Priceless

Every fishing trip needs a good fish story. Although some fishermen are accused of stretching the truth or exagerrating to senesationalize their tale, most of the time the what we experience on a typical outing needs no embelishment.

This time we were fishing in our usual spot, "The Redfish Hole" in the Diversion Channel of the Colorado River not far from where it empties into West Matagorda Bay.

We were out a little later than usual but the weather was beautiful and the fishing had already proven to be better than average. We both had fish in the box and I was looking for more.

We were fishing with live shrimp which usually means that you could catch a wide variety of fish from speckled trout to redfish or from gafftop to whiting.

There was a pretty stiff wind blowing from the SSE and I was trying to cast across the wind and upstream with my rig. I like to try different configurations but this time I was using the old standard - a live shrimp on a #8 treble hook suspended about 20" below a cork. We like to use the cigar style sliding cork with the weighted bead on the bottom.

I was twitching and popping the cork as it drifteds bacck towards the boat when the cork disappeared. I gave it a second before setting the hook and immediately knew I had a big fish on. The fish headed straight for the middle of the channel and was taking drag. I like to keep our drags set pretty light as most of the time we can fight our fish to the boat fairly quickly without risking breaking off or bending our small hooks.

This time though the game was slightly different. I kept waiting for the fish to stop and shake or to change direction but it never did. I tried putting pressure on the rod and after half of my line was gone I began increasing the pressure on my drag. I had a lot of confidence on my knots and in the line as I had just last week spooled up a new batch of 14lb Berkley Fireline - my weapon of choice.

Well to make a long story short I got spooled! Whatever I hooked never slowed down, changed direction, or looked back. Tracy estimated that the whole event took less than a minute and that even if we had the idea of chasing the screaming run with the boat, we likely wouldn't have even got the anchor pulled in time.

I wonder if I were in the kayak instead of the boat if I would still be on the sleigh ride. There were several big gar in the river near where we were fishing and I think that is the likely culprit. It is fun to consider though that it might have been a big jack or a king mackerel. Whatever it was it was fast and steady and likely still has a lot of line trailing behind it.

Keep your eyes peeled for a green cork that may show up somewhere in the Matagorda Bay system. It may still have something attached!

Quart of Shrimp - $20
Gas for Boat - $10
Snacks & Drinks - $5
125 yards of Fireline - $15

Getting spooled in less than 1 minute - Priceless

Dances With Fish

Somebody had the fishing love this time and it wasn't me... I managed to get Friday off and that meant we were headed for PPRV #7 as soon as I could escape the city. I cast-netted up some mullet thinking we might be able to entice a flattie or a big trout before dark. It is really nice to see the sun go down after missing it for the last few months.

Well, the mullet was unsuccessful but there were plenty of shad in the river. Tracy requested the double glow shad rig shortly after dark and she promptly connected with a fat 19" trout.

We fished for a couple hours and caught only a few small specks and one more keeper caught by yours truely. I didn't know that would be my only keeper fish of the trip. The morning dawned cloudy and breezy. We headed out to the Redfish Hole with a quart of live shrimp and Tracy caught her second 19" trout on the first cast! While that was fun and a great way to start the day the real show was yet to come. After fishing the "hole" for an hour or so with no more action, Tracy suggested that we cross over the channel to the mouth of the cut. This spot was a little tricky to fish since we were contending with a south wind and an outgoing current. These two opposing forces caused the boat to move about the anchor rope and it was hard to hold a stationary position.

Tracy cast into the outflow and connected with a fat 25" red. This guy meant business and was really having his way with her while testing the limits of the equipment. My fishing partner put up a great battle and even exercised extreme patience when her big red got tangled up in the flooded timber.

The best part of the show was when the red finally came loose from the timber and began circling the boat causing "the dance". Tracy deftly steered the fish along the side of the Second Honeymoon, around the prop and motor, over me, my rod, and the net, and up the opposite side of the boat. Somehow she managed to keep from getting tangled up in the anchor rope. Finally the mighty fish gave up and allowed Tracy to lead him into the net.



Tracy caught several small flounder - one was only 1/8" short of legal. That is a tough way to miss a slam!



We fished a while longer and finally headed in for lunch. We fished off the bank after lunch and though we both caught some small fish, nothing went in the box.

Even though I didn't catch any keepers we had some great fish to cook and share.

God is good!

Slam and Mini-Slam

They say size matters and that is especially true when talking with fishermen.

We got an early start on this Saturday the first official day of Spring Break.

We headed down the Diversion Channel to our favorite spot - The Redfish Hole. As you can see from the picture above it lived up to its name! This 25 incher put up a good fight.

We tried several spots including the cove and even headed up river as the wind began building. It's not much fun being exposed in a 15-20 mph wind. Tracy caught two of the keeper trout but her Mojo wore off early. She fished hard all morning but the fish just didn't cooperate.




After lunch I cleaned the morning's catch and the boat. I was still wanting to see my fishing partner redeem herself so I picked up another pint of live shrimp on the way back from dropping off the boat. Tracy caught a small flounder right away and before long I caught this nice keeper to complete my slam.



Earlier in the day I had caught a 14-incher which is technically the legal minimum but I didn't keep it as fish are known to shrink a little after being on ice. You can see my new springtime secret weapon - the 2" Bass Assassin Chicken on a Chain swim bait. This is a freshwater bass or crappie offering but after reading up on springtime flounder habits and realizing they are suckers for small finfish I thought it would be worth a try. Guess my hunch paid off!

Tracy fished hard all afternoon trying to find that keeper fish. The wind was from the SSE which made fishing off the rocks in front of our trailer the best spot as that put the wind at our backs.


In addition to the undersized flounder Tracy nailed several small reds.

She even found some trout but all were under the legal limit. Catching something is better than nothing but for some reason the big fish stayed away from her line almost all day.



As the day neared a close I thought of one more place we could try. We had recently caught some flounder off the boat dock so when the wind began to lay down near sunset we headed there for a few casts with our remaining bait.


Once again the big fish found my line instead of Tracy's. I added one more flounder to the bag just as the sun was dropping below the horizon.

We fished hard almost all day and caught our share of fish. It was fun to see some of all three target species caught by each of us but I hope next trip the pendulum doesn't swing all the way back.

The Perfect Predator

Not everyone would put the Speckled Trout at the top of the list when describing the Perfect Predator. After what I observed on Friday night under the lights in the Colorado River, I would have to disagree.

The weather was cool and clear and I had some live mullet to offer up. Tracy was throwing the glow shad and the fishing was slow at best. I like to hook the mullet just behind the dorsal fin so they can swim and wiggle to attract the trout. Generally the light attracts bait and the bigger fish figure out that if they hang around near the lights they can make easy pickings of the unsuspecting shad, mullet, or glass minnows.

Trout like other fish have the ability to detect prey from a distance by smell or by sensing vibrations. To be a perfect predator though there must be the means to capture and kill the prey. Specks are fast and deadly, using their powerful tail to accelerate and overtake the fleeing baitfish and their formitable fangs to grasp and hold on to the struggling victim.

I freelined a three inch finger mullet beyond the circle of light and let it drift and struggle along through the light and down stream. Just as I was about to retrieve and recast I saw and heard a violent scene on the fringe of the light as this 21" trout busted the mullet off the surface and inhaled it. I had a nice fight and before Tracy could go back for the net I had her on the grass.

If the Speckled Traou aren't the Perfect Predator they are pretty close!

Big Wind Big Fish

The weather was picture perfect all week - someone called it California weather. With the end of the week in sight though, a cold front was approaching which promised some much needed rain. It was also predicted to arrive with some serious wind so our normal fishing program would need to be modified if we wanted to eat fresh fish on Monday.

I lit a fire in the fire pit and set out the fishing light before we headed out for supper.

Spoonbills was closed on Friday as the staff was volunteering at the Matagorda County Fair. We have been wanting to try the River Bend Restaurant so this was our chance. We enjoyed some fresh seafood and began discussing whether or not the fish were going to cooperate.

There seemed to be some fish activity under the light when we got back to the trailer so I rigged Tracy up with a TTF 1/8 oz double glow shad rig and tied on the back half of clear mirrodine soft plastic mullet to my line.

Before long Tracy hooked something big and the fight was on. Thankfully we had her drag set just right and she was tenacious about getting this fish in.

Now that is a big redfish! This bad boy was 11 lbs and 28" long.

This is the slightly damaged but still intact jighead that was used to catch the big red. We fished for a couple of hours and caught small trout on the glow shad but nothing big enought to keep.

The front came through and the temperature dropped so we were fishing from the bank all day. Tracy continued to have the hot hand all morning and into the early afternoon. She caught a couple more reds and several small flounder. I had cast netted up some live mullet so we had several options.

I finally got into the game by combining cut mullet with chartruese Gulp to catch these two keeper flounder.

We both lost a couple of fish that we believe were big enough to keep but didn't let that minimize the happiness we felt at turning what should have been a blow out day into Monday's supper and a bag of fresh fish to give away. God is truely good!

Three Plus One

This week's fishing was a little unconventional. I was able to work out a mid-week day off so we headed to PPRV on Tuesday evening.

We didn't see many other fisherman but this little guy was sharing the shoreline of the Diversion Channel with us.

Tracy caught this multi spot red at our old spot near the nuclear plant.

I call this a six by six red. We fished up the river for a while but decided to head down the channel to look for some keeper fish.

That decision turned out to be a good one. Tracy caught two keeper reds and I caught a nice red and a 20" trout. We fished the cove and the redfish hole with live shrimp and were off the water by lunchtime.

My buddy at the cleaning table posed for this parting shot.

We got the trailer washed, took a conference call, washed the boat, and cleaned the fish - all in time to get home and on to our mid-week Bible Study. It was a busy day but well worth the effort!

His and Her Flounder

After our successful paddle last weekend, Tracy and I were ready to take advantage of the nice weather and decided to head up river in the Second Honeymoon to see if we could find some trout.

The long cold winter has finally come to an end (we think) and since Spoonbills is back open things are almost back to normal.

We lit a fire in the pit on Friday night and cooked some tasty marshmallows. We also set the light up at the river and caught several trout but alas they were all too small for the stringer. The fog was thick and there was plenty of tiny bait in the river but no big fish.

We launched about an hour later than we had planned in the morning due to the fog but had a nice quart of lively shrimp and the anticipation of finding some hungry fish upriver.

The fog got thicker the further upriver we went until we had to stop and fire up the running lights just to be on the safe side.

The fishing was pretty slow (understatement) even though Tracy managed to catch this 19" redfish that only an inch too short.

We gave up on our first spot and ran down to the Diversion Channel below the ICW.

Tracy found a keeper flounder and after some small black drum and jumbo sheepshead I managed one as well. These turned out to be our only two keepers of the day but will make the perfect Monday night meal.

Paul Sr. and Jr. had driven through the fog to paddle the marsh but after getting blown around and not finding the fish were ready to give up. I've been trying to get them out in the boat so Tracy and I came in and I took the Pauls upriver to see some scenery. We saw several Osprey (Paul had his long lens and got some shots) and four whitetail bucks running together up on the bluff above the riverbank.

On the way back we encountered a fellow captain whose twin 150's were dead in the water (turned out he had a load of bad fuel) and he was adrift and heading downstream.

We were able to tie on with our bowline and give him a tow back upriver to his dock.


The Second Honeymoon thought it was the Little Engine that Could.

After rescuing the disabled craft and crew, we headed down to a spot below the ICW and tried to get the boys on some fish. I managed a small red but that was it for this spot.

We crossed over to the other side near The Cove and Paul Jr. picked up a couple small fish before finally Paul Sr. connected with his first red of the day.

Paul Jr. went on to catch his personal best trout - a beautiful 20" speck.

Brother Paul matched him with a keeper flounder so they both had a fish in the box. It was a short trip but a successful one.

Tracy and I returned to this spot and to the redfish hole after lunch but the wind was up and the big fish were gone. We managed to catch several more flounder up to 13.5" which was encouraging. We used up the rest of the shrimp and headed for the cleaning table.


I had some company at the cleaning table when I was scaling the flounder.

The light was not the best but this guy had quite an attitude.

God's beauty is on display throughout his marvelous creation. All you have to do is look - it is everywhere.

Winter Birds

Winter in Texas is a surprisingly good time to view and photograph birds. There are many migratory birds that either pass through the region or that reside here during the harsh winter months in their home range.

Tracy and I spent some time at Brazos Bend State Park recently and found some willing subjects.

It was a grey day but this pair of blue-winged teal seemed right at home in the in the overcast.

This Great Egret huddled against the chilly breeze on his perch among the leafless limbs.

This American White Ibis is a year round resident of this area and finds plenty of food in the park's waterways.

The Roseate Spoonbill explodes in a blur of pink.

Great Egrets hunt for small fish among the flooded lilies and other swamp vegetation.

For the past two weekends we have returned to Matagorda. The weather has been pretty cold and breezy which sometimes provides unique opportunities to approach birds as they are less prone to fly off when the weather is wintery.

This Osprey or fish hawk has secured his lunch and gives us a watchful eye as we approach.

I shot these action shots out the window of the Jeep and had some good luck and good light.

This majestic bird makes his home nearby and finds plenty of food in the river and wetlands.

Tracy captured these spoonbills out the window of the Jeep on the same day.

The unique shape of the bill is where this guy gets his name.

Spoonbills and Ibis feed together in the shallows.



While heading out on a fishing excursion this past Saturday I noticed a Belted Kingfisher hanging around near the launch. I always consider seeing this fisherman a harbinger of good things to come. If a Kingfisher is in the area, there are usually fish nearby too.



When I came in from fishing I found out why the slate blue bird may have been keeping such close proximity. This young bird - possibly a mate or an offspring - was injured and unable to fly.

I have never been up close to this species and it is a real beauty. Unfortunately, this one did not make it but these photos will allow others to see one up close.

When I was paddling in I saw this Double Crested Cormorant fishing in the creek.

These voracious fish eaters can sometimes decimate a local fish population.

They are not the most athletic birds and must run along the surface of the water to gain flight.

Winter is almost over (for some of us).

Keep the camera handy and be ready to shoot your favorite feathered friend when the opportunity presents itself!