The View: March 2017

Folks frequent Matagorda during Spring Break for our beaches and easy-access fishing. Wives and kids love the quiet living on the peninsula and our waterfront rentals and coastal restaurants. If you don't fish on the bays, most riverfront houses have piers with lights to fish at night.

We often fish morning and afternoons this month to accommodate our guests. There are only so many days of vacation for families and we don't like to tell people "no" when they want to go fishing.

We will be splitting time in East and West bays. Most of our drifting trips will be in East Bay over deep shell with the same baits we use wading. Live shrimp are deadly in spots like Lake Austin, Oyster Lake, Crab Lake and Boggy. Redfish are usually everywhere. We can make long drifts or anchor on reefs. Tides are traditionally above normal in March so there are plenty of places to get out of the wind if spring holds true to form.

Redfish are not the only drum in abundance in March, juvenile black drum, the eating kind, frequent reefs in West Matagorda Bay. Twin Islands, Shell Island and Oyster Lake are all proven drum haunts in March. Live shrimp under a popping cork is the best bet, but dead shrimp will work, too.

The jetty is a great spot to intercept big reds and drum for Spring Breakers. There are some folks who do nothing but target large sheepshead against the rocks with live shrimp.

Over-sized black drum, those over 30 inches, are the spawners and are catch-and-release only, but that doesn’t mean they are any less fun to catch. Big black bruisers frequent the channel and jetty leading to the Gulf and a cracked blue crab or mullet gets eaten quick.

If our mild winter persists, March could be more like May. Water temps in the upper 60s and lower 70s is not out of the question; and, if you like throwing topwaters, those big tides push big fish to the shorelines.

We love to wade the guts and bayous with Soft-Dines, Bass Assassins and Down South Lures.

If a late-season cold front blows through and drops tides, move to the mouths of lakes. The water and bait will be pouring out of the back lakes and the fish ride with the tide and bait. Camp out and wait for the redfish to come through.

Waders seeking big trout most certainly work the east end of East Matagorda Bay. Brown Cedar Flats, Half Moon Reef and Catch-All Basin have soft mud bottoms that hold heavy trout in the spring. Flats adjacent to the ICW on the north shoreline are players as well. Big trout slide in to the deep of the channel on low tide, then creep back up on the flats on the incoming. Hangout there long enough and you meet one or two of Matagorda's finest.

Sunrise Lodge on Matagorda Bay will be at the Houston Fishing Show at the George R. Brown Convention Center, March 8-12. Come by and say hello. We will have complimentary tickets available Wednesday through Friday of the show. Give us a call or text for tickets (979-241-1705).

Follow our catches on Instagram @matagordasunriselodge.