Report submitted by 'TJ'

High Island Surf Report High Island, TX July 26th, 2004 Tweet

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I was fortunate enough to get a few days off of work so I decided to hit the beach. We got to the beach around daylight on Monday morning and found absolutely perfect conditions. First thing off I hit the surf with cast-net in hand. I was lucky -- mullet were everywhere. After I got a few, I headed back in to get set up. As I was getting all the leaders attached, my wife was out in the surf catching more bait on a rod and reel. She caught a few skipjack before heading in.

I got four lines out and the wait began. That was pretty much the theme for the day -- sitting and waiting. I finally got bored so I put even more lines out.

Around 1:00 p.m. I had a pretty good run on a 3/0. I drug it in most of the way and couldn't tell whether or not I had a fish. I finally got it in close enough that a wave crashed on it's back and it went ballistic. Big Bull Red. Everytime I got in in close it would turn around and head back out. After a little bit of work, I finally landed him.

T.J. Pilgrim -- Bull Red, released

Not too much later I had another short run on the same rod. I ended up bringing it in to check the bait. I changed the bait and headed back out with it. While I was yakking out, my wife was watching the rod. She heard a short, quick run on the 555 beside her so she dropped the 3/0 I was taking out. As she picked up the 555, it started screaming. She got the clicker off and tightened down on the drag -- nothing. It kept tearing off line. She tightened down again -- nothing. She saw the spool so she tightened down all the way and held on for dear life. Luckily the line popped pretty far down so she had saved most of my line. By the time I got back to shore she was about to have a fit and couldn't wait to tell me.

That was pretty much all the excitement for the day. We stayed around till dark and decided to try again in the morning.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

You've heard the saying "What a difference a day makes" -- well it proved to be very true. My wife had a job interview so I hit the beach alone around daylight. The conditions were absolutely perfect again and the water was the clearest I've seen it all year at High Island. The finger mullet were getting pounded in the surf. I caught a few in the cast net and chunked them out under a cork trying for trout. I started catching blacktip after blacktip after blacktip, all of them about 2 feet long. They slowed down and the Spanish Mackarel and Trout moved in. I played with them for about an hour then decided to go after bigger game.

I got two small stingrays and two horse mullet out. Shortly after I got the rods out, a pod of dolphins swam by really close. Bam! Fish on. I was kind of worried it might have been a dolphin! Turned out it was a Bull Red. Got the line back out, another pod of dolphins went by and I caught another red. The dolphins were coming by within casting distance so I started casting all my mullet. Everytime the dolphins came by, I hooked a Red.

Bull Red on the sand -- released

The reds slowed down around 10 and two boys from Anahuac stopped by and wanted to fish beside me. Luckily they did because I was going to need their help in a few minutes. I casted a mullet out on the 555 and I was setting the rod in the rod holder one of the 6/0 with a stingray on it started going off. I ran down to it and he had dropped it. As I was tightening it I happened to look back at the 555 I had just cast. In all my haste I had apparently forgotten to set the clicker and the 12 foot, 12 oz. rod was completely doubled over about to launch out of the rod holder. I got to it just in time. The fight was on. We traveled up and down the beach and I finally got him in thanks to the boys from Anahuac.

T.J. Pilgrim with a 4'10" Bull Shark -- released

I got that rod back out and not long after both the 6/0s that had stingrays started getting hit. The fish kept picking up and dropping -- no real good runs. One finally hooked himself and it turned out to be a small Blacktip.

T.J. Pilgrim with a 3'6" Blacktip -- released

Shortly after I got him in I had another run on one of the casted baits. It put up a good fight. After traveling the beach a few times, I finally landed a male Finetooth.

T.J. Pilgrim with a 4'3" Finetooth -- released

I realized it was about 1 p.m. and I hadn't sat down all day. I stopped putting lines out and helped the Anahuac boys out for a while. They left around 2 p.m. so I decided to start picking up slowly since I was by myself again. I got a few more runs while I was picking up but no hook-ups. I decided that I still had quite a bit of time left so I might as well go riding around. I went between the piers and came across one camp that had just caught a shark.

As I was talking to the man he mentioned that he wouldn't let his boy go out in the water because of the sharks. He told me that they kept hitting along the color change, about 400 yards up the beach. I got to looking, and what I had initially written off as pelican splashes were actually fish. I still wasn't sure what kind though. As I made my way down the beach I saw three sharks free jumping. My heart skipped a beat. Even though I was by myself and had a truck full of equipment, I couldn't miss the opportunity to paddle out there and catch some.

The sharks had the mullet crammed up to the beach and in my first throw, I caught enough bait to last all evening. I paddled out with my 320 GTI and some cut mullet and started drifting. The mullet kept flocking to my kayak to hide in its shadow which in turn, brought the sharks. I got splashed time and time again when sharks would attack a mullet from below and quickly turn at the surface. I also saw sharks belly flopping. I still can't figure out what they were doing. I hooked somewhere between 10 and 20 -- I lost count. I got 6 up to the yak and was able to release all of them.

I finally hooked into a bigger one. He was somewhere between 5 and 6 feet long. He jumped at least 7 times around my kayak and finally straightened out one of the swivels on my leader and broke off. I didn't have any more leaders in the kayak so I headed back in. It was pretty late by this point so I decided to give it one more try. I didn't go as far out this time. The first one I got was hooked through the jaw and I realized I had left my pliers at the truck. He wasn't that big so I paddled in with him still on.

3'6" Blacktip -- released

I decided it was too late to go back out so I called it quits even though there were sharks still hitting the water.

Can't wait to get back out there!
- TJ

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