Matagorda, Aug 5-7
Since nobody else is going to post a report I'll get things started.
Steve, Jeff, Santos, & Ali arrived on the beach about 30 minutes behind Me & Jeff. We waited for them at 3 mile cut and then convoyed down the beach in search of a good fishing and camping spot. We stopped about 10 miles down because pelicans were divebombing a school of bait. After several empty casts I threw my net on a menhaden bait ball. We completely filled up a cooler and left the rest on the beach for Steve's dogs to eat.
There was a lot of surface activity so we rushed to get lines out. I immediately caught a nice spanish mackeral. After that we caught a variety of small sharks (blacktip, sand, sharpnose, bonnethead, and a hammerhead). It got dark and we continued to fish and set up camp. Many, many beers and some whiskey later we heard the sweet sound of a long steady run. I grabbed the rod and felt a very heavy fish. It made a long continuous run and then stopped dead in the water. I knew then it was a big stingray. Eventually I worked it into knee deep water and that is when the fun began. Jeff W. & Santo began unloading on it with a .45 and .410 shotgun. Somebody also broke a flounder gig off in it's head. I'm really not sure how effective this was but eventually we beached it. I passed out a short time later. The tide came up into camp and ruined my new lantern.
The surf was still calm and clear on saturday morning. The least hung-over person (Jeff U.) immediately caught a nice 17" trout. I was disappointed that there weren't more trout. The surf rods were a little more productive with the occaisional spanish being landed between small sharks. Around noon Jeff W. and I went for a drive to get ice. We stopped to watch a school of jacks crushing menhaden on the beach. Several people were hooked up with jacks. A little farther down we stopped at another school of fish and I caught a nice spanish on a silver spoon. We returned to camp and sat under the shade in preparation for another night of fishing.
Late in the afternoon we had a short run on a large piece of stingray that I had kayaked 200-250 yards off the beach. Santos reeled in a much smaller piece of ray. It was a clean bite and there was no bite radius to give an indication of size. Minutes later another rod goes off and Steve gets to it first. Excitement soon turns into boredom as it becomes obvious that it is another large ray. This one was accidentally broken off after about an hour. Not much happened after that. Most people retired early. The nice breeze that we had all weekend suddenly died early sunday morning and the mosquitos had free reign. I got up and made coffee. Steve and Jeff W. who were also sleeping outside were already up. I caught a medium size black drum before the sun came up.
When the sun came up sunday morning, there was a school of menhaden along the beach as far as you could see in both directions. Jacks moved in and started busting the bait. Steve was the first to hook up followed by me and then jeff. My fish was gut hooked so I kept it for bait and Jeff's fish could not be revived so it also went in the cooler. After breakfast we packed up and left the beach.
Steve, Jeff, Santos, & Ali arrived on the beach about 30 minutes behind Me & Jeff. We waited for them at 3 mile cut and then convoyed down the beach in search of a good fishing and camping spot. We stopped about 10 miles down because pelicans were divebombing a school of bait. After several empty casts I threw my net on a menhaden bait ball. We completely filled up a cooler and left the rest on the beach for Steve's dogs to eat.
There was a lot of surface activity so we rushed to get lines out. I immediately caught a nice spanish mackeral. After that we caught a variety of small sharks (blacktip, sand, sharpnose, bonnethead, and a hammerhead). It got dark and we continued to fish and set up camp. Many, many beers and some whiskey later we heard the sweet sound of a long steady run. I grabbed the rod and felt a very heavy fish. It made a long continuous run and then stopped dead in the water. I knew then it was a big stingray. Eventually I worked it into knee deep water and that is when the fun began. Jeff W. & Santo began unloading on it with a .45 and .410 shotgun. Somebody also broke a flounder gig off in it's head. I'm really not sure how effective this was but eventually we beached it. I passed out a short time later. The tide came up into camp and ruined my new lantern.
The surf was still calm and clear on saturday morning. The least hung-over person (Jeff U.) immediately caught a nice 17" trout. I was disappointed that there weren't more trout. The surf rods were a little more productive with the occaisional spanish being landed between small sharks. Around noon Jeff W. and I went for a drive to get ice. We stopped to watch a school of jacks crushing menhaden on the beach. Several people were hooked up with jacks. A little farther down we stopped at another school of fish and I caught a nice spanish on a silver spoon. We returned to camp and sat under the shade in preparation for another night of fishing.
Late in the afternoon we had a short run on a large piece of stingray that I had kayaked 200-250 yards off the beach. Santos reeled in a much smaller piece of ray. It was a clean bite and there was no bite radius to give an indication of size. Minutes later another rod goes off and Steve gets to it first. Excitement soon turns into boredom as it becomes obvious that it is another large ray. This one was accidentally broken off after about an hour. Not much happened after that. Most people retired early. The nice breeze that we had all weekend suddenly died early sunday morning and the mosquitos had free reign. I got up and made coffee. Steve and Jeff W. who were also sleeping outside were already up. I caught a medium size black drum before the sun came up.
When the sun came up sunday morning, there was a school of menhaden along the beach as far as you could see in both directions. Jacks moved in and started busting the bait. Steve was the first to hook up followed by me and then jeff. My fish was gut hooked so I kept it for bait and Jeff's fish could not be revived so it also went in the cooler. After breakfast we packed up and left the beach.
posted by brian | 6:09 PM
4 Comments:
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We caught literally hundreds of small sharks 10 to 14 inches in length, they were the hardheads of this particular trip. We also caugh probably a dozen sharks that were about 2 foot or so.
observations:
Fighting a Jack on light tackle is a blast, and Spanish Mackeral is delicious!
In all my trips to the coast I've never seen conditions like we had last weekend. We caught a wide variety of fish and pup sharks.
The spanish were delicious. I hope they freeze well. I'm going to try the stingray next.
We should call the 800 # above before our next trip.
Wow. I'm so glad there's idiots like you all to murder our wildlife with no regard what soever. Do all of us civilized people a favor and stay at your meaningless job and not rise to better educate yourself. For heaven's sake, God made the animals of this world in the same light as us and they should be treated that way, not beaten with a stick while you're drunk. Be a better person than that.
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