SeaWolf Park / Pelican Island Flounder Fishing
November 10, 2007
Trip Description: (kayak optional)
Let's all round up for the annual PACK flounder trip during the peak of the flounder run on Saturday, November 10, 2007. The last week of November to the first week of December normally signals the final surge of the annual fall flounder run, bringing the largest, and the hungriest flounder of the year thru Bolivar Straits by the Seawolf Park area on Pelican Island near Galveston. However, the peak of the run frequently settles around the first weeks of November when water temperatures have not yet typically fallen to that final 56 to 60 degrees - we'll hope for 62 degrees or thereabouts. Bait and bait stealers will later become absent in the water as November winds down, and live finger mullet at the bait stands will be a tough ticket. But now the mullet and mud minnows are plentiful in the stands for the earlybirds. It's time to wade in for a chance at that trophy!
This chosen Saturday is the only Saturday during the November part of the flounder run with a highly desired no moon phase. We won't be alone out there! Not only does the large number of fisherman fail to spook the flounder; novices and regulars can study the techniques of others at close range. Remember that the run will continue for several more weeks, and you may want more!
We'll meet in the Seawolf Park parking lot when the park opens at sunrise around 6:30 A.M. The fee to park is $5.00 and if you notify them at the gate you are a wade fisherman, there is NO ADDITIONAL FEE for fishing in the park. The park is a safe, clean facility with bathrooms, showers, a pier, snacks and sometimes a bait stand. There are now numerous places inside the park (and just outside) to launch a kayak or wade. But park inside the park since parking is prohibited outside the park for almost 1/4 mile back up the road.
Visible structure along the Houston Ship Channel shoreline includes a sunken concrete ship, a sunken shrimper boom ,and "the green bush" 1 1/2 miles down the beach. The sunken ship is one of the more prominent landmarks in our bay system. It's the decaying hulk of a 150-foot concrete freighter that ran aground along the Houston Ship Channel in 3 to 8 feet of water several generations ago. It's above water 1/2 mile from the shore we'll be fishing. Teens foolishly have picnics on it and boaters go there to catch croaker and sand trout. Further down the shoreline we will fish is the boom of a shrimper run aground. It's 15 yards from shore and is below water except for the boom. With a low tide and no waders you can wade around it. In November it's not likely we'll be alone fishing that stretch of shore. The "green bush" is 400 yards further down the shore to the west. There from the shore, out thru the 30 yard mud trough, to the sand bar is all good. Another 400 yards down the beach along the Houston Ship Channel side of Pelican Island is a 300 yard stretch of sand flats leading to the point of the island where it meets the Intercoastal Canal.
Date/Time:
Saturday, November 10, 2007 from 6:30A.M. til 3:00 P.M.
Note: The park opens at 6:15 a.m. in case you want to arrive earlier to take advantage of first light. Dick will be there then.
Leader:
Dick McGonigle (cell phone: 713-498-1747, E-mail: dmc@pdq.net)
How to Sign Up:
Contact the club thru the web site, contact the trip leader or sign up at a monthly meeting providing name, e-mail, and cell phone.
How to Get There:
Click here for directions and maps to SeaWolf Park.
To see an aerial view of the SeaWolf Park area click here. The park is shown on the right (where you see boats in the channel). If you follow the road backwards from the park you'll see the dirt road that cuts off to the northwest leading to the alternative Houston Ship Channel entry points.
What to Pack/Bring:
Bring warm clothing, waders, snacks/drinks, bug spray and fishing gear. Kayak is optional, and possibly difficult to deal with. But if you bring it, also bring a lock in case you leave your yak with your vehicle.
Fishing Options:
Subject to the wind, the primary plan is to fish the shoreline along the Houston Ship Channel, entering the water via SeaWolf Park. The prime fishing area there extends northwest for about 2 1/2 miles, from the park, coninuing past the sunken concrete ship, then the sunken shrimpboat on the shoreline with its boom above the water, fishing on until about 300 yards past "the green bush", and lastly to the last 300 yards till the point at the intercoastal. Except for the park and the point, fish within 1 to 20 yards of the shoreline for the most part.
As an alternative to Sea Wolf Park entry, you can access the Houston Ship Channel shoreline by turning left 1/4 mile before the park entrance (about 4 miles past I-45 / Broadway) onto the dirt road. Four-wheel drive is not required unless we've had a lot of rain to muddy up the road. Follow that rough road 7/10 mile to a parking area where you can walk to the shore. Or drive 3/10 or 7/10 miles further to locations where you can put a kayak in to paddle across "the pond" to get to the shell ridge comprising the shoreline by the "green bush". "The pond" is a tidal flats that usually has 12" to 2' of water in most of it (part of it is in and out of water depending on the rain or tide). "The pond" is visible on the aerial photo as a dark patch and comprises everything between the road and the shell shoreline we'll fish.
Kayakers can easily paddle the whole stretch of shoreline along Pelican Island, but watch out for the large wave from the ships that pass. If you beach your kayak take care to pull it far enough up on the beach to keep that occasional tanker wave (they come 10 minutes later) from washing the kayak away.
If the wind is churning from the north, the primary location could be rough, brown and unfishable. We would then fish the protected water of the Galveston Ship Channel on the east side of the island. We'll either wade in on the Galveston Ship Channel side next to the park or go 1/4 mile back down the road from Seawolf Park to park and use a footpath that leads to the channel. It is just opposite from where the dirt road branches off to the northwest. Unfortunately, transport of kayaks to the shoreline using that footpath would be difficult; wadefishing would be the likely bet.
Recommended Fishing Technique:
Curly tail touts on 1/4 oz jig head work fine, with some favorites being the white/glow with green curly tail, rootbeer with green tail, and lastly, red with white tail. A dead 2" shad (GET'EM WITH A CAST NET BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR WITH COLD WEATHER!) hooked thru the eyes added to the rig can be irresistable. Use short casts with an EXTREMELY SLOW retrieve, bumping on the bottom until you feel a THUNK, a light tap, a feint hint of a wisp of a possibility of extra weight on the line, a feel of being stuck in soft mud, or the feel of it travelling away from you. Smoothly raise the rod tip till you feel the weight of the fish and cross his/her (it's a HER) eyes. They have a hard and boney mouth.
Live baiters use finger mullet, mud minnows or even dead finger mullet, on a number 2/0 kahle hook hooked toward the tail above the anal fin. Delay the set for a count of 20 or wait 2 minutes (depending on your theory) from the tap or thunk, and allow the flatfish to take the line out freely before that blessed Bill Dance hookset. Sunup or a moving tide is critical - outgoing is best. And nothing could be better than a no moon toward the end of the season.
Celestial Stuff:
Sunup or a moving tide is critical - outgoing is best. And nothing could be better than a no moon toward the end of the season. The tides here could not look better. My Garmin GPS describes the day as "excellent" and the only "4 fish day" in November. Sunrise at the park will be exactly 6:38 A.M. and sunset at the park is exactly 5:27 P.M. Moonrise is 7:21 A.M. and moonset is 5:44 P.M. The predicted best times are 11:12 A,M. until 1:12 P.M. (moon over head). Times predicted as "Good" are 5:01 A.M. til 6:01 A.M., and 5:23 P.M. until 6:23 P.M. A 1.5 foot High Tide at 1:22 A.M. drops to a Low Tide of o.o feet at 9:46 A.M., and takes right off again on a great incoming tide for a 1.7 foot High at 6:11 P.M.