Monday Matagorda Kayak Mission

I got a tip from my nephew who fished Sunday. He dropped a pin for me on Google Earth, where he found some fish in Matagorda Bay. This happened to be a spot I had found some fish a year ago at this same time. I like this spot because it is skinny water with a mix of grass and shell. You also need a four wheel drive to access this back lake. I set my alarm for early Monday morning hoping to arrive near sunrise. I did not realize that we would be under a dense fog advisory as I loaded up and rolled out of the driveway. What should have been an hour and a half drive turned into a creep along, two and one half hour trip. Once there, I had to buy a beach permit to travel to my destination. The tide was super high, and I had to navigate through a lot of loose sand. As I made my way through the dunes, I noticed one truck with a kayak bed extender already there. I never saw him until the end of the day. The fog was still very thick as I turned my phone on to navigate to the correct spot. As fate would have it, I accidentally veered to the right where the channel splits thinking I had gone to the left. As I kept paddling, I saw what I thought was my destination to my left. Through the thick fog, I made my way to a large flat. I heard the sound of scattering bait and diving pelicans as I entered the flat. The water was off color, and the wind was blowing about 10 mph out of the east. I set up to let the wind push me across the flat toward the west bank. The closer I got to the windy bank, the more feeding action I saw. My first red fish hit fairly close to the bank. They were obviously feeding on bait as it got blown into the grass shoreline. This one was a lower slot fish with some shoulders. After two more casts, I caught another slot red with a tail that looked like it had been half-eaten by a larger predator. The funny thing is, it fought even harder than the first fish with a good tail. Once the sun came out and the fog burnt off, the bite seemed to move more toward the middle of the flat. Schools of rat reds and trout were chasing bait fish as I lowered my anchor and caught several more. When the bite slowed down, I looked at my phone. It was eleven o’clock, and I realized that I was not where I wanted to be. I pulled the anchor and began my paddle back to the spot my nephew had caught fish on Sunday. I entered the narrow passage way into that grass flat and made a few casts. I thought this would be a good funnel area for fish to ambush bait. The tide was now going out fairly strong. When I was not expecting it, an upper slot red fish exploded on my topwater lure. As I reeled up the slack, the fish thrashed several times, and the lure came flying out of his mouth right by my kayak. That got the old heart pumping with excitement as I made my way to the open grass flat I was originally supposed to be in. With time running out, I made one drift across the flat with no luck. I decided to call it a day and head back to the launch. As I approached the mouth were I lost the big red, I made a couple more casts. My Down South lure came to an abrupt halt in the middle of the channel. The shaking head and less resistance let me know I had caught the largest trout of the day. I slid the trout back into the water and started my way back down the main channel to my truck.

As I paddled back, I reflected on how well the day had gone even though I got lost along the way and did not end up where I had intended. The foggy conditions had landed me on a spot were I caught plenty of fish, and again I could use my previous fishing knowledge to take advantage of the cards I was dealt. Life can be like that. Sometimes we are dealt situations that we may not have anticipated. If we learn to make the most of any situation that arises, we can have a strong influence on how things end up. Keeping a positive attitude, serving others and giving the glory to God in all situations is what Christ wants us to do. It is amazing how you feel and what you can accomplish with that mind set. Deuteronomy 11:22

I hope you enjoy the video from last Monday!

God bless you!

Tim Lumpkin

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