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Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 9:50 am
by Cityfisher
What a nice weekend. Met my brother down at Surfside Saturday. The plan was to take him fishing in the bay with me. We met, started talking, next thing I know we are on the beach sitting by the unusually clean gulf water drinking a few beers and talking away. Never wet a line. lol
He left me at sunset, I spent the night in my truck and had a nice evening by the camp fire and met my son and good friend at sunrise at the bay. Caught 5 redfish, a sheepshead, a flounder and about 5 hardheads all by noon. Son caught his first speckled trout! (19") All mine were under sized except for the flounder at 15". I let him go anyway though. Caught the bigger red on a yellow and white skitterwalk. First time ever catching a red on top water. He came up and just sucked it right in! All else was caught on dead shrimp under a popping cork. A storm rolled in and forced us off the water around 11:45 am.
Had a burger at Kitty's Purple Cow. Then my son took us on a tour where he works for Texas parks and wildlife Sea Center in Lake Jackson. I highly recommend a visit if your down there. It is pretty cool! Sorry I don't have more photos, for some reason I didn't get my camera out to take a lot of pictures, I guess I was to preoccupied being with my family. :)

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 1:01 pm
by kickingback
Good report! Thanks for sharing! When I was growing up there were "Purple Cow" ice cream shops but they are gone now. Did she sell purple ice cream?

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 1:31 pm
by Cityfisher
kickingback wrote:Good report! Thanks for sharing! When I was growing up there were "Purple Cow" ice cream shops but they are gone now. Did she sell purple ice cream?
I'm not sure. I have never really looked at the menu for anything other than a burger after fishing. lol

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 7:33 am
by shoffer
Kitty's Purple Cow is some good groceries. Thanks for the report, Cityfisher.

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 8:30 am
by karstopo
http://www.kittyspurplecow.com/

Good post kayak trip burger spot it is.

Thanks for the report.

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 11:30 am
by Ron Mc
good report and nice fish - thanks for the photos

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 1:29 pm
by imaoldmanyoungsalt
Speaking of eating spots. There was a sandwich shop I stopped at on the way from Corpus Christi to Copano bay that I met my guide at once and I can't locate it now. It was what I remember as an old house turned diner at a remote intersection. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I can't remember the name or exact location but dang it was good sandwiches!

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Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 5:43 am
by CRAWDADDY
It may be Croffett's, but I think it got wiped out from Harvey. Not sure if the rebuilt in another location, but it was completely gone a few months after Harvey

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Wed Aug 07, 2019 7:05 am
by bones72
Sounds like an awesome weekend. Heading down with my youngest sometime soon before he heads off to college.

Re: RE: Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 9:23 am
by imaoldmanyoungsalt
CRAWDADDY wrote:It may be Croffett's, but I think it got wiped out from Harvey. Not sure if the rebuilt in another location, but it was completely gone a few months after Harvey
If that was it I hope it rebuilt because it really was the best sandwiches I've ever had and they were huge! We need places like that.

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Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 1:25 pm
by impulse
To the OP, thanks for the excellent report and information.

I like looking at fish pics as much as the next guy.

But I love reading good info about how, where, and when you caught 'em. Even better if there's info about eateries, good food and launch areas. Your post is gold!

On an aside, can you ask your son how much it costs the Sea Center to raise and stock a fingerling trout or red into Texas waters? And what percentage of Texas caught trout and reds are now stocked fish? I'm trying to understand the numbers behind the "Keep 5" law.

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Sat Aug 10, 2019 9:05 pm
by Djrodeo
Man I was down on the beach at Surfside on Monday. Fished the surf with unusually flat surf and went through a quart of live shrimp catching specks and etc. Nothing to keep, but it sure was a ton of fun catching them!

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:13 pm
by Cityfisher
impulse wrote:To the OP, thanks for the excellent report and information.

I like looking at fish pics as much as the next guy.

But I love reading good info about how, where, and when you caught 'em. Even better if there's info about eateries, good food and launch areas. Your post is gold!

On an aside, can you ask your son how much it costs the Sea Center to raise and stock a fingerling trout or red into Texas waters? And what percentage of Texas caught trout and reds are now stocked fish? I'm trying to understand the numbers behind the "Keep 5" law.
That's a question I doubt will get an answer from my son about. I do know that they release them when they reach a certain size. Very small. I can't remember the size he told me but I was very surprised it was that small. I want to say 1 mil. All I know is there were some small tanks with a lot of small fry in them they were about to release last week. They were so small it looked like a tank of water with a million sand particles swimming around. They have figured out that any bigger and the survival rate is much less because they get used to being in a captive environment.
My point is they might as well be wild if they survive and reach adulthood.
Also an interesting fact, Red Drum and flounder can be released in any body of water regardless of where the parents came from, while speckled trout offspring have a much bigger survival rate if they are released back into the same bay the brooders were caught from. He was showing me the big breeding tanks and only the trout had the locations labeled on them.
As far as the speckled trout limit being changed to 5 this year, I don't know but I've read that it may be to promote more trophy size trout opportunities here on the upper coast than anything else. Who knows, Next time I talk to him I'll have to pick his brain about that! :)

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:42 am
by Ron Mc
I've always though multiple spots on redfish were a mark of hatchery fish, because of the recessive genetics.
When I searched, I found out different. Redfish are born without spots, and as they go bull, they'll be down to just the pair of eye spots, regardless of how many they had along the way.

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:24 am
by Cityfisher
Ron Mc wrote:I've always though multiple spots on redfish were a mark of hatchery fish, because of the recessive genetics.
When I searched, I found out different. Redfish are born without spots, and as they go bull, they'll be down to just the pair of eye spots, regardless of how many they had along the way.
I saw several in the breeding tanks with multiple spots on them. They were not giant ones though, maybe 30" or so. Very cool looking. And now that you mention that, the really big ones I saw there did only have one spot.

Another fun fact, they will start drumming when they get in the mood for spawning and my son said it can get so loud he can hear them over the noise of all the water pumps running! lol

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 12:16 pm
by Ron Mc
way cool - made me laugh, too - we need a like button

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 12:48 pm
by karstopo
Yes, the five trout state wide topic sent another local forum into orbit and got a thread or two deleted.

Like I said there and will say here, I’d still fish if it was all mandated catch and release. It’s nice to keep a few, but the fun is in the hunt. No one here, certainly no one on the threads, has to rely on the regular consumption of fish flesh to make ends meet so I can’t get the hubbub about the lowered limits. It’s especially weird to me how some of the guys that fish a bunch, Post a bunch of dead trout photos, are the ones crying the most over the lower limits. How much trout can you eat for Pete’s sake.

Most of the lower/middle coast guides publicly say the 5 trout limit has been good for them, but some people on the upper coast can’t stand the idea of lowering the limit, done deal that it is.

Good information on the hatchery fish. Fascinating about trout needing to be released back into their home waters and the size of the released fry. Any information shared from the Sea Center is greatly appreciated.

Re: Nice weekend at Surfside

Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 1:56 pm
by Ron Mc
I can't even imagine keeping more than 5 trout, but then I never eat frozen fish -
- only fresh from the icewater bowl
Image and as we've discussed before, if you bring up killing fish on many fly fishing forums, it becomes another kind of row,
where fish "personality" gets rated higher than people.
Though I'll admit it's easy to anthropormophize redfish, because no two behave quite the same on the end of your line, and they have a way of giving you the once-over with their eyes.
Image