Having fished all over the U.S., Canada, Hawaii and Mexico, my favorite spot still remains the Gulf side of Galveston’s South Jetty!  As I remember back over the years, I must have tried over 200 times to get to this secret spot and I know that I was successful well over a hundred of those.  Having posted several stories of my adventures at the secret place, I thought it would be good to summarize and catalog them, here goes!

My first stop at this place was in 1963, see my post “[The Last Click]”, and who knew, that this spot would be my speckled trout catching place for over 50 years!  Now I know why we stopped that fateful morning, one was to judge my salt water fishing ability, but the second, most important, was to judge my aversion, pro or con, to seasickness.  Yes, I am averted towards seasickness, many times I have “trolled” for kingfish, going out or coming back from an adventure offshore, but never inshore in my search for speckled trout or redfish.

Another memorable trip was with my dad and we loaded up on speckled trout, see “[Jetty Pros]”.  We filled a cooler with specks and had to come in because we didn’t have anyplace to put them, and yes, they were still biting when we left.

Or the time Jim Buck and I loaded a bigger cooler with sheepshead, see my post  “[Making Do]”, and sold them at the local fish market for $.30 per pound.

Another time, I took Norman Shelter with me, my post [“Gut Check Time”] and we got caught in some of the largest rollers we’d ever seen!

On another trip to my spot, Brad’s rod, reel, hook, line and sinker (with flounder attached), went bouncing over the deck, I caught it just before it went overboard and one of my friends yelled across at me, “[Good Hands]”!

Suzanne even visited the spot with me and caught a very nice redfish, “[The Big Red]”.  The events afterwards are still talked about when the family gets together.

Finally, one of my last trips to the secret spot was with Carl Parkinson, a long time employee and neighbor of mine, when I hooked and landed a huge trout, see the post “[I’m Throwin’ Her Back]”.  Thinking of the big ones that I kept, I released it so it could spawn again and again.

For all those years, it’s a funny thing, but I never saw my friend, or any of his family, fishing at this spot again, thinking back, I never saw anyone fishing at this spot!