Fishing at Matagorda.....the Good Days and Others...
Last years Journal of Surf Fishing Results
1999

Sunday Nov 14th - Rear end went out of fishing truck so son and I took his and my boat and went night fishing in Colorado river at Selkirk....Used two self built greenlights, one on each side of boat.....good water movement and fish and bait went crazy...!!

Small ones could be caught easily on artifical, and with live shad, the larger trout. Ended up with seven keepers..... had lots of throw backs. Largest went 22 inches with two others 20" and 21". The fish were actually running into the boat chasing the bait that the lights attracted.....FUN TRIP except for the bad fog that set in arount 10:00 pm.

Friday Nov 12th - Took a chance with the NE wind since it was light....tide very low in the morning. Tried surf about 5 miles down for about an hour without success. Went back to mouth of river and tried for flounder but caught none. Did see 3 nice ones caught and also saw at Rawlings Bait camp a 9+ pound flounder giged being weighed.

At 1:30 headed down beach 10+ miles. Set out four rods and waited for tide change. Water was pretty clean...no serious trash today.....Lots of incoming water movement 3:00 to dark. Decided to fish with light tackle that I had been using for the flounder......Used small pieces of finger mullet for bait. Caught lot of sand trout and whitting.....PLUS had my line broke twice and even broke a hook....And not by the junk fish.....talk about action!! Finally caught nice 27" red on rod with the 888 Zebco. Will put fresh line on all small reels today.....those break-offs hurt! Never caught anything on the long rods.

Note: The action on the light tackle was very close in to the beach in the first gut while I fished the long rods farther out and caught nothing. May try again Sunday.

Tuesday Nov 9th - Had more trouble than usual catching mullet...finally got all I needed from Three Mile Lake.....smooth drive down beach with low tide.....Things were looking pretty good EXCEPT water hyacinth....like lots of the sorry #&^@# stuff. I've read that it comes from the Sabine River and washes down the coast.....

Couldn't keep a line out and finally gave up and started looking for water without it.....found one area where it wasn't too bad but it wouldn't have been a spot that I would have picked to fish.....tried it awhile anyway catching only two whitting....no reds this trip!

Sat. Nov 6th - Two words......EAST WIND.....wasted good bait on three sharks.....36" to 43" long.....not a single red fish....fished in same spot as I did Thursday that was soooooooo good then......Got to resist going fishing unless there is a SE wind..! Did see friend catch nice red down about 6 miles....should have stayed there and fished with him I guess.......will most likely try again Tuesday or Wed if wind is in SE.

Thurs. Nov 4th - Got a late start leaving home but knew that high tide was right after lunch so figure that 10 to 11 am would be good, especially with wind changing back to the SE.....RIGHT!!! Driving the beach was slow due to the incoming tide but made it down beach by to my favorite spot by 10:45....Got first rod baited and out by 11:00 and before I could set out a second rod, the first bent over with a nice 26" red....got two more rods out and soon the middle one really bent over.....SHARK.....it measured just over 50" long....turned it loose unharmed. We ended up catching seven nice reds, 22" to 28" long, over the next three hours mixed in with the occasional stingray, whitting and hard head catfish. Also had two good hook ups that came off.... Great day to be FISHING!!

Sat. Oct 30th - Thought that perhaps the reds would be biting with the cold front approaching.....wrong.....strong SE wind with 3 - 4 ft. waves...no sweep though. Managed only one shark, 41 inches long....released it...and one big whitting.

Wed. Oct 27th - Made to my favorite spot down the beach by about 8:45....Had more trouble than usual catching mullet.....did catch a few and several dozen shad. Got all poles set out and soon had a nice 23" red on the first one I set out....tide was VERY low with little water movement so no other bites until almost noon....caught speck 22" long at 12:30. Moved down beach a little ways and caught another red 23" just as tide was starting to show some movement. Finally caught another red 24" long at 4:00.....tide really came in strong making drive in slooooowwww.....still lots of sand trout and whitting in surf also.....

Sat/Sunday Oct 23/24th - Saturday was a complete waste....plenty of good bait but with fresh norther blowing, fish wouldn't co-operate at all.....went back Sunday afternoon and caught nothing but Gafftop catfish....big ones....kept two for a friend and turned others back. Bite will get better as soon as wind goes back to the southeast.

Friday, Oct 22nd - Hit the beach just before 8 am.....tried 3 different spots without results, other than several sand trout. Finally moved on down beach about 13 miles and then things changed.....First hook up was red 31" long, then then two big stingrays followed by a red 38.5" long.....another stingray and two more reds.....one I could keep at 28", the other a 41". Great fight...all big reds released in good shape. Also caught 4 nice trout up to 21". Long day....quit around 5:30pm, but lots of fun and beautiful water and weather!! FORGOT the camera....!! Going back tomorrow......

Sunday, Oct 17th - Got first of 3 lines in the water at about 8:00 am....stayed busy removing trash of lines for about an hour......farthest pole doubled over with the pull of a 50 inch shark....moved on down beach several more miles and finally caught small red about 23" but nothing else...tried a couple of other spots with no results.....Went back to spot where I caught the shark and after about 30 minutes, hooked up with another one....this one turned out to be 55 inches long and really put up a good fight!! Norther blew in really hard making drive back in really easy...

Wednesday, Oct 13th - Went down Matagorda beach about 12+ miles and found some beautiful water.....got out three rods and soon had nice 27" red. Next came a 22" speck.....moved to another spot and caught 2 more slightly smaller reds and two ugly stingrays.....man, I can do without those!! Friend drove up and I told him to fish to my right....He had a 24" speck in about 10 minutes......Great day for fishing! Saw buddy, David Kruppa, from East Bernard catch a bull red....45 inches long.....he hung another that broke his line......

Wednesday, Oct 6th - Wanted to wait 'til the wind went back around to the Southeast but couldn't stand it anylonger......Especially with a dozen or so live mullet in the aerator box from the trip on the 3rd.....Caught some more mullet and hit the beach....easy driving.....tide had really been high with strong northeast wind......Water was really muddy, but shouldn't have made any difference for red fish. Got out two rods and started with the third when I realized just how bad the east to west sweep really was.....Couldn't even keep lines out right using sinkers with the wire legs....!!! Continually went from rod to rod, re-casting, trying to keep them out in decent water......Plastic trash is also really bad lately and got on all the lines causing them to wash in to the beach.....Gave up after two hours and headed home empty handed....

Sunday, Oct 3rd - Got my live mullet caught and hit the beach at about 8:00 am...tide looked as if it had really been high sometime during the night but now was really way out....made driving the beach nice.....but didn't help me catch anything.....This is getting a bit old....another dry run.....fished until noon with only one baby shark taking a bait....had five rods out.....POOR!!!

Thursday night and Friday, Sept. 30th - Worked hard Wednesday and Thursday, so decided to go fishing Friday....with that in mind, thought, why not just go Thursday night and fish some and be there at sunrise Friday.....Well, should have known it would not be that easy.....got started early enough....caught plenty of nice mullet....got ready to put them in the aerator box and hook up the battery and nothing happens....not even the slightest bubble from the good 'ole Burgess Guide Pro......talk about a piece of junk!!! Well.....all the live bait soon became FRESH DEAD BAIT.....

Started down the beach.....extremely high tide.....almost all the way to the dunes so the drive down the beach as the sun sank into the west was a real challenge. An hour later, I finally get to my favorite spot, in the dark, get my good old 12 volt fluor. lights set up, and get three rods set out......nothing for the first two hours then the middle rod changes shape!!! Jumped out of the truck and ran to it.....struggled to get it out of the rod holder... the pull on it was so great.....got it out and knew I had my hands full......started loosening up on the drag in order to try to stay in one place.....like this thing wanted to pull me.....well, not to be my lucky day(night).....line goes slack.....broke off at the leader I guess. Talk about DISAPPOINTING.....and worse yet, nothing anymore the rest of the night.....and not any better come daylight either.....fished without hardly losing a bait 'til about 11:00 am and gave it up.....stopped at the jetty pier and watch thru my binoculars as a guy on far end landed nice Bull Red......it's got to get better! Did I mention the Northeast wind was blowing 15 to 20 all night...!!!

Tuesday, Sept. 27th - back to Matagorda Beach with hopes of catch another bull red like the one on the 25th.....Finally, after catching lots of perfect size mullet.....got first line in the water at 8:30 am.....beach driving was really slow as it had rained and there was lots of standing water on beach. Bite began around 9:45 with first red fish, a 26".....caught two more exactly same size by noon. No bull reds this day, but some good eating size fish.

Sunday, Sept. 25th - went surf fishing again after having been just the day before, which was one of those trips where the fish did not co-operate at all! This trip would be different....Caught only one fish in six hours of fishing but it was worth the wait.....BULL RED.......37 pounds.......45 inches long.....what a fight......after measuring and weighing, release this big one.

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Sept. 18 - 19th.....Place: Matagorda Beach surf.....Over three day period we caught 14 redfish with only two being undersized and one bull red.....all fish caught in the morning between 8:00 am and 11:00....released undersize fish and the big red. Used mostly live mullet for bait....all larger fish caught on large cut bait.

 
Tuesday, Aug 31 - Hit favorite spot down beach about 7:30....Light north wind....Surf was beautiful!! Using live finger mullet and some cut bait fished on bottom, caught 6 trout and one red fish....Caught largest trout, 26.5 inches, on large piece of cut whitting, all the rest on finger mullet....Red was about 24", other trout were 19" to 24".

Thursday, Sept 02 - Got to same area again at about same time....Wind was pretty strong out of SE....Only managed one trout 23" on finger mullet fished on bottom....Blame it on the wind.....

Saturday, Sept 04 - Dry run....drove the entire length of Matagorda Beach all the way to the Sargent cut.....Had never driven that far....lots of promising spots to fish.

Monday, Sept 06 - Got a late start....Mullet hard to catch. Finally started fishing at about 8:45. Kinda windy so set out just one rod and soon caught 21" trout....Set out another rod and caught nice 26" red but nothing else....quit about noon and headed home to fry some fish!