# Surfside 12/31/12



## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

The forecast looked pretty lousy New Year's Eve morning, but it had been almost a month since I hit the beach, so I decided to go down to Surfside for a "bait run". After leaving he house at 5:00am, I stopped at Buckee's for my traditional breakfast burritos and morning coffee. Hit the sand at 7:00am right at access rd 5 and had the entire beach to myself just the way I like it.

From some recent reports, I expected to see lots of weed. Water was pretty cold and rain was forecast to hit at 10am, so I set to work getting some shrimp baits out fairly quickly. Boom, boom, 1st 2 baits out landed me a whiting and a HH. At least something was biting, so that was encouraging. Hung in there till 1pm and got what I was after plus a few "extras" that made it an interesting and fun day. 

That crazy gull kept stealing my bait off the hook whenever I turned my back. Those darn rascals know not to get hooked in the process.

Landed a 24" slot red on my bait rod and a 20" BD a little while later. Lots of fun catching those guys. Both were released to find someone else's bait someday. Also, ended up with a few whiting to put in the sharkbait freezer to be used later. The best part was when all 4 rods went off at the same time which netted 3 of the whiting. Mission accomplished.


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## Bearwolf34 (Sep 8, 2005)

Awesome. Just made a run over there yesterday, but didn't stay too long..the nice all to your self beaches are great. My best trip to that are was snagging a 30" bull shark on my bait rod a few weeks ago. Glad things worked out and you got in some line soaking time.


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## HuntinforTail (Mar 29, 2011)

Awesome job, Ron! I'm ready for 2013. The year of the shark!


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## troutless (Feb 17, 2006)

I'm glad you had a fun and productive outing. I, like you was thinking you was going to be in a bunch of seaweed.


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## troutless (Feb 17, 2006)

I was glad that you had productive and fun outing. After reading some earlier posts thought you were going in a bunch of grass.


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## Sharkhunter (May 22, 2004)

Very nice... I love fishing this time of year. You have the whole beach to yourself and can actually catch a few fish as you have shown...


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## Law Dog (Jul 27, 2010)

Nice catch, congrats!


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## bigfost (Oct 11, 2004)

I've got to hand it to you. I don't know if you're super dedicated, or just crazy. :bounce:

My wife and I stayed in Galveston Sunday night. When I got up Monday morning and saw whitecaps all the way to the horizon, I said to myself that nobody would be fishing in that.

Congrats on the catches.


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## fishingcacher (Mar 29, 2008)

I might be responsible for that persistent seagull.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

bigfost said:


> I've got to hand it to you. I don't know if you're super dedicated, or just crazy. :bounce:
> 
> My wife and I stayed in Galveston Sunday night. When I got up Monday morning and saw whitecaps all the way to the horizon, I said to myself that nobody would be fishing in that.
> 
> Congrats on the catches.


LOL, I take that as a compliment BigFost. Compared to where I was last week, it was like paradise. HaHa. If the surf was not so rough, I would have broken out the wetsuit and yakked some shark baits out, although the water was a bit brisk with just my neoprene boots after 7hrs wading in and out.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

fishingcacher said:


> I might be responsible for that persistent seagull.


Actually, I was. I made the mistake of giving him a piece of cut whiting.


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## Bearwolf34 (Sep 8, 2005)

Ha. Know whatcha mean about the persistent seagull. One the whitings come out of the cooler and onto the chopping block here comes the flocks. Had one over excited gull fly into my 10ft rod line, looked like jaws had snagged the bait. Ha. I saw your pic of the kayak and was thinking boy your one brave soul if you were hauling out baits in those waves, something I need to see, especially if it was a non turtling event! Dunno what it is, but I usually do the best fish catching when the waves and water is up like it was yesterday, especially if its bright out.


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## fishingcacher (Mar 29, 2008)

surfguy said:


> Actually, I was. I made the mistake of giving him a piece of cut whiting.


All I ever give them is shrimp heads.


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## JOHNNYREB (Apr 20, 2006)

Way to tough it out ron!


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

JOHNNYREB said:


> Way to tough it out ron!


Thank you sir. I may look into getting some of those Simms waders like yours.


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## Danny O (Apr 14, 2010)

My compliments to you surfguy! Nice job!


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## troutless (Feb 17, 2006)

I don't know where you were at, but I don't want to be there. If it gets below 50, Ive become a house mouse. LOL. It looks pretty, but I hate cold weather.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

troutless said:


> I don't know where you were at, but I don't want to be there. If it gets below 50, Ive become a house mouse. LOL. It looks pretty, but I hate cold weather.


The "snow" pic was my other truck I drove to Illinois 2 weeks ago to visit my family. On Christmas eve, we got 2-3ft of snow overnight. I have to admit that 2 weeks of that weather once a year is enough for me and I don't miss it one bit.


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## fishingcacher (Mar 29, 2008)

Hats off to you for being a two truck owner. Looks like nice snow for making snow cones.


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

Nice bait haul. My money is on that drum.


:fish:


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