Every Now and then A blind pig will find an acorn, A great Day Fishing at Matagoda

The winter fishing at Rockport was the worst we have had. I know that our blog seems to radiate positives with images of fish but you don’t see any images of all the fishless days. Blame it on the record cold, seems like a good excuse, as it certainly wasn’t from lack of trying.

So we looked forward to stopping for a few days at one of our favorite places, Matagorda Bay. We hoped for good weather but high winds caused huge waves that prevented us from doing much more than taking walks on the beach,( and of course there is nothing wrong with that).

The forecast was for clearing weather and calmer winds and so we decided to stay for another day and try to do some fishing. We had talked with one fisherman who had landed a nice hammerhead, (bonnethead shark), and even that would have made our stay.

So on Monday morning I got up early and drove to the nearest bait shop. Armed with live shrimp and the mullet I had caught with the cast net let me cover all the bases. As I arrived at the parking lot I saw seven fisherman walking out on the fishing pier and then setting up at my favorite spot.

I still had my second favorite place available and I cast out two poles, one with cut mullet and another with fresh shrimp. I watched the others and they soon had two nice black drum along with several sheepshead. Renita was coming out later and so I cast a sheepshead rig toward the rocks, hoping to find some fish before she arrived.

Three small sheepshead later I decided to save my shrimp and concentrate on the big poles. The one with the shrimp was being pestered by whiting and the mullet was doing nothing. Deciding to try a speckled trout spot I walked back a ways and cast into the first cut.

The slip bobber went down almost immediately and I was fast onto a nice black drum. Stringing the fish up I put on another live shrimp and in less time than It takes to write this I set the hook on a keeper red drum.  Every cast produced a fish and I moved all of my gear out to the new spot.

Renita arrived and watched as I hooked another keeper red and then another nice black drum.After I caught a good flounder she informed me that she had to go back and get her license. That’s usually something that I do, forget my license, so she went back and I kept catching fish.

By the time she got back I had my limit of reds and three nice blacks. The spot we were fishing was only good for one line and so I gave her my pole. Of course she was soon fighting her own fish and added five more nice black drum to the stringer!

Running out of bait we decided we had had enough fun for the day and we walked back to the truck with the best stringer of fish this year. Nothing big mind you, but perfect eating size fish, and thats what we had hoped for before our next stop at Grand Isle. Oh and of course the seashells. Clear skies.