Two Days Fishing

The holiday weekend snuck up on us. Being out of town most of the week in SLC threw me off and when I returned I found out that everything scheduled for Friday had either been canceled or postponed so I decided to take the day off.

We stayed home Thursday night but got a fairly early start and made it to Matagorda before 8AM.


The swallows have returned to the boat slips and this photo and the next show how they can become a nusiance.


Makes you glad your boat is in a storage stall instead of hanging in the straps.

The wind was relentless and even though we tried to fish below the ICW we soon realized that we needed to find a spot up the river. We had seen a boat parked along a high bank near Selkirk where the river bends back to the west so we headed there hopeful that the spot would be open.


Sure enough not only was the spot available but it was productive as well. The bait shop at the Harbor had live shrimp and Tracy put them to work. She caught two keeper trout before lunch before the bite tapered off.


We went back up the river after lunch and I was determined to catch a keeper fish. I tried topwater, plastics, live and dead shrimp, and even cut up a croaker but only managed to catch small fish. Tracy caught several small fish including a flounder (no picture).



I finally hit the bottom of the food chain and caught this blue crab. OK - I'm not above chumming. This blue beauty was sacrificed and scattered in the current between the boat and the bank. I cast my baited hook and was finally rewarded with a nice red.


I may not be fast but I sure am slow! I guess I will do whatever it takes to catch fish. They say you have to be smarter than the fish but I sometimes think you just have to know what motivates them. With all the bait available right now these fish are full and not aggressively feeding. That being said, no self respecting redfish can turn down a free meal especially when the scent of fresh crab is everywhere!

We didn't try to fish under the lights but got to bed so we could get an early start in the morning.


The wind continued to blow all night and though we got the boat launched before sunup it was already building in velocity so we headed upriver to the new spot - "Eagle's Cove".


I connected with the keeper trout this time and Tracy thought she had a big red but instead it turned out to be a nice keeper black drum.


The namesake of our new spot was spotted sitting on the nest visible from the river then we watched as one of the bald eagles flew nearby trying to fish in the river. The crows were pestering the eagle so bad that he finally gave up. I was wishing for the big camera as the beautiful bird soared overhead.

We saw a lot of birds of prey while fishing in this spot including the Eagles, a Great Horned Owl (early in the morning), a pair of Mississippi Kites, several Osprey, and a some Mexican Falcons (Caracara).


When I saw this I thought it was a snake but after watching it bob along we decided that if it was a snake it was dead. Can you believe it turned out to be a stick?

We made it back home before dark on Saturday in time to prepare for a day of worship on Sunday. God is always worthy of our worship and it is a real privilige to be able to be with the church every Lord's Day.