Palacios & Matagorda

The kids are back at school and work, the lawn got mowed and weed-eated, I got a load taken to the local landfill, and the weather is considerably Fall-like.

Must be time to go fishing!

I headed to Palacios to visit my old friend - the 1st Street Pier.

I brought my usual arsenal of double shad rigs and this time I also decided to throw out a Gulp or two to see if anything would be fooled by this offering.

The sand trout were small and far between when I first arrived but I was able to snag a few under the light on the wall before heading to the pier. There were several fishermen out and they were having about the same luck as me.

I heard the locals talking about the pattern observed over the past few nights - slow at first with increasing sand trout activity until 11PM and then the specks move in. Perfect - my target departure time was 11pm!

The prediction turned out to be accurate and by 10pm the sandy bite was in full swing. I caught them on the shad rig and on the new penny Gulp under a cork.

I caught so many that the Gulp got shredded. I removed just the tail and replaced one of the shad on the 1/16 oz jighead and fished that combo for a while.

The sandies seemed to like both baits equally well and I picked up a few doubles along the way. One of my piermates caught a sting ray and another caught a whiting and a ribbon eel, but for the most part it was all sand trout until 10:50pm.

My friend Tony from Pearland started it when he caught a 16" speck on live finger mullet. Next, a group from Austin caught two that were just under 15".

They were all "giving me the business" as I reeled up my lines and headed home...like I need any encouragement to stay late! What they didn't know was that I had a date with Tracy to head to Matagorda in the morning in a rented Jeep Liberty 4X4 for a trip down the peninsula.

Matagorda

Perfect Fall Weather - that's what the weatherman called it. The sky was clear and the temps were moderate as we got underway on the big adventure. We were bound for the coast and intending on driving down the beach to see how the Liberty handled sand.

We passed the 3-mile mark and headed into unfamiliar territory. There were several fishermen and families along the way. We stopped a couple of times to fish and look for shells.

I fished with fresh shrimp and new penny Gulp and caught some usual suspects in the first gut.

Whiting


Tracking Birds


Baby Drum


Rat Red


Gulp in the Surf


Still Too Small


Multi-Spotter

We travelled about 10 miles down the beach before deciding to head back to civilization. After a bathroom break we parked near the river mouth and finished out the day watching the sunset over the confluence of the Colorado River and the Gulf of Mexico.

Fisherman's View on the River


Shoreline

The Liberty proved to be a good choice for the beach - plenty of traction and ground clearance. We got in some pretty soft stuff and were able to navigate through it without any trouble. There may be a trade coming in the near future...

Used car dealers beware!

Jeep Liberty on the Shell Bank



End of the Day

Psalm 50:1
"The Mighty One, God, the LORD, has spoken, and summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting."