monktonlad
09-11-2006, 23:12
Hi everyone,
my partner and I went off to the good old USA for just over 2 weeks holiday mainly to go fishing out there.
We landed in Houston Bush international during quite a storm and it was the scariest landing I have ever been in.
They were recording 4" of rain an hour at the time so straight away it didn't look good for the fishing.
Our first day was spent getting over the flight but most important getting our state fishing licenses.
We obtained these from wal-mart and were $65 each and that covered fresh and saltwater. This was for a year and was much cheaper than day ones we had decided some time ago.
Once we had these, we went to Brazos Bend state park and went firstly to 40 acre lake. After a while of absolutely nothing we moved a few miles into the park to Elm lake where we encountered some local wildlife. (see http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43746 for pictures).
That evening my partners brother-in-law came in from work and announced he had tickets for the wings over Houston airshow at the weekend. These were either sat or sun so we could see what the weather was going to be like.
Sat morning we had a look at the weather forecast and although not promising, we headed off to Ellington Field.
Got stuck in traffic a couple of miles from the entrance and it chucked it down so we turned around and headed for the bass pro shop some 25 miles west of Houston.
Now that is a shop anyone going to the states wants to have a look in if they can!!
We bought quite a few things including rapala lures for about $5 - $6.
That evening as the rain had cleared we went back to Brazos Bend but this time to Hale lake.
Plenty of bites but all from mosquitos!
One thing that I noticed when we got there was another gator swimming around under the fishing pier, but as we were 10 - 12 ft above the water we were ok.
The only thing caught that night was a blue catfish by my partners sister, her husband managed to net it before the gator got to it. You don't have that problem at Deal pier thats for sure!
Sunday went to the airshow.
It was the best one I have ever seen!!
The simulated Pearl Harbour attack was spectacular, especially as they used 1000lb of explosives and 1000 gallons of gasoline in the special effects. Very realistic. You could feel the heat and shock of each explosion.
Highlight for my partner was standing in the bomb bay of a B52 and the sheer size inside of the C5.
Brilliant day out....
Due to more heavy rain over the next few days we didn't get out fishing, so basically a week of our fishing was cancelled due to the weather.
I can't remember what day we went out again but we drove down to chocolate bayou and went fishing under the bridge. The wind was blowing 5-6 and it wasn't all that nice but we were fishing. We didn't catch anything though..
We moved from there to my partners sisters family land (about 100 acres) that runs alongside Halls bayou. At last I thought... Another chance to have a go at the alligator gars.
We drove up to the gate, couldn't unlock it, so went to the public boat ramp alongside the property. The jetty was almost 50ft from the edge of the water due to all the rain, coupled with strong winds keeping the high tides extra high in the gulf, so the water was about 7ft higher than normal.
The county was on flood alert as well so it just wasn't in our favour to go fishing.
We did walk up to my partners sisters pond when we got back (it's just a small pond in the middle of her field) where we got bitten by the dreaded mazzies again and I hooked into a large catfish but it broke me off. Her sister landed one of about 3lb as well as a small crappie (don't they have excellent descriptive names for their fish out there).
We went sea fishing one nice day in the second week to Kemah (well just up from it) on a small wooden pier.
No great depth of water (3-4ft) but fishing is fishing.
My partner caught the first fish......
..... an eel.
Not a big eel at that. "4800 miles to catch that" she exclaimed. " I can catch that at home".
A couple more eels later from the girls and I actually catch a fish. A small croaker. Well as the name suggested, it croaked like a frog when I took the hook out and returned it to the water.
That was it for that day as we had to get back home to feed horses etc.
I had a day out with brother-in-law, not fishing but went to the San Jacinto monument (where general Sam Houston got his own back on the Mexicans for the Alamo) and then went onto the battleship Texas (a WW1 iron giant).
In the afternoon drove to Galveston to the lone star flight museum and saw up close some of the planes we saw at the airshow.
As for fishing, we had one last trip to Kemah.
Same pier, same place on it.
I had a bite within 20 seconds on my first cast and pulled in a small sand trout.
My partner chose to fish on the end of the pier with both of her sisters and they caught a few fish (not sure what as I was down a bit from them).
I then caught an eel, followed by another, then another. They didn't seem as slimy but were more vicious. One bit my jeans when I put it on the deck and didn't want to let go.
I then caught a black drum of a couple of pounds, quite a fight on the 6ft light rods we had. Next I had a couple of fish, not sure what they were but had big teeth for a small fish, then a croaker, another black drum before my rod bent double and something stripped line off like it was going out of fashion. It was a red drum of just under 2lb. That was it for the day and indeed our fishing holiday.
As the girls packed up a couple of guys asked if they could move into that spot and tthe girls said it was ok as we were going.
Before they had packed everything up one guy caught the fish in the attached picture. Not sure what it was but it went nearly 30lbs. Not bad from a small wooden pier in shallow water. Just goes to show what is out there.
By the way, he was using the same bait as we were so as you can guess, the girls were a bit miffed.
Well thats about it, always next year.
Malcolm.
my partner and I went off to the good old USA for just over 2 weeks holiday mainly to go fishing out there.
We landed in Houston Bush international during quite a storm and it was the scariest landing I have ever been in.
They were recording 4" of rain an hour at the time so straight away it didn't look good for the fishing.
Our first day was spent getting over the flight but most important getting our state fishing licenses.
We obtained these from wal-mart and were $65 each and that covered fresh and saltwater. This was for a year and was much cheaper than day ones we had decided some time ago.
Once we had these, we went to Brazos Bend state park and went firstly to 40 acre lake. After a while of absolutely nothing we moved a few miles into the park to Elm lake where we encountered some local wildlife. (see http://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43746 for pictures).
That evening my partners brother-in-law came in from work and announced he had tickets for the wings over Houston airshow at the weekend. These were either sat or sun so we could see what the weather was going to be like.
Sat morning we had a look at the weather forecast and although not promising, we headed off to Ellington Field.
Got stuck in traffic a couple of miles from the entrance and it chucked it down so we turned around and headed for the bass pro shop some 25 miles west of Houston.
Now that is a shop anyone going to the states wants to have a look in if they can!!
We bought quite a few things including rapala lures for about $5 - $6.
That evening as the rain had cleared we went back to Brazos Bend but this time to Hale lake.
Plenty of bites but all from mosquitos!
One thing that I noticed when we got there was another gator swimming around under the fishing pier, but as we were 10 - 12 ft above the water we were ok.
The only thing caught that night was a blue catfish by my partners sister, her husband managed to net it before the gator got to it. You don't have that problem at Deal pier thats for sure!
Sunday went to the airshow.
It was the best one I have ever seen!!
The simulated Pearl Harbour attack was spectacular, especially as they used 1000lb of explosives and 1000 gallons of gasoline in the special effects. Very realistic. You could feel the heat and shock of each explosion.
Highlight for my partner was standing in the bomb bay of a B52 and the sheer size inside of the C5.
Brilliant day out....
Due to more heavy rain over the next few days we didn't get out fishing, so basically a week of our fishing was cancelled due to the weather.
I can't remember what day we went out again but we drove down to chocolate bayou and went fishing under the bridge. The wind was blowing 5-6 and it wasn't all that nice but we were fishing. We didn't catch anything though..
We moved from there to my partners sisters family land (about 100 acres) that runs alongside Halls bayou. At last I thought... Another chance to have a go at the alligator gars.
We drove up to the gate, couldn't unlock it, so went to the public boat ramp alongside the property. The jetty was almost 50ft from the edge of the water due to all the rain, coupled with strong winds keeping the high tides extra high in the gulf, so the water was about 7ft higher than normal.
The county was on flood alert as well so it just wasn't in our favour to go fishing.
We did walk up to my partners sisters pond when we got back (it's just a small pond in the middle of her field) where we got bitten by the dreaded mazzies again and I hooked into a large catfish but it broke me off. Her sister landed one of about 3lb as well as a small crappie (don't they have excellent descriptive names for their fish out there).
We went sea fishing one nice day in the second week to Kemah (well just up from it) on a small wooden pier.
No great depth of water (3-4ft) but fishing is fishing.
My partner caught the first fish......
..... an eel.
Not a big eel at that. "4800 miles to catch that" she exclaimed. " I can catch that at home".
A couple more eels later from the girls and I actually catch a fish. A small croaker. Well as the name suggested, it croaked like a frog when I took the hook out and returned it to the water.
That was it for that day as we had to get back home to feed horses etc.
I had a day out with brother-in-law, not fishing but went to the San Jacinto monument (where general Sam Houston got his own back on the Mexicans for the Alamo) and then went onto the battleship Texas (a WW1 iron giant).
In the afternoon drove to Galveston to the lone star flight museum and saw up close some of the planes we saw at the airshow.
As for fishing, we had one last trip to Kemah.
Same pier, same place on it.
I had a bite within 20 seconds on my first cast and pulled in a small sand trout.
My partner chose to fish on the end of the pier with both of her sisters and they caught a few fish (not sure what as I was down a bit from them).
I then caught an eel, followed by another, then another. They didn't seem as slimy but were more vicious. One bit my jeans when I put it on the deck and didn't want to let go.
I then caught a black drum of a couple of pounds, quite a fight on the 6ft light rods we had. Next I had a couple of fish, not sure what they were but had big teeth for a small fish, then a croaker, another black drum before my rod bent double and something stripped line off like it was going out of fashion. It was a red drum of just under 2lb. That was it for the day and indeed our fishing holiday.
As the girls packed up a couple of guys asked if they could move into that spot and tthe girls said it was ok as we were going.
Before they had packed everything up one guy caught the fish in the attached picture. Not sure what it was but it went nearly 30lbs. Not bad from a small wooden pier in shallow water. Just goes to show what is out there.
By the way, he was using the same bait as we were so as you can guess, the girls were a bit miffed.
Well thats about it, always next year.
Malcolm.