This past weekend a few knuckleheads made a trip from Austin down to Matagorda National Seashore near Port O'Connor. We did this last year around this time and camped at the old military base near army hole. Had fun but tough weekend for fish. This year, I did more research using troutsupports DVD's as well as some other guidance from the Saltstrong videos and website. Both sources were good for learning how to read the water as well as for how to use aerial maps to pre-scout productive areas. I noticed that one area called Fish Pond looked like it might hold some winter trout since it seemed real dark (mud?) and had a decent cut through one one side to a large marsh system called Mule Slough. The other benefit was that it was near a beach that was only 400 feet or so over to the gulf side in case we wanted to surfcast based on wind and weather. So we decided to camp at this beach (called Sunday Beach) and fish the area over the weekend. Capt Jim Reed agreed to shuttle our yaks, coolers, and gear over on Friday morning at 630am. After a 330am start and uneventful drive to Port OC, we met him, loaded up and headed out. We were dropped off at 715am and set up camp. Forecast had called for clouds and east winds up to 15, with a 50% chance of rain and NW winds up to 20 for Sat. We put tents near launch area and I brought a massive mothership tent to serve as gear and cooking area to keep stuff dry and sand free. We set off to explore Fish Pond.
After about a mile paddle, we found the entrance to the gut that connects to the large marsh system. Tide and wind were pushing some heavy current through the entrance and into the gut so I set up at the mouth with a 1/16th oz jig head and camo colored Gulp Jerkbait. First cast brought a slot red to the boat, but shook free. DANG it! Second cast, same deal. After some more bites but no fish I moved up into the cut and found a hole that seemed promising...Decided to try an unfair lures rip-n-slash twitch bait and BAM! Three casts, three fish...two keeper specs and a slot red.
Feeling good at this point, I switched back and forth between plastics and lure and caught a dozen rat reds and small trout.
Working our way through the paddling trail signposts, we found another deep hole in the channel that was close to the main bay entrance - I found a bunch of trout holding in the hole after switching to a rootbeer/chart tail DOA jerkbait.
It was about 4pm at this time and we battled some wind to get back to the campsite, clean the fish, drink some beverages, and generally tell lies about how many fish we had on that got lost right at the yak.
[/url]Cooked the fish over the grill, liberally basted with a bourbon marinade - although we mostly mixed the marinade in after putting the fish in our mouths...
[/url]Next day, we woke to rain and 15-20 blowing directly down the bay into our tents. Although I had the tent fly zipped all the way up, a fine layer of sand had covered everything...After coffee and a breakfast taco, we put on waders and soldiered on into the wind to paddle up to an area that was protected and apparently had some good success for wade fishing. Spent the morning in fruitless pursuit of fish, although we did rescue a PBer who was wade fishing and had his boat drift off...I was paddling the barge (Diablo) so he sat up in the bow and I paddled like heck after his boat. We finally got him aboard and all squared away. - Went to the back end of Fish Pond where the map showed mud but it was all grass beds...Still no fish until afternoon, when I caught a flounder and a small trout. After riding some breakers back to camp (pretty big fetch coming down bay), we found the mothership tent almost blown away, and 20-25 NW winds in our face. So we moved to the gulf side and into the lee of the dunes to get out of the wind and sand.
Spent a calm night and great Sunday morning (calm wind out of south) back at the gut and caught another few slot reds and a bunch of rats...One Slot red I caught had the tail of a sand eel in its mouth and I pulled it out. 12" long and still alive...so that seems to be what they are feeding on right now. Capt Jim took us back to Port OC by 2pm and we were home in time for the last part of the Super bowl. Can't say enough about Capt. Reed and his shuttle service. Great guy and very knowledgeable about the area and history. Sunday beach gets very crowded in the summer according to him but we had it to ourselves on Fri and shared it with a group from the UT outdoor adventure club who paddled in on Sat PM from Port OC and left Sunday at about 10am to head back. Plenty of room to camp. All in all it was a great way to escape for a weekend and catch some fish. It will be an annual trip for sure.
you are a small, moving speed bump to those jokers.
