The Galveston County Daily News

Monday was not the day to be on the water. The fish were there; however, the conditions were not favorable for anglers. By noon, winds were gusting to more than 40 knots and blowing rain everywhere. The good news is the cold front should be out of this area by today.

Weekend fishing reports keep coming in, and wade fishermen appeared to have a big edge in filling stringers with fish. Trout and reds are being caught in waist-deep water by anglers using a variety of baits. The jetties continue to hold good concentrations of reds and other fish, while Seawolf Park is producing both reds and flounder.

Moses Lake continues its pattern of good fishing, as evidenced by Vicki Pike’s report from the Fish Spot Bait Camp. I apologize to Vicki for calling the camp the Fish Pot in earlier reports. It just sounded like that, the person taking the phone message said.

Pike’s customer Tyler Walker fished the lake Sunday and had a grand slam, also called a Texas Slam, which includes at least one each of the big three, specks, red fish and flounder. Live bait produced the catch.

Karrie and Chuck Combs, of La Porte, fished the mouth of Jones Lake on Sunday and landed a limit of slot reds, 20 or so rat reds that were released and a large black drum that also was returned to the water. Live shrimp fished under a popping cork was their choice of bait.

Capt. Steve Soule wade-fished West Bay this past weekend and caught specks to 22 inches while fishing waist-deep water. Spook Juniors in bone with silver sides was the bait. Soule reported some good action from Christmas Bay, where a friend of his caught some nice trout and a large red.

Tom Cornick, of Sugar Land, fished the shoreline from Virginia Point to the mouth of Campbell’s Bayou on Saturday and landed seven specks and three reds using Corkies and Redfins. The fish were caught late Saturday while wading in knee to waist-deep water.

The jetties were an uncomfortable place to fish Sunday, regardless of the size of the boat.

Toby Martin and David Abbot, of Houston, took their 26-foot center console boat to the Gulf Side of the North Jetty and caught 10 bull reds, releasing them all, while being bounced around in rough seas. Whole shad was the bait.

The Party Boat New Buccaneer made a 30-hour tuna trip this past weekend with Capts. Matt (Smitty) Smith and Victor Clark rotating shifts at the helm.

With 49 guests aboard, they fished areas more than 100 miles out of Galveston and returned with 300 blackfin tuna to 80 pounds, 25 yellowfins to 112 pounds, 217 vermilion snapper and a variety of other fish that included barracuda, lane, yelloweye and mangrove snapper, triggerfish, shark, rockhind and scamp grouper.

Megan Tagle, spokeswoman for Galveston Party Boats, said the trip coincided with the closure of amberjack fishing in federal waters, and, naturally, several amberjacks up to 50 pounds were caught and had to be released.

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.