The View: October 2017

We were blessed in Matagorda with only minor damage from Harvey. We have had an overwhelming outpouring of help from out-of-towners and out-of-staters and want to say thank you. Texas is changing attitudes and opinions of the current state of America, often wrongly displayed by the mainstream media. To put it bluntly, we are different here.

Instead of spewing hate and everything wrong with your political views, the media has been forced to show images and videos of Americans helping their fellow man. That's what happens in Texas.

Where else would a flotilla of boats load up and head in to harm's way and save thousands and thousands of people?

We have dealt with Hurricane Harvey and the question I always get when a tropical cyclone rolls through is: "How will the storm affect our fishing."

Don't be lulled and dulled by the ominous pictures of water everywhere. That water is gone and our fishing is good!

Matagorda is not affected by freshwater floods like other bay systems. So don't believe the doom and gloom hype that comes across the airways.

The irony of a catastrophic storm is the jolt of energy its currents pump in to our estuaries. Every hurricane I have ever been associated with in my 46 years on earth from Galveston to Port O'Connor has left a positive impact on the fishing.

The tidal surge pushes water and fish eggs and nutrients to the far reaches of the bayous and sloughs where small fish are protected and the results are more juvenile fish make it and give us a larger age-group of fish for years to come.

We are treating the high tides like the high tides of spring and fishing tight to the shorelines for trout. Spots like the Pipeline, Cullen House and Maverick Bayou are great high-tide spots in West Matagorda Bay.

The back lakes are full of water and full of fish. Small topwaters like She Pups and Super Spook Jrs are good for trout to four pounds. When tides are really high, I like fishing the outgoing tide at the mouths of sloughs, since that is when the most water movement occurs.

Reefs are good for trout on live shrimp. When the tide is high the fish are right on top of the reef, but when water begins to fall those fish will stage off the edges, right on the dropoff.

East Matagorda Bay is full of trout. We fished the weekend after the storm and there were fish on the middle reefs and shorelines. I haven't seen it that good in a very long time - lots of big trout were released.

If there is one species that reaps the benefits of a storm surge it is the redfish. Especially this time of year when tides are normally low and hot, fresh recruits of Gulf water in to the back lakes, sloughs and bayous are just what redfish crave.

We like working Oyster Lake, Crab Lake and the north shoreline of West Matagorda Bay for redfish on live shrimp under a cork. Cutoff Flats, Zipperan Bayou and Forked Bayou. In East Matagorda, those big reds will be with the big trout tight along the shorelines around Boiler Bayou, Burkhart Cove, St. Mary's Bayou and Hog Island.

October in the surf and jetty is the month bull redfish get going in preparation for their spawning run. These high storm tides do nothing but spark the action and many times the rougher the conditions in the surf the better for bulls. Most use large table shrimp, pogies, finger mullet or cracked blue crabs for the big bulls.

I watched two acres of redfish come to the surface at the Matagorda jetty last September and crush wads of pogies riding the incoming tide through the pass.

October is one of our best months of fishing. Hope to see you in Matagorda.

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