I got an invite to go wade fishing in Matagorda with my nephew last Friday. It was a beautiful day with pre-front conditions. The water temps were finally coming down into the 70’s, and wade fishing was on the menu. We started out before daylight and were greeted by a beautiful sunrise and a wind protected shoreline. The tides were super high with the fall equinox. When we began our first wade after we power-poled down between two drains, the tide was just beginning to move out, and bait fish and shrimp were coming out of the marsh drain. My first cast was actually from the boat to adjust my reel. To my surprise it yielded a 19 inch red. I did not have to wade too far from the boat before I caught a mix of 10 undersized trout and reds. Today our goal was to have fun but also to keep some fish for a family fish fry. My nephew caught over thirty fish in the opposite drain, but only two were legal size. One was a red and the other a trout. The bite dwindled as the sun got higher, so we loaded up and headed for another spot.
A deeper back lake was our next destination. It didn’t take long before we were drifting from back to front catching trout on every cast. Many times our lures would barely hit the water and the trout would be making a run for it. The only problem was these were all 14 inch fish, just shy of legal size. We saw some schooling action of what appeared to be some keeper size reds, but they did not want our soft plastics. When all else fails, tie on the old gulp and popping cork. Bingo – a drag stripping 27 inch 8 pound red! It was a perfect tournament red that looked a little beat up. One more keeper red later and a bunch more undersize trout led us to decide to move again.
Our next stop was also a marsh drain which produced more undersized trout and one keeper red. A frontal boundary was beginning to show to our north, so we decided to make our way back towards the harbor to be closer in case the weather turned bad. On our way we saw literally six to ten different sets of birds working in open water. This is one of the perks of fishing saltwater bays on the Texas coast in the fall. Most of the time you catch smaller trout and gaff top catfish under the feeding birds. We decided to try to fish the birds just in case there were some keeper fish among the schoolies. To our surprise we managed to finish out our limit with a few more barely legal 16 to 17 inch trout. Right before we left the schools, I put on a heavier, larger profile bait to get down under the small schooling fish. On the second cast, something jolted my 30 pound braided line and headed into the sunset. It stripped 30 yards off my reel in less than 5 seconds. I felt a strong tick as the fish made off with my mirror-lure, “double d” custom color, $15 dollar bait. I was guessing a small jack or a small shark wanted the purple and gold offering.
The dark clouds and rain were approaching fast, so we decided to fish a drain closer the harbor. We put on our rain suits and entered the back lake to find some dark-stained, marsh water coming out into the muddy, wind-blown water as the tide continued to drop. As the rain began to fall, and the cool wind switched to the north, we managed finish our red limit with a 22 inch fish feeding in the stained, outgoing current. We also caught more small trout that matched the dark-stained water they were living in.
We reached the harbor as the sun was dipping below the horizon and began to clean our day’s keep. We managed two 1-gallon bags of filets which would feed my nephew’s family and their visitors. We had to filter through over 100-plus fish to get our limit that day but would have kept fishing all day even if we had caught our limit early. That is just how much we both love to fish.
God blessed us with a beautiful day and some quality time on the water. I am always thankful for the grace of God and the love of the outdoors he instilled in me. I encourage you to use your God given talents to the fullest as you give Him all the glory. [Ephesians 2:8-9]
God bless you and thanks for reading my blog. Enjoy the video and don’t forget to subscribe and follow.
Tim Lumpkin
Legacy-outdoors.net
YouTube: Legacy-Outdoors
Instagram: @tlump10
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