Capt. “Wild” Bill Caldwell and Jason Armstrong teamed up to catch the heaviest shark and win the Sharp Tooth Shootout shark tournament held Aug. 5-6 out of Port O’Connor.
Fishing in Port O’Connor kicked into high gear this past weekend, with good numbers of trout, flounder and even king mackerel being caught. Flounder giggers have been smoking some pretty nice flounder along the bay shorelines of Pringle and Contee lakes.
The jetties have been good for reds and trout by drifting live shrimp or finger mullet with a small split shot along deep pockets in the rocks. By the way, never underestimate the power of live or fresh dead mullet at the jetties or in the bays. Trout, reds and flounder will eat them 24/7.
Lots of kingfish are being caught anywhere from 6 to 12 miles off the Port O’Connor jetties. Most are hitting drifted ribbon fish in 40 to 60 feet of water. The king fish leader in the CCA STAR tourney weighs 62.13 pounds and was caught out of Freeport.
Catches of ling have been surprisingly slow. I talked with one group of fishermen that hit a number of rigs, anywhere from 8 to 30 miles off the jetties, and caught three ling. The heaviest weighed about 45 pounds. They caught those on ribbon fish free-lined 6 feet under balloons. So far the only entry in the CCA STAR ling category weighs 60.7 pounds.
Team Wild Bill wins Sharp Tooth Shootout shark tourney in Port O’Connor
Capt. “Wild” Bill Caldwell and Jason Armstrong teamed up to catch the heaviest shark and win the Sharp Tooth Shootout shark tournament held Aug. 5-6 out of Port O’Connor.
Their winning catch was a finetooth shark weighing 155.9 pounds. That was good enough for first place in the heaviest shark division. They also won the team event with the two heaviest sharks with a total weight of 272.7 pounds. During the tourney they caught three sharks weighing 155.9, 116.8 and 89 pounds. But get this – Armstrong’s big shark is a pending state record. The second place team weighed in two sharks weighing 156.4. Third place was 88.7. The winner of last year’s Sharp Tooth Shootout was a 258-pound tiger shark.
CCA STAR tourney tagged reds up for grabs
There are only two confirmed redfish winners on the STAR scoreboard, so that leaves three truck, boat, motor and trailer prizes available to win in the redfish division. Over 50 tagged redfish are still out there swimming. The leader in the big trout division on the middle Texas coast is a 9.1 pounder. Heaviest sheepshead is 10.5 pounds, best flounder is 6.13 and the leading gafftop is 7.8 pounds. The STAR tourney doesn’t end until Sept. 5 at 5 p.m.
July 4th weekend keeps game wardens busy
Texas Game Wardens had their hands full over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Wardens responded to 12 drowning fatalities and two near drownings, 34 boating accidents that resulted in one fatality and eight serious injuries, filed 57 cases for boating and driving while intoxicated, and made 55 other arrests. By the time they closed the books on the three-day affair, wardens had made contact with more than 56,000 boaters onboard 16,000 vessels.
Want to get in on the fish catching action? Give us a call and book a trip today with Capt. Robert Sloan. Call 409-782-6796, email – sloan288@aol.com or go to www.luckystrikeguide.com.
