Today, I went fishing off the Quintana jetty near Freeport. I keep forgetting the turnoff (SH 523) so the drive takes an extra 20 Minutes. I bought both live shrimp and fresh mullet. The shrimp were to target whatever might be biting while the mullet were going to be used specifically for redfish. It was foggy which was not something that I was expecting though the sun was still able to provide some warmth. During the winter it's better to go in the afternoon in hopes that the fish will become more active with the increasing warmth. This is especially true if there are rocks (that's what a jetty is!) or a shallow flat of mud bottom, the darker colors are able to capture more heat.

The operator of the bait camp told me that the morning's catch had been some pompano and whiting. Pompano is great tablefare so I was hopeful. Of course, the morning had featured an incoming tide while the afternoon would have an outgoing one and fishing is generally better on an incoming tide rather than an outgoing one. Still, my plan all along had been to take advantage of the warming afternoon sun. I left the bait camp and drove to the intracoastal canal hoping that here the water would remain in its incoming mode because inland waters will have delayed tide action. Nothing here so I continued on to the Quintana Park jetty; the jetty stabilizes the mouth of the Brazos River. A fellow coming off the jetty related that fishing was slow though he'd managed to get a couple of sheepshead

I continued down the jetty to about 50 yards from the shore line where I threw out a couple of lines. Fresh mullet was soaked on the bottom while live shrimp was fished under a popping cork. No bites though I did break a rod when the bottom soaking line's hook got fouled amongst the rocks. All fairly discouraging. Finally, a sheepshead struck the live shrimp and I landed an 18 incher. As the day progressed I landed 4 more to make for a limit ranging in size from 15 to 18 inches. All were caught very close to the rocks on a small treble hook. Sheepshead are difficult to clean but make great table fare. It takes a sizable sheepshead to get a worthy fillet and my catch was marginal in this regard. The Texas legal size is 12 inches.

Here is a link to a picture of a sheepshead though it fails to show its prominent dorsal fin that cause some inexperienced fishermen to call them angel fish.

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