# Surf Veteran New To Sargent



## sometimesfisher (Oct 3, 2011)

Hi all,

My husband and I have fished Quintana/Surfside/SLP, etc for years but we've decided to try Sargent for a trip in late May. Never been south of the MOB. Here's a little about us:

We like the beach.
We have a 2x4 Tahoe and shrimp boots made for walkin'.
We like privacy.
We like to catch.

Where should we go and what should we use?
And what should we know?


----------



## Illbethere (Mar 11, 2015)

get on the beach in Sargent and look for shell on the shoreline and fish the first 2 guts.


----------



## Illbethere (Mar 11, 2015)

take your cast net and catch some mullet about 6 to eight inches long. Cut the mullet about a fourth of the way up from the tail, cut it in two. Use the head part of the two pieces.


----------



## Illbethere (Mar 11, 2015)

go to the post "surf fishing 101" and read sharkchum's comments, the is the best surf fisherman in Sargent and maybe the best period.


----------



## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Your not gonna get very far in Sargent without a 4x4. The high roads are covered with soft powdery sand when it's dry and most of the shoreline along the water is clay with a couple inches of sand covering it. With all this rain we will be lucky if there is any saltwater down there by the end of May. Sargent is great when all the rivers are normal, but when the Brazos and San Bernard are dumping full stream it just kills it. Normally from May through September I look for areas with heavy shell on the beach, breaks in the waves indicating a cross gut, or heavy concentrations of mullet. I usually use cut mullet or whiting or croaker I catch on my bait rods. A couple tips, Never try to drive through a spot that doesn't already have fresh tire tracks on it, and always keep your eyes open for rattle snakes.


----------



## Illbethere (Mar 11, 2015)

sometimesfisher, did yall ever make it to Sargent?


----------



## sometimesfisher (Oct 3, 2011)

We don't go until late May. I'll give a report if there's anything to report.

Sharkchum -- thanks, as always, for the helpful advice. Speaking of local gurus, has anyone seen/heard from Fulton Swimmer lately? I always look forward to his posts, too.


----------



## Goose Lover (Jan 23, 2012)

The beach can range from virtually impossible to drive to almost highway smooth and clean.

Last year it was clean and making a trip down the beach was incredibly easy. Pretty much any vehicle could make it.

However in most years the beach is so littered with debris, trees, sargassum and other items it is like a minefield trying to navigate.

And wherever clay is exposed be very careful. You can really bury a vehicle in that. 

The high beach is usually OK but once you travel much distance down it there are very few spots to park the vehicle. 

And as written earlier the beach will be covered with trees now. The Brazos is running at major flood status and so is the San Bernard. The Cedar Lake cut reopened last year, then almost closed back up but will almost certainly open even wider because the floodwater coming down the San Bernard River. Won't be any driving past it for awhile

And Mitchells Cut will also be flowing big time with freshwater and debris. 

So it will be some time before the beach and surf is in decent shape and not fresh enough to drink.


----------



## sometimesfisher (Oct 3, 2011)

Goose Lover said:


> The beach can range from virtually impossible to drive to almost highway smooth and clean.
> 
> Last year it was clean and making a trip down the beach was incredibly easy. Pretty much any vehicle could make it.
> 
> ...


I don't really have a sense of how long/big Sargent Beach is, actually. Can anyone compare it to the length of, say, Bryan Beach?

I'm actually less worried about driveability than I am fishability. Driftwood makes for good fishing benches. Surely the salt will be somewhat normalized in a month?


----------



## sometimesfisher (Oct 3, 2011)

I guess what I mean is, how much 2x4 truck-navigable beach is there on Sargent, compared to Bryan? I mean, Bryan looks somewhat shorter on satellite images but I suspect it is, in effect, longer, given that there is almost always a navigable path down to the MOB. I have a feeling Sargent may be longer in terms of geography but shorter in terms of navigability. Does that make sense?

Bryan seems to have more get-to-able beach than Sargent, even if it has less shoreline.


----------



## Goose Lover (Jan 23, 2012)

sometimesfisher said:


> I don't really have a sense of how long/big Sargent Beach is, actually. Can anyone compare it to the length of, say, Bryan Beach?
> 
> I'm actually less worried about driveability than I am fishability. Driftwood makes for good fishing benches. Surely the salt will be somewhat normalized in a month?


If you haven't seen how much driftwood and debris is on the beach after these kinds of flood events then it is hard to understand.

It will be covered.

And if the sargassum is bad as it was a couple of years ago you don't dare drive on it because there is no way to see what kinds of hazards you could be driving over.


----------



## sometimesfisher (Oct 3, 2011)

Goose Lover said:


> If you haven't seen how much driftwood and debris is on the beach after these kinds of flood events then it is hard to understand.
> 
> It will be covered.
> 
> And if the sargassum is bad as it was a couple of years ago you don't dare drive on it because there is no way to see what kinds of hazards you could be driving over.


Nah, we were down there a few years ago after the central Texas wildfires and then the floods that followed. Never seen so many trees thrown up on the beach. I get that it won't be driveable. But we're staying on the beach in Sargent, so, theoretically, we won't *have* to drive.

I saw a link awhile back for some institution's website that tracks sargassum mats. Anyone have it saved?


----------



## Goose Lover (Jan 23, 2012)

sometimesfisher said:


> Nah, we were down there a few years ago after the central Texas wildfires and then the floods that followed. Never seen so many trees thrown up on the beach. I get that it won't be driveable. But we're staying on the beach in Sargent, so, theoretically, we won't *have* to drive.
> 
> I saw a link awhile back for some institution's website that tracks sargassum mats. Anyone have it saved?


The sections of beach you first come upon after crossing the bridge is maintained so that should be in good shape.

Hopefully the Sargasso Weed won't be too bad this spring/summer.


----------



## SurfHippie (Apr 7, 2015)

http://www.tamug.edu/seas/

This is the link to the sargassum tracker.


----------



## sometimesfisher (Oct 3, 2011)

Danke, hippie.


----------



## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

I don't predict that we will have trouble with weed this year. It seems like during El Nino years we don't have much weed, plus I think all the fresh water run off the last couple of years changes the gulf stream or something and helps keep it off the Texas coast. If you think back a couple years ago when we were in the bad drought, the weed was so bad you couldn't even fish the surf.


----------



## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

sometimesfisher said:


> We don't go until late May. I'll give a report if there's anything to report.
> 
> Sharkchum -- thanks, as always, for the helpful advice. Speaking of local gurus, has anyone seen/heard from Fulton Swimmer lately? I always look forward to his posts, too.


Let me know when ya'll are going to head down there and I'll do what I can to put ya'll on some fish. Hopefully all the fresh water will be gone by then.


----------



## nacskins (Oct 8, 2015)

Illbethere said:


> go to the post "surf fishing 101" and read sharkchum's comments, the is the best surf fisherman in Sargent and maybe the best period.


Any way i can get a link to that post? Search function does not see to be working for me


----------



## sometimesfisher (Oct 3, 2011)

Here ya go

*http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=1874546*


----------



## nacskins (Oct 8, 2015)

Thanks!


----------

