We launched about 6am from Quintana beach and started heading seaward, trolling rattle traps and big spinner baits. No bites for about the first 3 miles, and the conditions started getting rough, so we turned around and headed landward.
On the way back, we trolled the color change/current line and Bo caught a ribbonfish. Around mile 2, we ran into a big school of spanish with birds working over them. They were blowing up on bait and jumping out of the water; it was a pretty neat sight. They were eating little glass minnows, about an inch long and didn't seem to want anything in my tackle box. We followed the school for quite a while and finally we each picked up one, his on a spoon and mine on a white crappie jig, before they dispersed. I'm wondering if they would have been interested in a clouser minnow, about a number 8 size, in white/gray. Bonus points: I managed to accidentally lasso a seagull
. Trolling back along the foam line I got one powerful run on my rattletrap, for about five seconds
, and Bo managed to catch a catfish on his topwater, go figure 
.Back at the end of the jetty, we tossed some bait on bottom, hoping to pick up a couple extra fish for dinner. The jetties were completely covered up with bait-stealer sized croakers, but we kept at it and picked up a little blufish and a couple sandtrout to go with our spanish from earlier.
We trolled around the jetty a while with no results and then headed back in.
I cooked the fish that night and, surprisingly, the bluefish was the tastiest of the bunch.
Results:
~12 hours on the water
14 miles covered
2 spanish mackerel
1 bluefish
2 sand trout
1 strong run from a mystery fish
1 angry seagull
2 worn out dudes
Conclusion:
It seems like the big pelagic species aren't quite here yet, or at least we didn't encounter them. Schools of spanish mackerel and bluefish are here but they are very picky and eating only small, clear minnows.