# Summer Solstice Report (6/21-6/23)



## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

Summer is officially here. Although here in Texas it feels like itâ€™s been here a couple of months already. Iâ€™d been planning a trip for this yearâ€™s Summer Solstice for a while now. Although action was fast and fish were plentiful in the middle coast last week, I decided to get out of my comfort zone and head to the Bolivar Peninsula. The upper coast also didnâ€™t have as much weed and the surf was forecasted to be calmer than the rest of the coast. 

This trip my dad would accompany me as I took him out of his comfort zone, the jetties. As always, his main interest is red fish and with the bull red infestation that High Island has I figured it would be a good choice. We got to the beach around 2pm and found a spot where the green water was possibly within kayaking distance. The water up to the green water was dirty and coffee like in appearance. 











With no fresh bait and only a couple of small frozen southern rays our main goal as always is to get fresh bait. We could see mullet in close so my dad got the cast net and went to work while I was setting up the rod holders. With the first cast of the cast net my dad tells me he thinks heâ€™s got a couple of horse mullet in the net. As I was bringing the bucket over he yells â€œAlligator Gar!â€ To our surprise there it was, an Alligator Gar just from the surf. 





















I was amazed by the fact that it was here in the surf but then I remembered a couple of years ago one washed up on the beach in Corpus when the Red Tide plagued the Texas coast. Everyone got a pic with it.





























The infamous kingfish pose showing the grill. 










Casted out some cut mullet and shrimp to see if we could catch something fresh to run out on the shark rods but all we could catch were hard heads. The weed made it a little difficult to keep casted lines out so I rigged up some whole mullet and a defrosted ray and ran them out. 

No action whatsoever on the shark rods and casted rods kept producing hard heads. Randy rolled in around 5:30pm so we decided to head closer to Roll Over Pass to see if the water was any better. Looked somewhat decent and being close the pass we figured it would be a good spot to set up for the weekend. It was getting late and we still had no fresh bait. Same ****, all we were getting was hard heads.

My buddy Logan shows up just before dark with a fresh south ray he picked up in Galveston. We both rigged up some baits and got them out, his of course fresh and mine not so fresh. With lines in the water and Randy on the grill it was going to be a good night. Weed started to roll in as the tide was coming in. I was cleaning off my lines every 20 mins or so. I knew once I went to bed my lines were going to get wiped out. 

The next morning thatâ€™s exactly what happened. After getting all my lines untangled and reeled in I see that none of my baits even had a scratch on them. Logan starts to do the same and as he gets his line he closer he signals Randy to come give him a hand because he has a shark on! 











The shark must have been on there all night because it didnâ€™t have much energy left. Snapped a few pics and Logan quickly releases it. 











The beach was peppered with weed making it hard to keep casted lines out again. Logan runs the rest of the fresh ray he had picked up the day before while I drop my dad off at Roll Over to see if he can catch us some bait. I stopped at the bait shop and to my surprise they had some cownose rays! Hell yea! Still not fresh bait but itâ€™s a heck of a lot better than those southern rays I was using. 











to be continued in 2 mins...


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

As I was coming back from Roll Over I see Logan and Randy landing another shark. A nice male bull taping out to 5â€™7â€. Please excuse the A&M shirt. Youâ€™ll see that we are clearly UT fans. 






















My bait still needed to defrost so I stuck it in a bucket of water while Logan ran out the same piece of bait he caught the bull on. It was just past noon and the summer heat was taking its toll on us. Even Ares needed to chill out for a bit. 























Logan notices his rod bouncing like it did before when he caught the bull earlier in the day. He hops up on the rack and feels dead weight. So he decided to bring it in.











As he gets it closer he feels something on the end of his line. I go out and see that itâ€™s a foul hooked black tip. Didnâ€™t really put up a fight because it was being dragged in by the one of the pectoral fins. Another 5ft class black tip. 






















Ok, obviously I need to quick BSâ€™n and get my ***** together. I rigged up one of the store bought cow nose rays and drop it out about 500 yards. Logan runs out one more line for the day since his luck has been good so far. 
































to be continued in 2 mins...


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

An hour or so later I see my rod tip bounce but the clicker didnâ€™t go off. I decide to leave it for a while to see if anything else happens. Later on in the day we decide to bring in the rods because we were debating on moving to the other side of the pass. As Iâ€™m dragging in my line I feel the spider weight raking the sand for the first 5 mins, after that it seemed to get lighter and I felt something on the end of the line. 

Another black tip in the 5ft range. 






















Logan decides to call it a trip and head back home with his mission accomplished. I ran out some more baits hoping something with enough power to pull some drag would be hungry. 












With the full moon approaching the water high tide was at my truck and low tide was lower than this.












The night went on without turning a click. In the morning I woke up to both of my lines broken off. One of them had a float and the other didnâ€™t. I saw the water looked a little cleaner in the morning so I rigged up a couple more baits and ran them out. 















































My best bait which out deep close to 700 yards got broken off after a few hours. We packed up and headed out around lunch. Decided to check out the other side of the pass just to see what it was like. Good thing we didnâ€™t move the day before because there was a ton of weed!


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

Good report Joe! Seems like if you can get thru the pesky 5' blacktips, The Big boys are still not bitin' right now. Any idea what broke/cut you off on your longer lines?


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

surfguy said:


> Good report Joe! Seems like if you can get thru the pesky 5' blacktips, The Big boys are still not bitin' right now. Any idea what broke/cut you off on your longer lines?


Thanks Ron, how did yall do this weekend? I'm guessing the wear and tear on my top shot's. They are all getting replaced.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

WHAT said:


> Thanks Ron, how did yall do this weekend? I'm guessing the wear and tear on my top shot's. They are all getting replaced.


We had similar results. A few 5'ish BTs. We had 5 big baits out pretty far that all got systematically cut off 1 at a time. Most likely the victims of a school of SMACs. Water seemed a little colder than it should be this time of year. Sun seemed a little hotter than it should be this time of year LOL. I'm stealing Aries next chance I get. :mpd:


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## JOHNNYREB (Apr 20, 2006)

Cool man! Ron got a taste of being " SMACKED " this past weekend lol.


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

surfguy said:


> We had similar results. A few 5'ish BTs. We had 5 big baits out pretty far that all got systematically cut off 1 at a time. Most likely the victims of a school of SMACs. Water seemed a little colder than it should be this time of year. Sun seemed a little hotter than it should be this time of year LOL. I'm stealing Aries next chance I get. :mpd:


Sun is always hotter than it should be. A least yall got a little action. Funny you say that about Ares. He hopped in a golf cart full of chicks and went for a joy ride this weekend.



JOHNNYREB said:


> Cool man! Ron got a taste of being " SMACKED " this past weekend lol.


That aint no fun! Where yall using floats?


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## big john o (Aug 12, 2005)

Wow, aligator gar in the cast net.. thats awsome!


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## Saltdog (Oct 15, 2012)

We were down closer to the pass from yall with perty much the same results. Handfull of 5 foot class BT. We saw yalls towers from the road when we were headin down. No reds. 6 sharks and 4 big GT and way too much sun. Good time tho cant wait for the big ones to move back in and start bitin. All sharks caught off kayaked horse mullet.


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## txteltech (Jul 6, 2012)

Great report and pictures, bonus gar.


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## FIDO (Jun 14, 2011)

Wow, a gar. Weird!

I hate getting cut off. Blue fish in the fall are frustrating creatures too!


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## troutless (Feb 17, 2006)

Good Job What! What keeping those big Sharks out in deeper water. Just haven't seen any reports on larger sharks.


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## Sharkhunter (May 22, 2004)

FIDO said:


> Wow, a gar. Weird!
> 
> I hate getting cut off. Blue fish in the fall are frustrating creatures too!


What is really weird is finding not one but two Paddle Fish on the beach. Big Lou I think found them a few years back down on the Sea Rim Beach.


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

Thanks guys.



Saltdog said:


> We were down closer to the pass from yall with perty much the same results. Handfull of 5 foot class BT. We saw yalls towers from the road when we were headin down. No reds. 6 sharks and 4 big GT and way too much sun. Good time tho cant wait for the big ones to move back in and start bitin. All sharks caught off kayaked horse mullet.


Yea the sharks were definatly around. We saw one bull red landed closer to Roll Over as we were leaving Sudnay.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

troutless said:


> Good Job What! What keeping those big Sharks out in deeper water. Just haven't seen any reports on larger sharks.


There is a bigger dead zone this year than normal and an abnormal amount of cold water uprisings. It should clear out shortly and hopefully the weed goes with it. That should turn on the big sharks. Horse mullet is the bait of choice right now if you want to catch 5-6' BTs and an occasional Bull shark in the Wade and 1st gut early in the morning and late afternoon.


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## FIDO (Jun 14, 2011)

Sharkhunter said:


> What is really weird is finding not one but two Paddle Fish on the beach. Big Lou I think found them a few years back down on the Sea Rim Beach.


Wow! I'd lose my ******* over finding a paddlefish on the beach.


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