Reminiscing Springtime Past
Everybody who knows me knows I was not born here. All I have to do is open my mouth and that Pennsylvania hillbilly accent gives me away. I’m one of those who got here as soon as I could, but along the way I’ve done all I could to become naturalized – if such is possible. I’ve been here forty years, and I have come to love the Texas outdoors dearly, striving my level best to learn all I could and pay back with interest all the wonderful lessons and experiences the Texas outdoors have bestowed on me.
One of those experiences just happened to be my first coastal fishing trip. It was in the early 90s, a couple of friends from work invited me along to East Matagorda Bay, more specifically to Old Gulf Cut, a sliver of a channel that once served a bustling mining community – now a ghost town.
It was a gorgeous spring day and the fish seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were. If you’ve ever fished here, the preferred method (or at least it was back then) was to anchor along the east bank during a strong-running tide and cast lures out into the cut. It doesn’t take long to figure it out when the fish are chewing. And they certainly did that day.
No doubt, the great spring weather added greatly to our experience, and racking up dozens of fat speckled trout just made it that much better. They just couldn’t seem to refuse the Bass Assassins we were throwing. Which, by the way, had just made their debut in Texas that spring.
But back to the allure of springtime. Even though we haven’t had but a dab of winter weather this year, there is still something very special about the arrival of spring. It all begins with bulging equinox tides rushing into the bays, full of life and warmth. Trees are budding and flowers are blooming. Glass minnows show by the millions and speckled trout begin to spawn. There is rebirth in all of nature and it invigorates your soul to be out there and witness it.
I sincerely invite you to make a special effort to get outdoors this month and enjoy this wonderful thing called spring. And while you’re at it, like my late friend Dickie Colburn always used to say, “Take a kid fishing, you never know the impact you might have.”
Look what happened to me at the Old Gulf Cut!
