Thursday, April 5, 2012

Matagorda, Beautiful Fish and Dangerous Riptides

We watched from a distance as a group of people gathered near the shore. A body had been pulled in and soon was placed in an ambulance. The crowd dispersed and not an hour later three people were wading near where the person had drowned.
The rip tides were visible from the fishing pier and while I am a really good swimmer there is no way I could survive in such turbulent water. The fishing was good and so we commented on how stupid people are and looked away. Alas, before too long another rescue was underway. Another group of people formed on the beach and another emergency vehicle arrived. Yeah,  two in one afternoon in the same place,(One dead and three more rescued the day before, also in the same place).
You wonder if people can't read the large warning signs, even though they are in English and Spanish? Seriously I doubt if some of the people can read. Being able to swim isn't the issue. We haven't seen many with boogie boards or any lifesavers. I have never seen such ignorance anywhere else. No lifeguards and a death trap for swimmers.
Seems somewhat callous to talk about the fishing but it was good. I caught two more sharks, a bonnethead and an atlantic shovelnose. Dave lost another huge red and I caught a big stingray that took me a good half hour to bring to the net. Big whiting and and hard headed and gaff sail catfish rounded out the morning,(we released all the fish to the amazement of the other fishermen).
Renita and Jane walked out and brought us lunch. Grateful, we devoured our sandwich's as the wind picked up and the waves grew larger. The water turned from stained to a milky chocolate color and the fish stopped biting so we called it a day. At least people stopped wading in the surf and there were no more rescues.

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