Matagorda Fishing, Big Reds, Sharks, and Weeds

I watched Dave work his fish. It was a big bull red and Dave played it perfectly. He was using twelve pound test monofiliment but he had his drag set right. Several times it tried to run near the barnacle encrusted pilings but he was able to maneuver the fish away from the danger. The fish finally tired and I held the hoop net steady as the fish swam into the opening.
We measured the fish at forty inches long and with a twenty three inch girth. We had to settle with the measurements as we didn't have a camera and I watched as Dave released the fish back into the sea. Big brood stock fish like this one shouldn't be harvested but need to return to reproduce and to perhaps provide another angler with the chance of a lifetime bull red.
Later I caught two bonnethead sharks, and as tonight's dinner was fish I kept a legal fish and returned the other. We already had some gaft sail catfish and a whiting on the stringer so we had plenty. Farther down the pier we saw another fisherman keep a bull red with out tagging it and we wondered why the game warden never seemed to walk out on the pier, (We have only seen one other bull red released. In Texas you may keep one but must tag it and then are allowed to receive a second tag a year).

The next day we fished the surf, or should I say we tried to fish, as the seaweed was heavy and each cast resulted in dragging in several pounds of the floating vegetation. Still we continued to try, hoping for a big fish but it was not to be. A truck full of fisherman stopped to watch Renita pull in what they first thought was a big fish but was a giant mass of grass.
Perhaps though they had never seen a fisherwomen wading in polka dot boots, regardless she tried and tried for a big fish and I had to admire her tenacity. Tiring of the ordeal we ate our picnic lunch and Dave talked of how it was the worst surf fishing he had seen, but I just remembered the big fish from the day before.

That evening ambulances rushed to the beach as some swimmers had ignored the do not swim signs, telling everyone of the dangerous rip tides. We didn't go down to watch as I have seen enough recovery searches and the last thing the emergency personal need is a bunch of gawkers.
We might stay another day here to fish for big reds, but regardless this is a place to add to the come back to list. The fishing is almost as good as Grand Isle, Louisiana, or at least as good as it used to be before the BP spill,(I shake my head when I see the propaganda commercials from BP touting how the Gulf has recovered). Hmmm, its pretty easy to digress, perhaps its my age? Clear skies.