# any reports from the spillway in Trininty Bay?



## Coopman (Jun 25, 2018)

we are going out tomorrow and I was wondering how the fishings been. Also if anyone has any other suggestions to try in the area.


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## chwoodall (Aug 27, 2005)

Coopman said:


> we are going out tomorrow and I was wondering how the fishings been. Also if anyone has any other suggestions to try in the area.


Haven't fished that far north in a while but I'd imagine you could pick up some redfish at least. If you don't have much luck I'd move down to well pads mid bay and fish deep.. been doing pretty good out there recently.

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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

Yeah it's a little hot to focus on the HLP spillway... there's probably always a red or two in that current but it's better to hit it HLP during December to take advantage of the degree or two of warmth in the spillway water. Right now, as Woodall elaborated to, the fish are looking for depth and current.. but they might suspend anywhere up or down out there.. this time of year they'll hang on large bait balls and might hit tops as well as tails and also suspending baits. I agree with Whoodall in hitting that area and all the wells and the well pads in Trinity bay should start to produce. 

Do ya'll realize there were over 400 wells drilled in Trinity Bay 3/4 of which were dry holes with no well head? There are a lot of well pads in trinity bay that don't have any well head at all and there are many well heads that have the well pad some 50 to 100 yards away. And some well heads that don't have a well pad at all.


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## Logan024420 (Aug 12, 2013)

Could you elaborate on the well pads and well heads? Such as how to look for and find one without a well head? I'm just curious as I've not fished the wells much other than the big separator.

Thanks


troutsupport said:


> Yeah it's a little hot to focus on the HLP spillway... there's probably always a red or two in that current but it's better to hit it HLP during December to take advantage of the degree or two of warmth in the spillway water. Right now, as Woodall elaborated to, the fish are looking for depth and current.. but they might suspend anywhere up or down out there.. this time of year they'll hang on large bait balls and might hit tops as well as tails and also suspending baits. I agree with Whoodall in hitting that area and all the wells and the well pads in Trinity bay should start to produce.
> 
> Do ya'll realize there were over 400 wells drilled in Trinity Bay 3/4 of which were dry holes with no well head? There are a lot of well pads in trinity bay that don't have any well head at all and there are many well heads that have the well pad some 50 to 100 yards away. And some well heads that don't have a well pad at all.


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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

logan024 said:


> Could you elaborate on the well pads and well heads? Such as how to look for and find one without a well head? I'm just curious as I've not fished the wells much other than the big separator.


Yeah, back between the 60's and 80s' generally they were drilling all those wells in Trinity Bay. They would bring in a drill barge (barge with a drilling rig already on it. Before sinking the drill barge they would dump a layer of rock or oyster shell so when the drill barge was sunk to the bay floor it would hold up the barge and not sink further down into the mud. They did this regardless of whether the hit a producing well or not. If the well didn't produce the floated the barge off the 'pad' and move it to drill another well. All those piles of rocks and oyster shell later turned into oyster reef when the oyster larva or 'spat' would land on any of the hard material. Over time many of the well pad reefs grew substantially and some of them come several feet off the floor of the bay. Anyway without knowing where they are it's sorta just a 'gamble' **** shoot to find them since there arn't any markers on the surface. Many of the pads for the producing wells are within 40 to 100 yards from the well head and any collection device so those are somewhat findable by side scan or sonar. Just takes a lot of time to get out there and search for them. Some days the fish will be on the well head them selves ... it's all just a vertical structure to them.. they don't care what it is. Then other days they are on the well pad reef.

If there are anglers out there that don't care for looking for them but would rather just know exactly where they are, I side scanned all the well pad reefs in Trinity and Galveston Bay and have them on the map on Reef Recon (oyster reef overlay for GPS). No other map has ever shown these reefs. It's a first. There are also all the man made reefs including the ones that don't have buoys marking them any more and that's probably more than the ones that have buoys. I'm working on a file for Garmin, RayMarine, and Hummingbird, but the current file does work in Lowrance and Simrad chartplotters. More info here... http://troutsupport.com/reef-recon/


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## Inspector Scotty (Jun 25, 2016)

troutsupport said:


> Yeah, back between the 60's and 80s' generally they were drilling all those wells in Trinity Bay. They would bring in a drill barge (barge with a drilling rig already on it. Before sinking the drill barge they would dump a layer of rock or oyster shell so when the drill barge was sunk to the bay floor it would hold up the barge and not sink further down into the mud. They did this regardless of whether the hit a producing well or not. If the well didn't produce the floated the barge off the 'pad' and move it to drill another well. All those piles of rocks and oyster shell later turned into oyster reef when the oyster larva or 'spat' would land on any of the hard material. Over time many of the well pad reefs grew substantially and some of them come several feet off the floor of the bay. Anyway without knowing where they are it's sorta just a 'gamble' **** shoot to find them since there arn't any markers on the surface. Many of the pads for the producing wells are within 40 to 100 yards from the well head and any collection device so those are somewhat findable by side scan or sonar. Just takes a lot of time to get out there and search for them. Some days the fish will be on the well head them selves ... it's all just a vertical structure to them.. they don't care what it is. Then other days they are on the well pad reef.
> 
> If there are anglers out there that don't care for looking for them but would rather just know exactly where they are, I side scanned all the well pad reefs in Trinity and Galveston Bay and have them on the map on Reef Recon (oyster reef overlay for GPS). No other map has ever shown these reefs. It's a first. There are also all the man made reefs including the ones that don't have buoys marking them any more and that's probably more than the ones that have buoys. I'm working on a file for Garmin, RayMarine, and Hummingbird, but the current file does work in Lowrance and Simrad chartplotters. More info here... http://troutsupport.com/reef-recon/


With this being said are you talking about Deep oyster Habitat or scattered shell?


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## troutsupport (May 22, 2006)

right now just the deep oyster layer, those are all the good pads that are having some regrowth of oyster. There are also some well pads in lower trinity that were obliterated during the drought by oyster predators and disease. Even a clean well pad hump will have some potential to hold a fish or two because its structure, it rises off the bottom, causes currents to shift, accelerate, and gives the fish an ambush point. But the better fishing between now and November in Trinity will be off the well pads marked as Deep Oyster Habitat.


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## planohog (Nov 1, 2006)

can not wait to get home and see this reef recon give some light
to the galveston bay reefs. Its very difficult even with side scan
unless you have tons of time to put put around looking . 
I have lowrance HDS-9 Gen2 touch .


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## Bocephus (May 30, 2008)

troutsupport said:


> right now just the deep oyster layer, those are all the good pads that are having some regrowth of oyster. There are also some well pads in lower trinity that were obliterated during the drought by oyster predators and disease. Even a clean well pad hump will have some potential to hold a fish or two because its structure, it rises off the bottom, causes currents to shift, accelerate, and gives the fish an ambush point. But the better fishing between now and November in Trinity will be off the well pads marked as Deep Oyster Habitat.


You must have spent countless weeks, days & hours putting around side scanning the Galveston Bay complex. How long did it take ? And how did you go about it ? Did you follow a grid pattern, or what ?


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## rdrew5762 (May 14, 2013)

troutsupport said:


> right now just the deep oyster layer, those are all the good pads that are having some regrowth of oyster. There are also some well pads in lower trinity that were obliterated during the drought by oyster predators and disease. Even a clean well pad hump will have some potential to hold a fish or two because its structure, it rises off the bottom, causes currents to shift, accelerate, and gives the fish an ambush point. But the better fishing between now and November in Trinity will be off the well pads marked as Deep Oyster Habitat.


Tobin,

What do you think is the best method for fishing these pads in the months between now and say october when the water temps are high? Seems like you could cover more water using plastics to find fish, or would live shrimp or croaker be what the trout are looking for?


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## chwoodall (Aug 27, 2005)

rdrew5762 said:


> Tobin,
> 
> What do you think is the best method for fishing these pads in the months between now and say october when the water temps are high? Seems like you could cover more water using plastics to find fish, or would live shrimp or croaker be what the trout are looking for?


I personally only ever use plastics.. stop at a pad and throw for 15 minutes or so and work the area over. If I don't catch anything in that 15-20 minutes it's time to move to another pad. Either they are there or they aren't.. also the down current edge of the pad seems to normally be the most productive so pay attention to tide and water flow

This is just from my experience

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## reb (Aug 12, 2005)

Shrimp under a cork as deep or deeper than your pole has been working great for me. Go when the tide is moving is the key.


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## Larry S (Jun 29, 2016)

What I would like to know is if the spillway is spitting out warm water. I thought they shut the generator down. Is there a new one. I use to fish there years ago. Waded there when you could fish off the spillway. Man was that problem waiting to happen.


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## Logan024420 (Aug 12, 2013)

Everytime I go there's someone on the bank still. Lol


Larry S said:


> What I would like to know is if the spillway is spitting out warm water. I thought they shut the generator down. Is there a new one. I use to fish there years ago. Waded there when you could fish off the spillway. Man was that problem waiting to happen.


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## redexpress (Apr 5, 2010)

Last I heard the NRG plant was only operating intermittently.


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