# Surfside surf this morning, June 9



## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

Decided to go back this morning since it was pretty decent yesterday. Brought the wife, Mrs. Gigem87 aka Gigem86 with me, since the forecast said it might be calmer today.

Got up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 am, left the house maybe 10 'til 4. No wind at the house. Made it to Hookers Bait Stand about 4:45 am. There were maybe 6-7 people in front of us, waiting for croakers. Wind is blowing pretty good.

Got our baits (and a bunch of mosquito bites) and headed to the beach.

QUESTION 1 - Am I crazy, or is the old Beach Access Road 5 now called Access Road 4??? Have I lost my mind???

QUESTION 2 - What's the story on that new house right there at Access Road 4? That is my dream house I think, just because I love that spot.

Anyway, we hit the beach and it's not flat. Waves breaking on the 2nd sandbar, and sometimes on the 3rd. We fiddle around a bit, and hit the water once the light is good enough to see.

It's sporty, but not terrible. Worse for my wife, as she is a foot shorter than me. None of the current from yesterday, which is nice.

Once it starts to really lighten up, the bait and birds start moving and we start getting bites. String 4 good ones before the sun is fully up, and lost another really good fish that came unbuttoned before I could grab it good.

Then it just dies. Still plenty of mullet, even see them busting a few times, but can't buy a bite. We go to the truck a little before 8 to take a break. Wife climbs into the truck bed to take a nap, and I head back out. Immediately string a fat 23" incher, then catch another smallish fish that I release. Then it dies again. I give up, and give the rest of our baits to some ladies fishing next to us.

Definitely different day than yesterday. Yesterday was a ton of small black tip sharks and gafftop mixed in with the trout. The trout were bigger today, and no other species presented themselves. And the bite died off, whereas yesterday I just ran out of bait. And of course, I didn't catch a big bull red like yesterday 

Good luck to everyone who tries is tonight and this weekend! Here are some pictures from my two trips...


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## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

Pics























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## walkinwader (Jul 17, 2012)

Way to go buddy....nice fishing and time with the mrs..

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## Tightlines1984 (Mar 28, 2014)

Very nice! So assuming all caught on croaker or did you get a few on plastics? If Croaker with the conditions as you described how heavy of a weight were you using?


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## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

Tightlines1984 said:


> Very nice! So assuming all caught on croaker or did you get a few on plastics? If Croaker with the conditions as you described how heavy of a weight were you using?


All on croaker. I sat there on Thursday and watched @walkinwader chunk and wind for hours without a nibble, throwing everything in his tackle box, while I got bites one after the other other on croaker standing 20 yards away from him. I'm no purist, and definitely not too proud to chunk cheater baits with my spinning reel!

I'm not sure what size sliding egg sinker I am using. Maybe an ounce? About as big around as my little finger.


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## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

P.S. I just saw a post on HOOKERS Facebook page saying that they won't have croakers tomorrow morning. Not sure who else has them, pretty sure that Saltgrass didnt.

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## Tightlines1984 (Mar 28, 2014)

gigem87 said:


> P.S. I just saw a post on HOOKERS Facebook page saying that they won't have croakers tomorrow morning. Not sure who else has them, pretty sure that Saltgrass didnt.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk


Hmphhhh....Won't have em or have already been already bought up by guides


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Nice report. Glad you got some fish 

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## seabo (Jun 29, 2006)

gigem87 said:


> Decided to go back this morning since it was pretty decent yesterday. Brought the wife, Mrs. Gigem87 aka Gigem86 with me, since the forecast said it might be calmer today.
> 
> Got up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 am, left the house maybe 10 'til 4. No wind at the house. Made it to Hookers Bait Stand about 4:45 am. There were maybe 6-7 people in front of us, waiting for croakers. Wind is blowing pretty good.
> 
> ...


been there since monday eve.took a beating from the surf (never lost my hat though)and the catching
.but the worse thing was the changing of the acsses numbers.... massive confusion trying to get friends to the camp.. dont know who was in charge of putting signs up but its now all screwed up ..thanks for that and goodby acsees 6 ... i also wanna bet that the origanal acsess 1 will be part of the pay beach section..
Any takers?


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## buton (May 23, 2016)

so do you just put the croaker on leader with a sinker.. or the croaker with a float?

is it dead or alive?


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## 348473 (Apr 12, 2017)

Couldn't buy a bite Fri afternoon on plastics at #5. Did see schools of jacks pulling bait with yak. Had one pickup and wire came back like a Z, hammer?
Waves were just enough to be annoying but even more annoying is seeing all that bait blowing up and nothing. Going to try later this afternoon. If see white TDI wagon stop by and hola. Also chunked fresh crab on longrods and not one nibble, not even a gaftop. Good news is zero seaweed and water looking icecream.


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## gigem87 (May 19, 2006)

buton said:


> so do you just put the croaker on leader with a sinker.. or the croaker with a float?
> 
> is it dead or alive?


Main line is 30# braid. Put sliding egg sinker on main line. Then tie on a small swivel. Then tie on about a foot or so of good fluorocarbon leader, I like 20#. Then tie on a croaker hook, I like the red ones for some reason.

The idea is that the weigh helps you cast into the wind, and gets the bait down to the bottom and away from seagulls and pelicans fast. But the weight is free sliding, so the croaker and the trout never feel resistance from the weight.

Hook the croaker towards the tail, above his "bung hole". He should be alive, croaking and kicking hard.

Stand on back of 2nd sandbar, chunk towards 3rd sandbar.

Let it swim around down there, you don't want a bunch of slack in the line. Maybe pop him every once in a while to wake him up. You will feel him swimming sometimes. If he seems to get real active and nervous all of a sudden, get ready...

When you feel the big thump... do nothing. Maybe drop the rod tip. Maybe even freespool for a couple of seconds. Then reel in slowly. If a fish is on, you will know. Set hook and game on!

If you reel in to check your bait, if he is still alive at all he is good to go. See if he is still croaking. Shake him a bit to see if that wakes him up. If he is totally dead, I'll sometimes stick his corpse in my bait bucket instead of throwing him away. I've had plenty of trout eat dead croaker when the bite is turned on. Guides in boats that buy 10-12 dozen croakers for the day don't need to do this, but you are a minimalist in the surf!

Don't check your bait too often. A few cranks on the reel and you will know if he is still there.

A standard sized Flow Troll bait bucket holds 18 croakers max. More than that and they die quick.

Grab them by the head when you reach in the bucket, so you don't have them jump loose on you.

Get to bait stand early, as they sell out quick.

Put croaker in bait bucket, and bait bucket in 5 gallon bucket or ice chest that you fill with water from bait stand. They will live for the 10-15 minutes needed to get to water. More than that, get an aerator of some sort.

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## buton (May 23, 2016)

gigem87 said:


> Main line is 30# braid. Put sliding egg sinker on main line. Then tie on a small swivel. Then tie on about a foot or so of good fluorocarbon leader, I like 20#. Then tie on a croaker hook, I like the red ones for some reason.
> 
> The idea is that the weigh helps you cast into the wind, and gets the bait down to the bottom and away from seagulls and pelicans fast. But the weight is free sliding, so the croaker and the trout never feel resistance from the weight.
> 
> ...


THanks for this :cheers: great explanation..

going tomorrow to matagorda but well the beach is kind of deep there.. but i am gonna try it..


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## eliris (Dec 4, 2016)

Nice croaker write-up.

Access in front of cell tower is #4. By big light-blue house. 1st Pic is coming down from SLP; sign pic is coming from SS.

Was there today from 12 to 4 today.

Of course no bait shop had any live nothing... So got me some fresh dead shrimp to get me started.

Once I got there was able to catch a bunch of finger mullet with the cast net.

Had my 2 big guns w cut whiting in 3rd gut and meanwhile was throwing live mullet, and dead shrimp on my lighter rod, and only got like a handful of medium whitings. Nothing on the big guns.

I guess all the action is either at dusk or dawn.

I guess thats how u learn.


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## 348473 (Apr 12, 2017)

Just got back from there. Like night and day from yesterday. Surf was rough and all of the rafts of mullet and blowups were completely gone. Looks like window is closed. Didn't hear anyone catching anything. One guy said he got a gaftop. Until next time.


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## BluffRat (Oct 4, 2016)

I was there also on Saturday, entered access rd 4 and took a right, went about 1/4 mile down, white Hyundai santa fe with the girlfriend (her first time out there). Got setup just after sunrise, tried using live shrimp under a cork but kept getting smacked in the face with waves, probably drank 2-3 gallons of saltwater that morning. Had a couple good bites but couldn't land anything. Switched to fishing on the bottom so the gf cold catch some fish, couple whiting and sand trout. No hard heads and no gaftop, so that's always good. My first time out this summer, y'all got me all excited with these recent posts lol


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## BluffRat (Oct 4, 2016)

Also, a story about that cell tower... 7-8 years ago my buddy used to have a couple jet skis he bought off ebay, we used to go out there and launch them in the surf, we fixed them with rod holders and a small ice chest. We always parked by that cell tower because that was the only thing we could see coming back in. That was a fun summer but every time we went out there one of the skis would break or we'd roll it, we had a tow strap we'd use to tow the other back in... dunno what we'd do if both broke, thankfully that never happened.


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