We started out one man short on the trip so Barry and myself taking it to the limit. with the extra space we can fish hard !
These were shot while under power during early evening on Friday , except for a stop on top of "The Claypiles" .
This trip to "The Flower Gardens" is about 3 1/2 hours with good seas and it was a little choppy most of the way , so i figure it took around 5 1/2 hours moving with one stop to fish a rig in 200 feet on the other side of the claypiles
The Houston / Galveston ship channel entrance has a service area for incoming ships @ 40 mile out , they must anchor and wait 48 t0 72 hours before the Coast Guard allows them to the staging area @ 20 miles , that is if they do not need to be boarded and inspected.
The 40 mile service area.
another angle.
Got another one out about 5 miles.
Now at 90 miles there is not much around at this time and the sun is going down . We have been running about 4 hours and still got 30 miles to target .
We stop at a rig not far from the gardens ,Barry hooks a good snapper , but there out of season and its back into the water for this 17 pounder. his lucky day !!!!!
As we approach within 10 miles of our buoy , the sunset's are getting way to good to pass up a few shots.
The hard part is over for now , We still need to find the top of the garden's and a little white buoy to tie off to for the night in the middle of the Gulf , nothing for a stepper , yea !
There was no moon that night but we got the buoy within 5 minunits after the arrival alarm sounded , 119 miles first day .
We will pick up again tomorrow with the first night , we just want to get some rest before for fishing tonight.
and that the way it is !
cheers,
.bb
Very educational post. I had no idea about the service area or that ships had to wait that long out in the gulf before they could come into the Houston Ship Channel.
ReplyDeleteThat is some huge snapper your friend caught, too bad it is off season. Nice picture of the sunset.
Thanks MsBelinda ,
ReplyDeleteyep , there is a mandatory wait in the service area , before the staging area where your pilot boat brings your port captain out to take the ship into the channel. at least our gov is doing a good job protecting the 4th largest port in the US.
Yea really planed on frying that snapper that night for dinner , but 2 to 3 foot sea's no way on a 32' tournament sport fisher , You just can't bring snapper back to Texas mainland after August 15th ,but you can eat them out in federal waters .and we have done this many times over the years. talk about fresh fish !
I have 2 more posts to finish this trip , stay tuned .
cheers .
.bb
BEW T FULL!!!
ReplyDelete