# Great Sargent report



## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Got down to Sargent Friday afternoon to get ready for the October Fish Tournament. Drove down to Mitchell's cut to catch some bait but it was slim pickings, just a few mullet and croaker after 2 hours of throwing the cast net so moved to the surf and threw the cast net till dark and only got a few more mullet, good thing I brought some shrimp,crab, and frozen mullet with me.Got up at 4am Saturday and hit the beach. When I got to my spot it was 58* with a light north wind and the water looked great. I forgot to bring a flash light so untill the sun came up we were fishing in the moon light. I threw the first rod out and before I could get a second rod rigged I had a nice slot red, threw it in the box and casted back out and tried again to rig a second pole but another red hit within 30 seconds of putting the rod in the rod holder, and it went on like that for 2 hours. After the sun came up the bite slowed down some but it was still steady action till around noon. At around 2pm we called it quits and headed to the weigh in. I ended up winning 1st place redfish and redfish with most spots, for the second year in a row, and my wife won 2nd place red. After the tournament was over we had some friends come down to fish and they had a blast. Ended up bringing home 6 slot reds for dinner and I don't know how many reds and drum we released but it was enough to make everybody's arms sore.I have a ton of pictures so bare with me.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

more


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

more pics


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

still more


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## gaftop (Feb 20, 2005)

Congratulations! Another great report and photos


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

still more pics


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

more comming


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

more fish


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Everything was caught on either shrimp,crab,mullet,croaker, or whiting. Here's a few pics on how I rig the baits. Don't forget about the crab claws, they are great bait.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

How about some shrimp boats


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Even if the fish ain't biting its always nice just to kick back on the beach and enjoy the beauty around you. Here are some other pics I took this weekend.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

More random pics and dinner made with some reds and my leftover bait.


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## [email protected] (Jan 14, 2005)

Congarats on the Win's and great day fishing!


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## SURF Buster (Feb 17, 2008)

Good day again for you guys, you still are the King of the Beach.


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## Billygoat (Feb 1, 2013)

Great job! Thanks for the report, the weather kept me from heading down the weekend, looks like I really missed out!!


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## DCAVA (Aug 5, 2013)

Cool pics and report!!


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

That's a lot of fish!


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## Shark_Reeler (Aug 16, 2014)

Good stuff! I really like the moonshot. You must have a helluva camera! That's a ton of reds and some hog blacks!


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

I love to see your reports, because I know I am going to see fish.


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## troutless (Feb 17, 2006)

Congrats again on your win. Awesome pictures of a lot of fish caught and I enjoyed the shrimp boat and moon photo's. Now, that was one fun day.


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## Mako-Wish (Jul 10, 2011)

this post gets me excited


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## ShawnQ (May 21, 2004)

Nice mess of fish! I've never fished Mitchell's cut on the sargent side. Is that where all the shell is on Sargent?
How's the buried seaweed/soft spots with that heavy truck (same as mine)? Ive heard its bad in spots...

Also, I noticed you fish Sargent quite a bit - are there ever any trout in the surf down there? Seems like there's tons of drum...but I dont recall ever seeing many trout reports.

Congrats!
Shawn


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## Zeitgeist (Nov 10, 2011)

ShawnQ said:


> are there ever any trout in the surf down there? Seems like there's tons of drum...but I dont recall ever seeing many trout reports.
> 
> Congrats!
> Shawn


 Yes :biggrin:

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthread.php?t=1121034


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## Zeitgeist (Nov 10, 2011)

Unreal!


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## edjman (Aug 13, 2013)

Great report and pics. Looks like you showed them a good time!


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## NOCREEK (Jan 18, 2012)

I guess you could call that an ok day?


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## Runway (Feb 6, 2005)

John, it was great to visit with you, your bride, and meet Steve at the weigh-in. It is folks like you that make Sargent a fine place to spend the weekends. Looking forward to catching your next "class" on the beach and bringing home some fresh catch for dinner!


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## aerigan (May 17, 2013)

Holy **** that was a great trip! That plate of food pic sure makes me hungry!


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## troutless (Feb 17, 2006)

One question, is that Blue ABU Rocket the same size of a ABU 7000?


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## C-Man87 (Jun 25, 2014)

Always enjoy your reports Mr. Chum, is that a spotless red I see in second picture!


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## Reel Time (Oct 6, 2009)

Awesome John, just awesome!!


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

troutless said:


> One question, is that Blue ABU Rocket the same size of a ABU 7000?


It's a 6500 Pro Rocket that I tweaked a little. Carbon Matrix drag, ceramic bearings, ceramic pawl, and power handle. It can handle anything in the surf, aside from huge sharks and rays.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

C-Man87 said:


> Always enjoy your reports Mr. Chum, is that a spotless red I see in second picture!


It was spotless on that side but it had 3 spots on the other.


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## Law Dog (Jul 27, 2010)

Great pics, congrats!


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## Blueshoes (Jan 24, 2013)

man i seriously need to see what you are doing differently than us. We put in a 4-6 hour trip and usually put up a single bull, maybe a ray and in the other days case, several smacks but never kill it like you do. Everything looks to be the same but clearly something is different.


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## redlover (Sep 18, 2012)

watch how he hold his tongue -lol , I wish I were there to get some lessons also.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Blueshoes said:


> man i seriously need to see what you are doing differently than us. We put in a 4-6 hour trip and usually put up a single bull, maybe a ray and in the other days case, several smacks but never kill it like you do. Everything looks to be the same but clearly something is different.


A lot of it has to do with how you rig up. I see so many people with crazy leaders with beads all over them that are rigged backwards with the hook on bottom and sinker on the top and using hooks that are made to catch Great White sharks. Another mistake people make is burying the hook into the bait, the fish can't get hooked when the hook tip is in the bait, it needs to be sticking out. Here's another mistake, location, location, location. Your not gonna catch fish past the third bar when all the bait and fish are in the first gut, I see so many people that cast right over the fish or they will cast their bait on top of the bars instead of in the guts. Excluding big sharks, this is where I catch most of my fish, 60% between the beach and the second bar, 30% between the second bar and the third bar, and 10% past the third bar. Most of the fish are in close because that's where the food is, not just bait fish, but shrimp, crabs, clams, worms, and a assortment of other crustaceans that get stirred up by the breaking waves. All the fish we caught last weekend were between the beach and the first bar, I was casting the surf rods from the sand and never got my feet wet. You also have to find the right spot to fish, you can't get stop on a beach somewhere and expect to start catching fish. You have to learn to read the water and the sand, look for gaps in the breaking waves that indicate a lateral gut or a place where the shell on the beach is thicker than in other places. It's no different than any other fishing, you have to find structure, If you were offshore fishing you would look for rigs, rocks, or wrecks to find fish, in the bay you look for oyster reefs, drop-off, or maybe old pier pilings, bass fishing you look for submerged tree stumps or vegetation, surf fishing is no different, the structure is there, it just can't be seen unless you know what your looking for.


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## Blueshoes (Jan 24, 2013)

so is this why you go all the way down to sargent? I assume you can drive a considerable distance down the beach down there looking for bird action or differences in the bars. We use the same baits, usually buy some menhaden and/or squid and always having some fishbites in the tackle box and then try to cast net some live bait once were at a spot. We always put the baits in the guts, which has been the 2nd gut lately because i dont like swimming to get to the 3rd gut anymore. All of our leaders are sliding trace, anywhere from 12-24 in lead line with anywhere from a 4-6 oz spider weight and then another 18 inches or so of either cable, single strand, or mono to my favorite, the gamakatsu octopus circle 7-8/0. 

Let me know when you may be making another beach trip, cant say ill be able to drive all the way down there but i live right on the west end of the seawall.


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## redlover (Sep 18, 2012)

sharkchum said:


> A lot of it has to do with how you rig up. I see so many people with crazy leaders with beads all over them that are rigged backwards with the hook on bottom and sinker on the top and using hooks that are made to catch Great White sharks. Another mistake people make is burying the hook into the bait, the fish can't get hooked when the hook tip is in the bait, it needs to be sticking out. Here's another mistake, location, location, location. Your not gonna catch fish past the third bar when all the bait and fish are in the first gut, I see so many people that cast right over the fish or they will cast their bait on top of the bars instead of in the guts. Excluding big sharks, this is where I catch most of my fish, 60% between the beach and the second bar, 30% between the second bar and the third bar, and 10% past the third bar. Most of the fish are in close because that's where the food is, not just bait fish, but shrimp, crabs, clams, worms, and a assortment of other crustaceans that get stirred up by the breaking waves. All the fish we caught last weekend were between the beach and the first bar, I was casting the surf rods from the sand and never got my feet wet. You also have to find the right spot to fish, you can't get stop on a beach somewhere and expect to start catching fish. You have to learn to read the water and the sand, look for gaps in the breaking waves that indicate a lateral gut or a place where the shell on the beach is thicker than in other places. It's no different than any other fishing, you have to find structure, If you were offshore fishing you would look for rigs, rocks, or wrecks to find fish, in the bay you look for oyster reefs, drop-off, or maybe old pier pilings, bass fishing you look for submerged tree stumps or vegetation, surf fishing is no different, the structure is there, it just can't be seen unless you know what your looking for.


Thanks a lot for your valuable advice !
Now reading the beach always a difficult thing to do, I'm half way there with your great tips . :fish:


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Blueshoes said:


> so is this why you go all the way down to sargent? I assume you can drive a considerable distance down the beach down there looking for bird action or differences in the bars. We use the same baits, usually buy some menhaden and/or squid and always having some fishbites in the tackle box and then try to cast net some live bait once were at a spot. We always put the baits in the guts, which has been the 2nd gut lately because i dont like swimming to get to the 3rd gut anymore. All of our leaders are sliding trace, anywhere from 12-24 in lead line with anywhere from a 4-6 oz spider weight and then another 18 inches or so of either cable, single strand, or mono to my favorite, the gamakatsu octopus circle 7-8/0.
> 
> Let me know when you may be making another beach trip, cant say ill be able to drive all the way down there but i live right on the west end of the seawall.


Sounds like part of your problem is your bait, menhaden is to soft and half rotten when you buy it, squid is only good for hardheads and gafftop, and fishbites are nothing more than a stinking piece of leather. If you went to a steak house and ordered a nice T bone with all the fixings and the waiter brought you out a rotten chunk of pork fat, a piece of sheep intestine, and a slice of tofu that smells like week old tuna, would you eat it? I think not. The fish are the same way. As a general rule of thumb, if it's not fresh enough for me to eat, than I don't expect the fish to eat it either. I use fresh mullet I catch in the cast net, live crabs, jumbo eating shrimp I buy at the fish market, never the rotten bait shrimp they sell at the bait camps, and croaker and whiting that I catch with the small rods on pieces of shrimp. I have about 13 miles of beach in Sargent I can drive on looking for fish, one of the main things I look for is shell. If there is shell on the beach than there is shell in the water. What a lot of people don't realize is that reds and drum eat scallops, clams, and other shellfish, that's why they have the cruncher's in the back of there throat. If you can find freshly crushed shells on the beach it's a sure sign that reds or drum have been feeding there recently. It's deer season now, so I probably won't be doing much surf fishing between now and January, but I'm planing in January of February to have another surf fishing class. It's a lot easier to explain all this stuff "hands on" than on a computer.


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## Greatwhite (Mar 28, 2011)

All very very good advice. 

:dance::texasflag


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

That's some great sand fishing, thanks for the report.
I guess it's about time to make the beach trip!


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## reigningreds (Oct 1, 2014)

That's awesome! Would love to get schooled by you on the finer points of surf fishing. When not in the boat I get tired of going to my usual bank spots and pulling up nothing but undersized fish and croakers. Looks like a lot of fun!


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## willygee (Jun 21, 2013)

sharkchum you are a bull red boss!


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## peckerwood (Jun 9, 2012)

Man I hope you'll let me make your next surf class!!!!!!!!


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