Labor Day Weekend Land Cut Fishing

What do ya do to kick-off the Labor Day weekend? Take your favorite banker's family out fishin. It's always fun to go out fishing with the Weatherston's. Bryan and his wife Claire visiting from St. Louis and Travis getting ready to start school at BYU-I it was fun to have a small part in their gathering. It was kind of a tame day for fishing catching several slot specks and a red. 

Travis in the "Talk to the Hand" pose while we get ready to head back home with catches of the day. 

We use live shrimp with "fish bites". The specs were hitting on anything. 

Have a great day of fishin!

Dave Alexander

Land Cut Fishing with Gerry Kizerian

Had a great time fishing the Texas Land Cut last Saturday (July 11, 2015). Gerry Kizerian and his son in law David Francis join us on a hot July Saturday. I decided to go with live shrimp with fish bites for bait and proved to be a winning combination.

Jerry, just like a marathon runner, started off at a slow pace and near the end of day caught the most and biggest fish. David had some nice catches below.

I sure enjoyed hanging out with these guys with a fishin pole in our hands. And boy do we have some fishin stories for the ones that got away!

Y'all have a great day of fishin!

Dave Alexander

dave@justgofishin.com

Pole Benders at the Texas Land Cut

What a great spring break fishing trip to the Texas Land Cut. It has been a while since making this trip but the timing couldn't have been better. However, due to the morning fog and low visibility we had to fly by instruments using our GPS and cruising speed of 38 mph. We weren't sure what to expect for the day since we only had dead shrimp and "fish bites" for bait. 

We ended up with some nice Pole Benders at the land cut catching black drum and redfish on a nice overcast day with a slight breeze. Had a great time fishing with Travis Weatherston and Aaron DeVictoria. The competition started when Travis pulled in the first pole bender at 24 inches. Then I was able to wrestle in a 28 incher while Aaron captured a 26 incher.

Travis Weatherston released this 33" black drum

Later in the day, on my "last cast" fishing pole, I grabbed another pole bender at 27 inches and felt secure in the largest catches for the day. I graciously put my fishing pole away and gave the boys 30 minutes to top me or we'd have to leave. About 10 minutes before the "times up"... Bam! Travis grabs this 33 inch black drum, the largest pole bender of the day.

Aaron DeVictoria released 34" black drum

As soon as Travis lands his drum,.. Bam! Aaron's pole bends and lands a 34 inch black drum tying a 2009 "boat" record with a 34 inch black drum. So each of us on our "Last Cast" caught a 27 inch, 33 inch, and 34 inch black drum. Thanks Manual! Shameless plug for my friend who's built my "Last Cast" rods.

Catching a couple nice 26 inch redfish while we're out there was a little icing on the cake. 

So whats a "pole bender"? Today they're black drum. Their fight is distinctly different then other fish. When you catch one they're slow methodical creatures that bend your pole by using their weight or girth and tall sail like body to put the breaks on from being pulled in towards the boat. Your pole will be bending the whole time you're attempting to land the fish. They're just a lot of fun to catch... and eat as well!

Really had a great time fishing with these guys! We caught several pole benders today and was an all around great day of fishin!

Dave Alexander

dave@justgofishin.com

Spencer and Teddy, Texas Land Cut

Spencer and Dave Alexander

Had a great time with my nephew Spencer Alexander & his friend Teddy Hildebrandt from Grand Junction Colorado. Fun day of fishing with these two clowns catching speckled trout and sheepshead at the Texas Land Cut.

Spencer Alexander

Teddy Hildebrandt

I get the trash fish award catching this ugly dog fish.

Oh yea... one more stingray for the shark fishing event for our Elders Quorum.

Teddy and Spencer selfie

Y'all have a great day of fishin,

Dave Alexander

dave@justgofishin.com

Pelican's and Dolphin at the Texas Land Cut

Had a great time going out to the Land Cut with a couple friends, Jeffery Fife and Alejandro, from Houston. However, this would be a little unusual trip as we ended up feeding the pelicans and dolphins. Things were just starting to heat up after catching a few skip jack. We tossed one of these fish to a pelican that was too lazy to go after his own meal. As it turned out this pelican couldn't even catch a free meal right.

Soon after catching some speckled trout and sheepshead we had a large pod of dolphin crowd in our fishin spot. One of these dolphin seemed to poke his head up close to the back of our boat where we anchored and thank us for tipping them off on all those good fish.

Incredible, I have never seen so many dolphin all at once that swam around our boat as long as they did. Alejandro was starting to act like a Sea World dolphin trainer... hey boy, come here boy. 

Jeffery Fife catching a nice sheepshead off of live shrimp from Clems marina

These sheepshead are actually very good to eat, though they are a pain to fillet. They're very bony but worth the effort. Checkout this guys teeth? These things can at first be a little creepy because they sport front teeth like a human, though they do need some braces. 

We were able to get a few speckled trout in the bucket. Jeffery showing off one of the nice ones. 

This time of year we don't see a lot of redfish but Alejandro showing this undersized red that found his hook. Hey, they have to be 20 inches to keep. Oh well. 

Normally I wouldn't be all that excited about catching a stingray... But hey, this is Shark bait for a Men's young single adult outing this August. This stingray is on ice until our shark event ;o) If we catch a shark this year I'll be thinking of Jeffery's donation to the cause. 

Y'all have a great day of fishin,
Dave Alexander
dave@justgofishin.com

Whiting Lighting at the Texas Land Cut

Finally got an opportunity to get out to the Land Cut this year. With a boat repaired and weather cooperating we made the most of a beautiful day for fishing. With a full moon out the night before we knew it would be a slow and later in day bite. South winds scattered the bate more then we thought it would as well.


The whiting were abundantly available to keep and put in the box. Of all the trips I've made to the Land Cut I don't recall catching so many of these. But we were glad to put something in the box to eat later.

Elder Seegmiller is sporting one of these Whiting caught at the Land Cut. Their meet is white and mild tasting. Whiting are not considered a game fish because they are so abundantly available and they don't grow very big. But they are still great for the grill! 

Whiting are also known as southern king fish or gulf king fish. Whiting are easy to clean... fillet like you would a trout.

While out on the water the winds became more eastern and changed things up for us and almost immediately as we started catching speckled trout and black drum. Aaron DeVictoria caught a nice 17 inch speckled trout and a 25 inch black drum.

Y'all have a great day of fishin,

Dave Alexander

dave@justgofishin.com 

Scott Grundhauser's Black Drum Catch

Nice catch at the Texas Land Cut. This nice Black Drum was caught on live shrimp by Scott Grundhauser.

Y'all have a great day of fishin,
Dave Alexander
dave@justgofishin.com

Trayner's at the Texas Land Cut

In spite of the brown tide we managed to make a few nice black drum catches at the Texas Land Cut. Had a great time with the Trayner's who have been serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). 

Zack who just returned home to McAllen from Chile where he served a two year mission caught this nice 24 inch black drum. He will be headed to BYU soon to continue his studies.

Stephen Trayner and his wife Sandy have been presiding over the LDS mission in Southern Texas. Almost at the end of their three years of serving they will be headed back to Utah where Stephen will continue his law practice. Pictured above is a 27 inch black drum Stephen landed on the boat after a nice struggle eventually tiring out this beast. This black drum ultimately found its freedom as we docked up at home. In attempting to place this fish in our barrel to clean, it made one last attempt at wiggling and it burst out of my hands and landed in the canal making a clean getaway! 

We certainly wish the Trayner's well in their future endeavors we will miss them for the great people they are and great example they have been these last 3 years.

Hope y'all have a great day of fishin,
Dave Alexander
dave@justgofishin.com

Breezy Day at the Texas Land Cut

This is what the weather report said for Wednesday the 29th of May, "Wednesday, A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. Breezy, with a south southeast wind 17 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph."

Very borderline for whether we go fishing or not. We chose to take a chance and go about 7:30am. Arriving 8:45am the Land Cut it was very breezy but certainly tolerable. By 11:00am the winds got breezier and we decided to wrap up the days fishing and get back knowing we'd have 3 foot swells to navigate through. 

Tye Barrett from Alberta Canada managed to catch a nice 22 inch black drum in our brief few hours of fishing. Tye working at Shell Oil part of a work force preparing a new platform will be headed back home soon.

The boat ride home was treacherous most of the way back. Rocky Slough, Baffin Bay areas were especially rough to cross. When we got home I looked up the weather report and this is what it said: "A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 87. Breezy, with a southeast wind around 28 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph." It was certainly a high adventure trip to say the least.

Y'all have a great day of fishin,

Dave Alexander

dave@justgofishin.com 

No Bananas at the Texas Land Cut

Enjoyed a nice day of fishing at the Texas Land Cut with Glen Evans from Springville, Utah and Roger Royce from Austin, Texas. We got started early Wednesday morning with some live shrimp from Clems Marina. 

As we anchored up along the shoreline of our fishing spot we started casting our bait along the shoreline with

hopes of some nice catches. We started to get several small things in our way that kept adding up. We lost three or four fish to broken hooks, lost half dozen leaders to snags on the bottom, lost several fish as we were about to land them on the boat, and caught several undesirables like hard-heads. Roger and I managed to land a few keeper speckled trout but the keeper fish seemed to elude Glen. With further investigation we discovered that Glen had smuggled on board the boat a banana! :o/ Now I don't consider myself a superstitious person, but when it comes to fishing, don't take the chance. Glen had never heard this superstition but he quickly tossed the banana overboard with hopes of breaking the curse.We moved to another location along the Land Cut and quickly began to improve our fishing. Things were getting back to how they should be catching some nice fish for the day.

We certainly had a lot of fun fishin with some friends and catchin some fish. I might have to pick up a banana scanner that will detect and alert me when a banana is entering the boat. 

Y'all have a great day of fishin,

Dave Alexander
dave@justgofishin.com

Idahoans at the Land Cut

Roy and Jerry visiting family from Idaho joined us for a high adventure fishing trip to the Texas Land Cut on Wednesday May 15th. High adventure because of the high winds and waves we had to cut through to get there. We had to wait for a thunderstorm to blow through before we could begin our fishing journey. Delayed by 2 hours we picked up some live shrimp at Clems marina enjoyed a rough boat ride to the land cut. 

First cast of the day David pulled in this nice 27 inch black drum. Great start and a good sign for things to come

 It didn't take long before Joshua landed this nice 23 inch black drum. Our trip was looking good.

Roy and Jerry landed several nice speckled trout. Pictured are some of their best catches. Everyone caught speckled trout for the day and made for a nice fish fry that evening with the family.

The boat trip back was a little harry with gusts up to 25-30 mph. All in the cost of catching fish. Enjoy the video created on this land cut trip.

Dave Alexander

dave@justgofishin.com

March Madness at the Texas Land Cut

Great trip to the Texas Land Cut last Wednesday (3/13/2013). Good friend of mind and "rod smith" took a nice boat ride to the land cut during spring break. This time of year usually doesn't disappoint and it didn't on this day either. Winds were coming from the Northeast which is good for this area (Best when they're Southeast). We managed to pull in some nice catches for the day using live shrimp from Clems Marina.

 Manual Lara polled in this nice 23 inch Black Drum. The Black Drum were in deeper water at the land cut. About 20 feet off the shoreline. Water temp was 65 degrees.

Our redfish catch of the day was 23 1/2 inches. What was a little surprising was the lack of speckled trout this time of year. We caught a few undersized speckled trout but the slots were not around.  

Dave Alexander
dave@justgofishin.com 

Ceaser and Lucy's Land Cut Trip

Check-out these nice catches sent over on a recent fishing trip "Ceaser and Lucy" made to the Land Cut. The Black Drum are runnin right now and can be a lot of fun for anglers. These beauties were displayed at Clems Marina.

Ceaser and Lucy caught this nice 40 inch redfish on a custom fishing pole made by Manual Lara. People know Ceaser and Lucy as the owners of Mosca Boat Manufacturing.

Now thats a Black Drum!

Congratulations on a great day of fishin to Ceaser and Lucy!

Dave Alexander

dave@justgofishin.com