A very weak cool front made its way down to the coast Thursday. For the first time in weeks, the wind direction shifted from the southeast to north. For a few short hours, the wind actually died down considerably.
Friday morning, I made my way to the Texas City Dike only to find strong winds from the ESE at 15-20 mph with gusts even higher. A lot of Sargassum seaweed was in the bay water and piling up along the granite rocks. It looked like another day of unfavorable weather and water conditions for fishing.
Near the end of the Dike, there were some of the usual die-hard fishermen battling the elements. These are some of the folks who don’t make excuses for not not fishing. They fish when they can; good weather, bad weather, whatever the conditions.
At the very end of the dike, I came up on Hector. He had his hands full with two rods out and fish on both of them at the same time. Here’s two videos of Hector in action.
Pretty cool, huh? Note Hector’s rods. He built them with short rod butts. Hector can cast extremely far. He has won longcasting tournaments and can get his bait out long distances during some very rough conditions.
As you can see, Hector landed both Bull Red Fish and released them back into Galveston Bay.
Hi Dave,
Wow, nice catch. Do you know what baits does the Hector use to catch 2 big bull reds?
Thanks,
Truong
Mike, Hector was “venting” that Bull Red. It’s a process where the air bladder is punctured so he won’t float when released. Sometimes the bladder gets so full of air that the fish has a difficult time releasing it. You have to be careful doing it as not to injure internal organs.
Thanks for stopping by Mark. And great to see you on Troy’s board. Yes, I miss the old Texas City Dike Lighted Pier. I’m 56 years old and remember fishing on the pier when I was 7. Man, we’re getting old.
Dave,
Thanks for sharing. I’m glad to see Hector still at it.I used to fish the Dike (mostly the pier at the end) 35 and 40 years ago. Hector was one of my inspirations in getting into fishing with long rods.
at the end of the 2nd vid it looked like Hector took a knife to the belly of that bull. What was going on there?? Thx!
wow that was great felt like i was there ..way to go hector ……
Way to go Dale. Congrats to the wife on her first flounder. Sounds like ya’ll had some good fishing.
caught 2 specks, 21in and 18in, 1 black drum 23in. wife caught her first sport fish ever, an 18in flounder using my ollllldddd zebco 404 reel! hahahaha tight lines every1!
thursday 5/5.
family and i will be at the spot on skyline dr.(about 50yds away from dike rd.) on thursday 5/6 around 11am till whenever. will be bank fishing and wade fishing. good luck to every1 else and tight lines!