Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Matagorda Vacation - Day 4

Today the weather was better so I called our new buddies at Freebird to see if they could reschedule our paddle trip. All systems go and Wayne said we could meet at 7:30 AM at Rawlings Cut.

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Launch Point - Rawlings Cut


We headed out into the marsh and were paddling against the incoming tide and into the wind. The boat I had picked out for Tracy didn't work out as well as I had hoped. Wayne informed her at the launch that she should plan on a wet ride (no scupper plugs) and the extra length turned out to be a liability as well.

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Tracy working hard against the tide.

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John & Wayne in the lead.

The marsh was nice and it was cool to be close to the place where "all sea life begins" (Wayne's description).

The paddle turned out OK but was probably not the highlight of the trip for Tracy. Let's just say that I won't be running out to buy a second boat just yet.

After the kayak trip and lunch (grilled chicken & peppers and skillet potatoes with onions) we took a drive down the beach. The crews were busy clearing away the driftwood and debris for the big holiday weekend on the first three miles of the driving access and we didn't try to push our luck by driving further with just a 2WD.

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Beach Bums - Note the cool hand-knit socks - the latest fad in beach wear.

I may need to look into a 4WD so we can go down the beach into uncharted territory.

We got out and walked about another 1/2 mile and found some neat sights.

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Any fish in here?

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Jelly Belly

We enjoyed the peace and quiet of the beach without all the people. This turned out to be a good time for us to take some time and enjoy the natural beauty of the coast before the summer crush of humanity.


When we returned I got out the cast net and found some more bait shrimp. I was bound for a paddle back to the west jetty to see if I could scare up another trout.

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Bait Shrimp


I was joined by a fellow kayaker from Kemah who was staying in a motorhome a few spaces away from us. The wind was blowing pretty hard and that made the paddle across the channel interesting. I did manage to get close to these pelicans for a good picture without spooking them.

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Preening Pelicans


At first all we caught were a few hardheads then I struck silver with this 18" sow trout.

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Worth the paddle



Looks like fish for lunch tomorrow!

2 comments:

Bawana said...

Thats a nice looking fish Brother. That looks like a great place for a vacation, does anybody else know about it????????

Paul Batchelder said...

Nice fish the shrimp look good out of the cast net..and the price is right. We need to try that back in the "lake"