< Previous30 COASTMONTHLY.COM / August 2018FishingGalveston is home to three large fish-ing piers, the two others being 61st Street Fishing Pier, 6101 Seawall Blvd., and Seawolf Park on Pelican Island. Open 24/7, the piers offer anglers something between surf fishing, where reach from the beach into the Gulf of Mexico is limited, and a boat trip into the Gulf. The Galveston Fishing Pier was built in 1971 and attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.Just 100 yards off the beach, the waters are teeming with life. Depending on the time of year, what a person can catch off the pier changes. In late June, the speckled trout were plentiful, an attendant minding the entrance to the pier said.The crowds at Galveston Fishing Pier are eclectic. In the first 100 yards or so, not too far from the gift shop and second-story restaurant Jimmy’s on the Pier, families with small children and young couples on dates lined either side of the walkway. In one spot, a family had set up a Disney Princess tent, where two young girls played while dad casted into the night.Farther down, where the water gets deeper, the gear on the pier gets more serious, and more sophisticated. There are heavy duty rods that can pull up big fish — sharks and rays and bull reds. To com-bat the wind, the smart angler has a heavy lead weight at the bottom of his line, to better stick in the mud and keep the bait where fish find it.There are things frequent pier anglers know to do — adaptations made for the pier ecosystem.Marcio Mendoza was waiting out the wind at the extreme end of the pier’s T-head, and spending some time cutting up tangled fishing line he’d pulled up from the water. It’s a consequence of fishing around more amateur anglers, he said.“The tourists come out here with smaller rods and it will get cut off and they’ll leave stuff in the water,” he said. “We’ll end up pulling it up.”Mendoza called himself a catch-and-re-Anglers gather closely while fishing off the Galveston Fishing Pier. People fishing together tend to help each other when someone gets a large catch or when lines get crossed. COASTMONTHLY.COM / August 2018 31lease fisherman. He throws back 80 percent of what he catches, he said. He’s in it for the sport — and maybe a few likes on Face-book. He has caught 8-foot sharks off the pier before, he said.There’s an appeal to showing off, he said.“I think it gives the pier owners a bit more business,” Mendoza said. “People see us catch big fish and they’re like, ‘I wanna catch the big fish.’”Others are definitely there for the meal.Anthony Hill traveled from Houston with his brother-in-law and managed to pull a shark in early in the night. He spent a few minutes imagining how he would cook up the fillets and hoping he might catch some more before heading back home, he said.“Everything comes through here,” Hill said, gesturing toward the water. Hill has been going to the pier since he was young, and was happy to see it rebuilt to its former glory, he said.Like other beach-side structures in Galves-ton, the pier was severely damaged in 2008 as Hurricane Ike rolled over the island. Its current owners, Jimmy and Kelli McClure, bought it just a few months before the storm. They fully rebuilt it in 2014.Although the pier is open 24 hours a day, with every pass expiring at 5 a.m., some of the most dedicated (read: obsessed) anglers will spend the better part of their weekends under the sun and over the sea.For others, the experience is more fleeting. John Avila had gone to the pier on Friday evening, after getting off work at a mainland refinery. He was with his wife and step-daughter, and was still wearing his coveralls from the plant. Being with his family reminded him of the times he went deep-sea fishing with his grandfather, he said.The pier is a little easier to get to than a charter boat.“I’m out here every chance I get,” he said. “I love to fish — just the thrill waiting for that bite.” Troy Snyder kisses a catfish before releasing it back into the Gulf at the Galveston Fishing Pier. Pier anglers have caught large bull red fish, sting-rays, sharks and plenty of hardheads. COASTMONTHLY.COM / August 2018 35FishingA beloved Blazer BayBayou Vista couple shares love of water on ultimate fishing boatStory by Matt deGrood Photos by Kelsey WallingMost days, you can find Eric and Tonia Theriot on their new Blazer Bay boat, the envy of their fishing commu-nity in Bayou Vista.The Theriots have been trying to put 20 engine hours on the boat so they can drop it off for service. But that’s no problem for this fishing, rock ’n’ roll-loving duo.The two have been fishing and boating across Texas for many years. Eric Theriot grew up fishing in southern Louisiana and later in his youth in Omega Bay.The two have ventured down to Rockport for about 20 years to go out with a local fishing guide, Blake Muirhead.But their dedication to life on the water changed about two years ago when they moved to their Bayou Vista home, Eric Theriot said.“When we first moved to the house, we got a smaller boat and then this one about four months ago,” he said.The Theriots now get plenty of compli-ments about their decked-out Blazer Bay 2420 GTS, they say.From a GPS-equipped trolling motor to a power pole anchor, the boat has every-thing it needs to get on and stay on the fish, he said.The 24-foot boat holds nearly 80 gallons of fuel, can reach speeds of 55 mph and can carry up to eight people.(Left) Eric Theriot rides through a Bayou Vista channel to reach West Galveston Bay. Theriot and his wife, Tonia, frequently take their Blazer Bay boat out to fish and enjoy the water.36 COASTMONTHLY.COM / August 2018Fishing“It allows us to go out farther, faster and it can handle rougher waters,” he said.The Blazer Bay coasts along silently as Eric Theriot leaves their Bayou Vista home on a July day — the area is a no wake zone — and carefully passes under a railroad bridge before he hits the gas.It doesn’t take too long after that be-fore the boat is settled, with the help of the power pole, alongside the edge of the Intracoastal Waterway and Eric is out wade fishing.“I love any kind of fishing,” he said. “Wade fishing is especially fun. We’ll get going, throw the anchor out, and everyone will notice that Eric is gone.”The Theriots often stay out in the areas around Galveston County in pursuit of (Clockwise from right) Eric and Tonia Theriot cruise in their boat on Offatts Bayou after a fast trip from Bayou Vista. A small storage space on the boat holds life jackets, rope and fishing necessities. The Blazer Bay features a Lowrance Elite fish finder. COASTMONTHLY.COM / August 2018 37redfish, flounder and speckled trout, among others, he said.While they have been fishing for years, they’re still getting a feel for the areas around Galveston County and their boat, Eric said.“There are a lot of reefs that can mess up your boat if you don’t know how to get to places,” he said. “You can’t just get in and ride.”But it’s never a chore for the Theriots, who just love being out on the water, they said.“What I’m realizing even more now is that the boat is something that my wife and I en-joy together,” he said. “Lots of guys don’t feel the same about boating. But we do every-thing together. We bought the boat together and we love it together.” 38 COASTMONTHLY.COM / August 2018 COASTMONTHLY.COM / August 2018 39FishingPlenty of fish in the sea?Quotas and bag limits divide commercial and recreational anglersStory by Marissa Barnett Photos by Jennifer ReynoldsJack and Katie Brown bought their boat, Ms. Katie B, in 2015, just before the start of the offshore fishing sea-son. That year, the season was just three days, June 1-3, and the weather was uncooperative.The couple and friends braved the tall swells to get in a few days of deep-sea fish-ing on the new boat. But it seemed unfair, Jack Brown said.This year is different. For the first time in at least five years, anglers like the Browns can go offshore fishing late into the summer. In the first month of the season, Brown had gone out three times on nice, flat days, he said. He’s hoping to get at least 10 days in by the season’s close, which depends on quotas but could be mid-August, he said.“I’ll fish for pretty much anything that will bite my hook and drag my line,” Brown said. “I get a thrill out of hearing that reel singing.”But red snapper is the Gulf’s delicacy and one of the best to reel in, he said.After years of short recreational seasons and infighting between people who fish for fun and those who fish for a living, the National Marine Fisheries Service approved a plan to give the state a turn at managing the offshore red snapper fishery.Under its management, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department extended the federal season to 82 days, although it could be cut shorter if the state finds the recreational River Feldman unloads snapper from the hold of the vessel Falcon at Katie’s Sea-food Market in Galveston.Next >