Tracking Big Trout

July 15, 2007-Wading for big trout has started to show better results. Soft plastics and topwater plugs are getting attention especially in early morning and late afternoon. Still wading areas with abundant baitfish-typically over thick grass or a shell/mud mix.

East Bay still off-color midbay.

Drifting East MatagordaJ

July 11, 2007-East Matagorda is fresh to northside regions and muddy off the south shoreline making drifting a grind. We ended this morning's scout trip early with a handful of fish. I swayed my clients, who wanted to drift, from fishing the day following.

Wading West Matagorda is Fruitful!

July 10, 2007-Winds were felt at around 5 mph this morning in West Matagorda. A friend and I fished the south shoreline over grass using soft plastics and topwaters. Morning bite was best for specks between 20-22 inches. We left the deep guts we were wading during the early morning wade to a shoreline jumping with bait. Small grass patches produced scattered keepers. At 10:00, an excited line of bait moved in and we caught 12-14 inch trout on paddle tail soft plastics. I used a Texas Gold Rush small mullet from Brown Lures, sometimes with a cork above to keep it off the grass, and did well. We finished our second wade with nine trout.

Lets go wadefishing: 979-240-9999

Flood Water Update

July 9, 2007-Well, strong SW winds changed my gameplan of running to East Matagorda to make wades on its midbay structure for big specks to targetting trout and redfish on West Matagorda shoreline.

With the Colorado River full of flood water, my clients and I waited patiently for an hour and a half before we were granted access into the muddy, drift wood obstacle course of the diversion channel.

Getting passed the freshwater took more time but we finally made it to the fishing ground-a grassy sand bar in West Matagorda Bay that has produced solid numbers in the past few weeks.

Bumps and pecks were all my group of four could muster; the tide wasn't set to go out until 9-10 a.m.

We made six other wades with scattered fish-failing to find a solid school. We waded deep and shallow on bars and in backlakes. Our best bite and funnest time of the trip came on topwaters in the backlakes. We caught a handful of trout and redfish. The redfish were all slightly undersized, however, it was fun to watch the crew get excited to see them explode the tops.

So was it the most productive day?-heck no!...sometimes fishing hard dosen't always produce a heavy stringer.

Light Winds Open Doors!

July 8, 2007-Departed bright and early. Found some decent water over shell. After Frances had two brief encounters with jellyfish wading back to the boat was the only thing on her mind.

After switching from a black topwater to dark plastics, the bite picked up. Ten casts brought ten fish back to back. Half were just under the mark and the biggest trout was 24 inches with a 23 inch redfish in the mix. Caught and released over a limit and took some home for lunch.

The quick morning run was just what I needed to get back into the routine after the never-ending rain spell we experienced....oh yeah, boat traffic was horrible too.

Full Moon and Muddy Midbay

disclaimer: I appologize if this report sounds depressing. Fishing during the past few days has been just that....depressing. ;) Give us some wind relief!

June 22-29, 2007-As of late trout fishing is fair here and downright grinding there. East Matagorda's midbay has been extremely tough for hardware and the crowd on the south shoreline adds to the stress factor. Perhaps the full moon has fish feeding all night, however, muddy water does not make things much easier-drifting with live shrimp has not even provided relief for many anglers. As of this afternoon, East Matagorda Bay from Brown Cedar to the West Shoreline is off-color. However, small trout and rat redfish slightly bit lines this morning.

East's south shoreline was productive early in the week for big trout on topwater. While wading, I was throwing a bone topwater when a group of tails rose up against the shoreline. Probably 15-20 were moving together, some with backs out of the water. I made two casts and hooked into a 29 inch trout. After measuring and extracting trebles, I raised the trout up with a swift motion to show my partners and the boga failed to hold grip and the trout fell into a water-so much for a picture. Wading has been produced fat redfish and keeper specks. A 26 1/2 inch speck was released as well last week. Early bite on the shorelines-get there early!

A wall of water is tumbling down the Colorado so expect wait time at Matagorda locks to be a burden.

...updates on the way!

Check availability on a fishing trip today! 979-240-9999

A Day with Brown

June 22nd 2007-Jake Brown of Brown Lures joined me for some fun in West Matagorda. The new Bone and Chartreuse Brown Lure Devil Eyes pumped out a limit of specks and a brute redfish. The fish were scattered and the bites were more subtle than usual; but the line peeled with force. Several other quality trout were lost including one around 26 inches. Really fun day!

Video: Jake catching a nice trout on first cast!

SPICING IT UP!

"IT'S CALLED SPICING IT UP AND BEING DIVERSE WITH YOUR FISHING!"

June 20, 2007-Yesterday I decided to spice things up a bit. No I didn't wade along a grassy shoreline for specks nor did I drift an underwater field of oyster shell.

Alongside Clayton Wessells in some shallow muddy water, we set anchor and made casts with mullet on the line.

After rotating through a few spots we finally got into them. We were enjoying some cold drinks and eating a sandwich when a big brute doubled the rod in the holder. A beautiful spotted redfish was caught and released.

From then on the redfish got bigger. We caught and released all of redfish including four that were over 30 inches. These redfish were 12-14 pounds!

When a redfish did not take hold of the bait, alligator gar paid us a few visits.

This trip is what you can call spicing it up and being diverse with your fishing.

Video 1-32 inch redfish clears the gunnels!
Video 2-13 pound bronzeback rips drag!

June 18, 2007-The past weekend was spent chasing tripletail, targetting trout in West Matagorda and drifting in East Matagorda.

It seems somedays we smoke them on the shorelines and then the next day we scramble to get a solid bite. Red/White Brown Lures and watermelon/strawberry soft plastics have worked best when wading for specks.

Thursday's charter was a midmorning to afternoon search for tripletail that really never picked up for us. Jode Shupe, his son, and Josh Stone jumped aboard the explorer and we had three chances at some big tripletail. One broke off at the boat and the other two broke off when the cork was tight on the structure. It is the name of the game when tripletailing.

Jode Shupe's Tripletail Video

Friday's charter was another slower day for finding trout. After 6 wades over all types of structure, the family of five caught plenty trout and redfish under the keeper mark, had a few break offs, and we came back to the harbor with a handful of keepers. It was a beautiful day, however the strong bite we have been accustomed to in the past weeks never came through.

June 10, 2007

Matagorda Oilmen's Tournament

The tournament was a great success and fun time raising a near $500,000 dollars for countless charities.

June 9, 2007-Sunday the guys were pretty pumped up after the last two days when they awoke to much lighter winds. I convinced the guys to tie on weedless spoons and topwaters and we immediatly got after the rat reds and trout. We had an excellent bite for about three-four hours but we struggled to pick up trout that were not between 13-14 inches and redfish that were just under the 20 inch mark.

We finished up the wade with 5 thick redfish and 5 quality specks to 24 inches and I released a 26. Watermelon paddle tails, bone/chartreuse & red/white brown lure devil eyes were the soft plastics of choice throughout the rest of the day.

June 8, 2007-Friday winds were still blowing around 15-20 and we went back to the same area and first jumped on an outer bar and boxed five quick trout before fishing a deep gut that held some good numbers of fat fish. We picked up fourteen trout and three redfish. We weighed in two redfish near 6 lbs and fell just below third place in the redfish standings.

June 7, 2007-Prefished today for Oilmen's with clients from National Oilwell Varco. Gusts at 30. We found protected water and grinded them out. The clients did an excellent job having patience and fishing hard. Seven redfish and four trout were all we could muster. The guys lost a few before I put some nets in their hands.

June 6, 2007-Fished yesterday afternoon for tripletail and boxed two.