Matagorda beach/bay
Weather: Sunny w/ very light wind.
Beach Conditions: Lots of debris and old seaweed. Soft sand and deep ruts in many places.
Water Conditions: Clear and light brown in color. No wave action and very little tidal movement. No incoming seaweed or current.
We arrived just before dark on Friday. We set up camp 3 - 4 miles from Mitchell’s cut. We chose our camping spot because it had great bay access and the beach was wide enough for us to spread out and still be out of the road. The beach structure was unremarkable – a very gradual depth change and no sharp sandbars.
Surf fishing was slow. We fished until 2:30am on Friday night and caught 1 bull red (38”) and 1 good shark (5’7”). On Saturday night we fished until 12:00am and caught a few gafftops. On Sunday morning we landed one more bull red. At times there were large schools of mullet but no signs of predators.
Bay fishing was somewhat productive but more frustrating. On Saturday morning Kasey caught a redfish (22”) that broke his rod. I caught a personal best trout (22”). A few undersized reds were released and we missed a few more fish. We went back to the bay Saturday evening around 6:00 and found reds working the grassy shorelines. They were swimming into the grass and exploding on bait. Sight casting to them was very difficult. Flounder were also observed jumping out of the water and making it rain baitfish. Despite the obvious fish activity we were unable to land any keeper fish. We had several good hook ups and many missed strikes. It was strange how many times this occurred.
I'll add pictures when I get them from Kasey
posted by brian | 5:36 PM
6 Comments:
Your bay report has me drooling. Can't wait. -tpd
Sounds good to me! I'm geared up and ready to get salty. I was concerned about the weed, spring can be quite the line tangler. Hopefully it will hold off another week. I was down at Kemah with the wife over the weekend, we went to Galvez and saw HUGE rafts of weed rolling in slowly, got me concerned. What are the details on the chark? Size we know, but species, bait, what gut, and duration of fight (3-5 beers I suppose?)…need some details.
~z
Thu 17 12:20 AM CDT / -0.42 ft 1:00 PM CDT / 1.20 ft 6:34 AM CDT 8:10 PM CDT
Fri 18 1:11 AM CDT / -0.47 ft 2:12 PM CDT / 1.20 ft 6:33 AM CDT 8:10 PM CDT
Sat 19 2:04 AM CDT / -0.45 ft 3:19 PM CDT / 1.17 ft 6:33 AM CDT 8:11 PM CDT
Sun 20 2:59 AM CDT / -0.39 ft 4:17 PM CDT / 1.09 ft 6:32 AM CDT 8:11 PM CDT
Well, I'm not sure if that last one will make sense to non-NOAA folk, take home message: Mid day= high tide with high volume displacement at high tide. Low tide after midnight.
I'm reading that as low tide at mid-day with a big difference between high and low. I like the prediction. Slack, low tide should occur while we are sitting in the shade. The water should start moving late in the afternoon when it is time to hit it hard.
Hopefully the wind and weed will hold off a little longer.
Any thoughts on where to set up camp? The best beach structure was about halfway to mitchell's cut. The best bay fishing access (that I know of) is closer to Mitchell's cut.
I thought the best looking structure is still the high shell banks around the 8mm. Even with extreme flat conditions we were seeing bait (mullet) pooled up in shallow pools/holes. If the bar structure remains the same until Friday. We found a bar pass that might be good around 12mm. From hearing what others have said..East Matty Bay was on fire this past weekend. I have heard of some crazy coolers this past run. We just missied abunch.
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