By Capt. Mike Williams
When people get old they have take a lot of medicine for one thing or another. Sometimes the medicine can make a person have bad dreams at night, but some nights those same medicines might produce a good dream. A while, back I had a great dream that lasted all night until I woke up the next morning. I could see this dream very clearly and it all had started early one morning about 3 am, just before Father’s Day in mid June. I was on the Galveston side waiting for the Bolivar ferry; it was cool, the wind was light and variable out of the north with just a little ground fog. The line to the ferry was short. Finally it came and I went across over to Bolivar. The ferry ride is always a little different at night, especially when it is calm with little wind. The distant line of lights on the other side stood bright, with a twinkle here and there.

Just before the ferry bumped the Bolivar ramp, I put the cap on my coffee thermos and started my truck. They drop the chains and I was the first one off the ferry and up Highway 87 I went. I turn on the radio waiting for the fishing report, but it was still a little early. After about 15 minutes, I had gone a pretty good ways, already passing through Crystal Beach. Off in the distance, I could see bright lights, reminding me of Buckees or maybe a small city. As I got closer, it was the lights of brightly lit bridge, reminding me of the bridge at Surfside, Texas. As I approach the base of the bridge, I saw a small green sign that said Rollover Pass. Near the top of the bridge, I could see across the fish pass and over to the other side; there were cars, many cars, vans and campers everywhere and a lot people were walking out to this bait camp as the base a very well lit pier…no, make that a jetty. As I approach the base of the bridge, I slowed and turned off to the right of highway 87.

Driving down a short paved road, I came to a small building with a guard and gate. Above the small building, there was a big sign that said “Rollover Pass State Park”, and under that it had the fees. All I wanted to do was go fishing. According to the sign, it cost ten dollars to park and ten dollars to go on the pier (good for 24 hours). I paid the guard 20 bucks, he opened the gate and I went into the park. I was lucky, some guy with his kids was leaving a parking spot right at the base of the jetty. I parked, grabbed my fishing gear, lunch and thermos, and headed toward the bait camp. I was happy to see all the this bait camp had to offer, I mean this place was really nice, quality tackle, a lot of different kinds fresh and live natural baits. For me, the best part was their hamburgers, hotdogs and things to munch on. I sat down, ordered a burger, fries and drink to bulk up for a hard day of fishing. After finishing my burger breakfast, I grabbed all my junk and headed out the door onto the base of the jetty.

The first thing I noticed about this jetty was that it was built by a fisherman; the jetty rocks were a perfect height for fishing. On the top of the jetty rocks, there was a 6 foot thick layer of concrete, about 20 feet wide. The surface was flat as a pancake and had big rails that ran down the entire length of the jetty. The rails were not wood nor medal; they looked very sturdy and durable like some new space age plastic. About every 30 yards, there were big bright lights and that hung over the pier and water. These lights were big and bright, so fishermen could see…plus the bigger brighter lights made fishing a lot better for trout at night.

I was old and was walking slowly, just trying to take everything in. I could see a long ways down the well lit rocks, but i could not see the end. People were passing me up pulling red wagons full of tackle and live bait buckets full of live shrimp and croakers. A lot of the fishermen had their children with them and some of the children looked pretty young giggling and laughing. There were also a lot pro trout fishermen under lights and I could tell they were catching trout, good trout in the 2 to 5 pound class. It looked like most of the trout pros were throwing speck rigs- trout tails rigged in tandem, and one guy was throwing a 60 m shp mirrolure in the moving outgoing tide. Another pro had a nice stringer of trout tried off in the water and I noticed he was working chartreuse and pearl colored tails. I did not stop, however, I wanted to go all the way to the end just to see what i could see. I walked along and I noticed one guy had a big bull red he was letting go, it looked to me about 30 pounds and in the 40 inch class. I asked him, “how’s the fishing,” and his reply was “I’ve been here since midnight and that’s my fifth big red, and that last one was the smallest one.” I went on, passing many fishermen and all were catching fish and having fun with their families, buddies, and friends. I could finally see the end as the eastern sky started to light up a little. I remembered about 50 years ago when I fished a wooden pier almost in the same location. And, I remembered a time in the year 2015 when they wanted to close down this great fish pass, but they never did and decided to make Rollover a state park instead.

I got to the end just about the time the sun was coming up. There were two men fishing right on the end, and one was fighting a big fish that was really peeling off line. The big fish was moving eastbound when it finally surfaced. As it jumped, the man screamed, “a big tarpon.” I decided to watch, to see if he could land such a great fish off the rocks.

I set my tackle box and small cooler down, tied on a 51m704 Texas Chicken MirrOlure, and made a cast out across the flat emerald green gulf. It was a good cast and I started my retrieve with a fast twitching of the rod tip. At the top of the third pull, my rod horse shoe’d and line ripped off the Shimano 200. This fish was going downtown. In my brain, I knew this fish was a big trout, a real big trout, the kind of trout people dream about in the 10 to 12 pound class. Then the guy next to me started screaming at me, “whatcha got, whatcha got ???????” I woke up and realized my dream of catching that giant trout was just a dream.