I'm heading down to Galveston to camp, fish, and drink beer with my brother in a couple of weeks. We're staying at the state park and will fish in the surf and bay at the park. We may head to San Luis pass but we would rather not fish piers. Are there better surf fishing spots I should check out?

I'd like to support a local tackle shop rather than giving my Academy or Amazon my money. Any suggestions on some good places to grab some gear?

Most of my fishing is in Colorado for trout on micro rigs. That said, I do have some rod and reels that I've picked up and respooled with braid. I need some tackle and all the tips y'all can share!

Hell yeah! Sounds like a great time.

If you just want to catch fish, a double drop leader with two hooks and shrimp with a heavy pyramid weight is hard to beat. You might catch 3" croaker, 3" hard heads, or 25" redfish. Just depends on what is swimming by. We can certainly discuss more advanced options, but the catching decreases as the technical fishing increases. Gotta know what you want to give you better advice.

Most any fish will do. We went a couple years ago and only caught catfish and lady fish, we had a blast. Bonus points if we can keep and eat some!
I'm taking my cast net for bait but don't mind buying some shrimp.
My rods can throw 1/4-3/4oz and 1/2-2oz.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Hell yeah! Sounds like a great time.

If you just want to catch fish, a double drop leader with two hooks and shrimp with a heavy pyramid weight is hard to beat. You might catch 3" croaker, 3" hard heads, or 25" redfish. Just depends on what is swimming by. We can certainly discuss more advanced options, but the catching decreases as the technical fishing increases. Gotta know what you want to give you better advice.

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If you drop a 12" leader on the bottom of that double drop rig and keep tension on the line, you keep the bait farther off the bottom and catch fewer hardheads. That gives the croaker and sand trout a better shot at it. Honestly, fishing that way from a pier is more effective than trying to do it from the surf. This time of year, the surf is still likely to be pretty cold, with limited action. If you manage to catch a stretch of warm sunny weather, you may be better fishing the bay side for reds and trout cruising the sunwarmed water in the shallows.

Throw either one of these in the slack-water between the sandbars and you will catch fish. Another strategy is look on google maps and see if you can locate a trough or a deep spot that you can wade to safely.

If yall decide to get out on the boat let me know and I can get yall on the calendar. I can launch right there to meet yall.