Sabine Pass Nearshore 5-20-03


Got a good start at about 8:00.. Water was great, weather was great, so I thought, the fishing isn't going to be that great. I was WRONG. This turned out to be one of the best trips in my life. We broke the jettys and headed for the 18 mile light, but then turned and headed for a few rigs. Fishing was slow for an hour or so, and just when we were talking of leaving Jeffs rod bent over. It was a small bull red.


View of the calm seas and the rig as we approach.


Jeffs 31 inch Bull Red.

Not too long after that, we were in need of bait, bad. No baitfish were biting, but they were hitting the op of the water. I had no luck with the cast net. These guys were way too fast. We started talking about leaving again when my dad hooks something on shrimp.. Oh yeah, a large ladyfish, and right on his tail when it got to the boat was a nice jack, we got to see it, but it turned at the boat and went out of site..Missed the jack, but we have bait now. While he was taking it off his line, I got a nice Spanish Mackeral.


Dad brought in the bait.


I brought in the food

We baited up a few boat rods with ladyfish and my dad was still fishing with shrimp and a small leader for some more bait and BAM, he got hit hard and cut off imediately. I figured it must be a shark, so I was getting a little excited. Me, Jeff and Dad, all set out boat rods in search of a few small shark. After a few minutes of having a chunk of cut bait on, my reel went off, I set the hook on a small shark. I got him almost to the boat and behind it was a huge swirl. I have heard of large shark attacking other shark. I believe this is what happened, but the shark missed. I saw a large shadow head under the boat. This really made me nervous, but we were able to get him in with no incident. Not to much later, jeff had one on too. Things were looking up for sure.


My small shark


Jeffs small shark

Ok, we got back to sitting down after the 2 small sharks. We were shooting the breeze a little, but little did we know, this was the calm before the storm. My Dads line went screaming. He did battle for a while and ended up with this 6 footer, thats approximate, due to us not bringing it aboard and it wanting to tear the side of my boat off. We laid a tape across him in the water while he was slowly swimming and got the estimate. We cut the leader at the hook and he swam off.. This is my first large shark to encounter. It may be a predator, but it has got to be one of natures greatest creations. It was beautiful, as it swam, just graceful looking to be such a violent predator.


Dads large shark


Another shot, cant get enough.

We sat around for what seemed like about 5 minutes and then jeff had a run, but the bait was dropped.. A few minutes later, My reel went off again, he was there. He was fighting and I could feel that there was weight to him. Finally it surfaced, another shark, a little smaller than my dads, but the biggest Ive ever caught.. It was about 5 and a half feet, approximately, by measuring the same way as the other. Again, an elegant looking creature. Unbelievable.


My large shark


Another shot, cant get enough of this one either.

After talking about it for a while, we have a few pick ups and drops. We are almost out of bait when my dad gets a hardhead. Heck, we cut him up and I had a run and drop and jeff gets a good run. He was hooked up for a while on yet another large shark, but the shark managed to get in the rig and break him off. Lot of workout for a cutoff. He was almost whipped too, but I did get an action shot of Jeff at work..

Jeff hard at work

We fished the rig for a little while more with a slow turnout. We decided to head to the jettys and see what was happening. We got to the end of the jettys about 20 minutes later and anchored down. We were out of cutbait so we threw some dead shrimp out. About 5 minutes later, my dad landed a nice gafftop. Huge.. We put it in the cooler and went back to our business.

Dad with his turn at food

I got a few hardheads and a gafftop, no picture). My dad puts a popping cork on because there was a lot of baitfish popping the top of the water. He gets a hit and for a split second Im thinking that we have bait, but then the thing goes berzerk. It ends up being a small blacktip, and it was mad. It was about a foot and a half in length..


Dad with feisty little one

A little later after a few more hardheads, we decided to go into the lake and try our luck there. Dad got another gafftop and we decided to pack it in for the day.. This has been, BY FAR, one of the greatest trips of my life.

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