and the 83 anglers aboard limited out on red snapper to 18 pounds. Other fish landed were mangrove snapper, vermilions or “B-liners,†lane snapper and rockhind grouper.
Megan Tagle had similar comments about Galveston Party Boats’ Sunday offshore trip. Fishing 55 miles out of Galveston, the 95 passengers aboard the New Buccaneer caught 185 nice quality snapper, along with vermilion, lane and mangrove snapper, 12 kings to 40 pounds, a 30-pound ling and a 35-pound Warsaw. Tagle said the group easily would have limited out on red snapper (190 vs. 185); however, several customers kept releasing their fish in hopes of landing a large sow.
Friday night, Jetty fishing was productive for Wade Haines and his friend, Matt Kimbrough, as the two anglers caught many sharks, highlighted by a 4-foot blacktip. Live shrimp was their choice of bait.
Bailey Campbell, Cody Holman and Coe Parker hit the open waters of the Gulf on Saturday, fishing about 45 miles south of San Luis Pass. The three anglers eventually limited out on red snapper; however, they found the fishing frustrating for the most part. At one rig, they had a 50-pound wahoo circling their boat and nothing they tossed at the fish was appealing.
Fishing another rig, they had a large ling followed by several smaller ones swimming nearby and could not entice them either. Hey guys, that is why the sport is called fishing and not catching. At least they returned with a nice mess of red snapper.
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.
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Tourney Winners
Here are the winners of Saturday’s CCA Galveston Bay Bash Tournament.
The youth division consisted of three categories, trout, sheepshead and croaker. Since no entries were made for croaker, a fourth place was awarded in the trout category.
Youth Division
(Places listed in consecutive order starting with first place)
• Trout — Stephen Minor, Tyler Pulkinen, Hunter Osina and Zack Royce
• Sheepshead — Hunter Thiem and Dane Grissom
Adult Division
• Redfish — David Royce, Mike Osnia and Moore Allen
• Trout — Eric Minor, Jeff Pulkinen and Mike Frank
• Flounder — John Donnelly, Jantzen Miller and Eric Arentsen