The View: October 2023

I write the same thing just about every October. How I am so excited to live in Matagorda in October. How it is the best time of the year. How the birds work, redfish are good, trout are good, ducks are showing up. I do love it and am excited to get this drought and extremely hot temperatures of summer behind us.

Higher tides this month will be a boon for redfish. Again, there are lots of shrimp in the back lakes and marshes and many will target those fish with small topwaters and live shrimp under a Mid-Coast cork.

As those fish begin to move out to the bays they will be found on the grassy shorelines on both the north and south sides. Many will toss a shrimp right against the edge of the grass while those of the artificial persuasion will troll shorelines tossing DOA Shrimp or small topwaters like She Pups and Super Spook Jrs.

Some of the largest redfish will be found in the middle of East Bay under birds. When things are really firing off in the fall there will be 10-20 groups working in the bay. One will have solid trout beneath; the other will be all redfish. Many times, when terns are circling, it is a sure sign of redfish.

Normally, the in-between days of summer and fall make speckled trout a bit finicky, especially when winds blow and you can't get to the fish. That's when redfish take up the slack. Higher tides push reds to the back lakes where they begin schooling along shorelines. It's not uncommon to find pods of 2- to 4-dozen fish with noses down and turquoise tails out of the water.

We toss small topwaters and soft plastics under a cork (to keep it out of the shell) at those fish, sometimes with triple hookups; but, when three are bowed up with a big red, chances are lines are going to cross and hooks are going to pop.

The first few cold fronts of the year have significance. Swelling fall tides push water to the back reaches of the marsh where shrimp stage before starting their trek to the Gulf of Mexico. Not until a blast of cold wind hits the coast do tides fall and shrimp begin descending out of the marsh.

Most of the reefs have drop-offs from years and years of oyster dredging and the trout like to work the edge of the shell and the mud. Most of those hotspots are on the tips of the reefs and can be reached with a solid cast.

We reverted back to our pre-freeze trout regulations September 1st. Most of the anglers I know are not happy about it. We made great strides for our fishery over the past two years with catch and release and stricter bag limits.

However, I have been told by TPWD that help is on the way in the coming year. According to multiple sources, scoping meetings will begin soon to gauge the approval/disapproval of the current state of our coastal fisheries. That’s good news.

In August, a group of concerned fishers from every Texas bay system, including Matagorda, drove to Austin and testified before the TPWD Commission. We appreciate TPWD lending us an ear and platform from which to speak.

The better news is they listened.

Though the law for the rest of this year says 5-trout, 15-25 inches, with one over 25 inches allowed per day, we are going to keep preaching catch and release. We saw such great improvements in the quality of trout in our bay system with tighter regulations and we relayed that to the Commission and their biologists.

Yes, there remains a group of anglers who believe rod and reel cannot strike a dent in the trout population and choose to put a knife in all legal trout. However, that faction is growing smaller and smaller by the day.

Conservation is winning, sound judgement is winning, catch and release is winning; and, with these new attitudes, speckled trout and our bays are winning. Please be ready and willing to speak up for our bays in the coming year when TPWD asks for comment.

Sunrise Lodge and Properties is a hunting and fishing outfit offering full service waterfront lodging and entertainment. We also buy, sell or happily give advice on real estate opportunities in the country or on the coast while offering Matagorda vacation and fishing rentals.