Today I met with Beckman. We put in at Sylvian Beach boat ramp with no expectations, only hopes of finding a few fish. We Launched about 7:15 after buying some beautiful live shrimp at the bait shop there. Linda's Bait and Tackle at the pier and park. Having no clue where to fish we headed towards the ship channel and stopped to drift in about 9 feet of water. We had live shrimp and used a bobbers most of the time. We would adjust the sliding corks to the depth we were in. We caught a few hard head and gaff top. When the bite slowed we pulled up and headed across the channel and caught a few more gaff top and hard heads. We drift fished and I had one line in the water draggin near or on the bottom in addition to the cork floating rod. I hung up a few times on the bottom but was getting an occasional hit. Most of the gaff top must have been hungry as they hit hard. I put down the bottom fishing rod and was picking something up when a whale grabbed that bait and headed for Galveston. I reached for the rod as it flew over the gunnel. I grabbed and missed it twice. I watched the cork handle go under water and disappear in the somewhat tea colored waters. Fortunately, it was not one of the expensive rods/reel combo but one of my favorite spinning reel set ups. We caught maybe 12 or so gaff top that ranged from 3 to 7 or 8 pounds and had a great time as they put up a better fight than the Lake Houston channel cats. Steve and I talked about what could have hit it so hard the it yanked it from under my foot and into the water so fast. Sure would like to have seen that one. There was a slight breeze most of the time but it was getting hot quick. We headed in about 11 A.M., loaded up and headed home. I told Steve he could keep all those slimy gaff top but we had tossed them back. All in all, it was another interesting and fun day on the water. Moral of the story is, you never know what might bite when fishing the salt water nor should you just lay a rod down without securing it.
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