Texas Trip

gman · 07-30-2007, 09:04 AM

Every year I get to take some of my customers fishing off Texas where my corporation is located. Several of my co-workers have a georgous house right on the water in Port Oconnor. We generally rent out 4 homes and take about 40 people out. The last 3 years the fishing gods have blessed us with some great reesults and this year was more of the same. They have 2 choices ...inshore or offshore.

Had our all day business sesssion on Thursday in Houston and by 2:30 we made the 2 hour treck to Port Oconner. Once we got there the chefs had the Texas style food waiting. Poker and drinks all night, fishing by day. Anthony kept me up fishing for these little pinfish all night which came were great bait, i swear we caught 100 of these fish

Game Plan ...day one baitfishing - Day 2 jigging

Friday, Day 1 -Anthony, myself and a customer were scheduled to go out on a brand new 60ft Viking but the weather was suppossed to be 10ft swells so he said he wasnt beating his boat up (dont blame him). But i didnt want to fish for redfish and trout and we had one other offshore boat scheduled for the day...quickway a 38 fountain and he was ready to go so we headed out. Needless to say 56 miles in those seas on a center console made 2 customers sick so Anthony and myself cleaned up LOL

First spot was an amberjack wreck and the captain gaurenteed we would clean up. We always take our own gear and man those accurate 665's are a beast of a reel. First drop with Live pinfish BAM rods bent like pretzels, fish on the deck. Those fish fight like frieght trains. Anthony scored the biggest AJ for the stop. If you had live bait and stopped around 100' you got nailed.

Next stop was shrimp boats but the tuna werent home so we moved to a snapper spot he had and shortly thereafter we had limited out on red snapper which was fun becuase we got catch enough for 4 people becuase the others were sick plus the aded bonus was our first wahoo which picked up a sardine on the retrieve when we went to move

gman · 07-30-2007, 09:06 AM

Im not a big fan of snapper fishing but they are so great to eat and we were preparing a fish fry. The WAHOO was amazing in an butter garlic rub along with all the snapper. We ate like kings the second night

gman · 07-30-2007, 09:08 AM

We cleaned up, Amberjack have to be one of the hardest fighting fish in teh ocean

gman · 07-30-2007, 09:25 AM

We ende up releasing the majority of the fish we caught on day 1 and 2. Day 1 we probably released 20 jacks and atleast 20 snapper ontop of what we caught

I never tried deep vertical jigging before but i got a set up for it and decided I was going to dedicate my day to it. I planned on using the japanese techique with knife/butterfly jigs. The ste up was a stella 20k spinning rod and a short 5 ft Smith jigging rod. The captain came to pick us up with the 60 Viking and man what a boat. It was brand new. We headed out for some deep water rigs and when everyone got out the bait...i dropped the iron and couldnt believe what happenned. Every drop I go wacked when no one was catching anything.

First came the barracuda, then the big AJ's, then the snapper. It was insane. Anthony wanted to rty so i gave hime some instructions and BAM he was on.

Then it happenned, we took a break from jigging becuase our arms were tired and Anthony dropped a huge 8" live mullet 100 ft deep when it was inhaled the scond it got there. The fish immediately stripped line off the accurate like it was a kids toy and basically ripped the rod out of his hands and almost in the drink, not once but 3 times. 35lbs of drag wasnt working real well and he was getting fustrated. 30 minutes into the fight he was gaining line when again the fish ripped the rod into the gunnel, this time was the las time as the 100lb leader parted probably on the rig. he was pretty upset to say the least but it didnt last for long as we both got tied into big fish.

I caught my first big grouper on the bottom which was fun reeling in from 380ft deep. Man those fish are ugly. We limited out on snapper and had one hell of a time. I love fishing in texas because the styles are so differrent. Enjoy the picks guys, Im on vacation with the family this week

gman · 07-30-2007, 09:31 AM

more images

gman · 07-30-2007, 09:32 AM

The grouper had mouths that could have fit small children inside LOL. We hooked them on large fillets fo yellowtail

88 Sportcraft · 07-30-2007, 09:47 AM

WTG Gman

Great report and super pics. Wahoo......Yummmmmy!

gman · 07-30-2007, 09:56 AM

I never had it before...holy chit is it good. We steaked it and made medallions . I swear the best part of this trip is the food.

On the fish fry night we had the choice of grouper, wahoo, red snapper, speckled tout or for meat lovers filet medallions stuffed with jalapeno peppers wrapped with baco LMAO i probably gained 10 pounds this weekend

The last night was barbecue night - big huge beef ribs, brisket, sausage. we have an amazing chef down there. I actually scheduled it around thier schedule

CaptDom · 07-30-2007, 10:18 AM

Glad you guys had a good trip. Awesome pics as usual.

The canyon fishing up this way is starting to heat up as well....

gman · 07-30-2007, 10:51 AM

Wish I could jump on the open boat but after 2 weeks away fishing my wife is about to kill me LMAO. soon enough, we are all set for star island i recieve dthe confimation on the slip yesterday

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