How's the weather

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imaoldmanyoungsalt
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How's the weather

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

affecting the fishing in the Matagorda area? I'm heading down Monday thru Friday this coming week with my 2 sons and my brother to camp on the beach down toward Mitchell cut for 3 nights. We plan to fish the surf some and kayak fish the bay some. I was wondering how much rain the area has received and how much is still coming next week? Anyone have any thoughts on whether its worthwhile to make the trip or should I cancel it altogether? Its a 6 1/2 hr drive but this will be my last chance to get down there this year.

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Chubs
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Re: How's the weather

Post by Chubs »

I'm not sure but I figure the redfish don't care about fresh water. Trout may be more likely to be in the surf still.

The thing to worry about in my book is the lightning. It's sort of patchy all over this weekend and the week coming isn't looking much better. Not sure how camping on the beach would go, you might be covering in your car a bit to wait out storm cells.

Surf fishing is probably fine, kayak too if you stay close to your trucks to get out of lighting if coming your way. Might limit your options though. I was going to go risk it tomorrow but I've only got a limited window to fish and the thought of making a 4 hr round trip drive to hide in my truck for another 3 hours to fish only 3, didn't seem worth the hassle so figured don't use my wife "fish pass" yet. There will be other times to fish.

Ymmv ;)
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TexasJim
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Re: How's the weather

Post by TexasJim »

The 6 pm weather guy said the rain that's supposed to hit the coast will probably not get here until late Sat. afternoon. If it gets here at all. You'd probably be all right fishing tomorrow, but the camping on the beach might be dicey, unless you have an enclosed trailer. Sunday might be O.K., but maybe not. Good luck. TexasJim
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Re: RE: Re: How's the weather

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Chubs wrote:I'm not sure but I figure the redfish don't care about fresh water. Trout may be more likely to be in the surf still.

The thing to worry about in my book is the lightning. It's sort of patchy all over this weekend and the week coming isn't looking much better. Not sure how camping on the beach would go, you might be covering in your car a bit to wait out storm cells.

Surf fishing is probably fine, kayak too if you stay close to your trucks to get out of lighting if coming your way. Might limit your options though. I was going to go risk it tomorrow but I've only got a limited window to fish and the thought of making a 4 hr round trip drive to hide in my truck for another 3 hours to fish only 3, didn't seem worth the hassle so figured don't use my wife "fish pass" yet. There will be other times to fish.

Ymmv ;)
I hear ya man, I'm not a fan of lightning either. The rain I can deal with, but lightning's not something I like to take chances with especially when your the tallest thing within miles on a beach. Plus we will be tent camping and that could make for some long sleepless nights. Then there's always a possibility of high winds too. Man, I really don't want to cancel my last trip down tho. Maybe I'll call and see if I they have a room at the Shell motel available and just fish between storms. Stinks tho because I've spent all this past week getting camping gear out and cleaning and packing everything. Guess it will be ready for next years trip tho, lol
Good advice Chubs, Thanks

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imaoldmanyoungsalt
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Re: RE: Re: How's the weather

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

TexasJim wrote:The 6 pm weather guy said the rain that's supposed to hit the coast will probably not get here until late Sat. afternoon. If it gets here at all. You'd probably be all right fishing tomorrow, but the camping on the beach might be dicey, unless you have an enclosed trailer. Sunday might be O.K., but maybe not. Good luck. TexasJim
Thanks Jim but we're not driving down until late Monday night to get there early Tuesday morning and forecast calls for possible thunderstorms every day that week. I'm rethinking the beach camping thing. Maybe just stay in a hotel room n fish between storms. I call tomorrow n see what's available.

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Re: How's the weather

Post by karstopo »

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ofs/o ... ty_nowcast

Here’s salinity for west Matagorda bay. Not East Matagorda bay, but it might get less runoff typically than west Matagorda bay. Looks plenty salty.
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Re: How's the weather

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

karstopo wrote:https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ofs/o ... ty_nowcast

Here’s salinity for west Matagorda bay. Not East Matagorda bay, but it might get less runoff typically than west Matagorda bay. Looks plenty salty.
That's a neat link Karst, Thanks
What's considered optimal salinity levels as far as trout/redfish are concerned and at what level do they seek "better" water?
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Re: How's the weather

Post by Ron Mc »

stocked redfish live in Braunig and Calaveras lakes in San Antonio - they can tolerate brackish water that trout won't venture into.
50-lb redfish and 35-lb California Corbina have been caught there.
Like specs, corbina is another member of the croaker and drum family, scienidae.
Still, trout can tolerate 17 ppt - sea water salinity is twice that, 35 ppt.
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Re: How's the weather

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I bet Tobin will have some good information on this.

Here’s a link or two to some information on trout and salinity
https://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/biolog ... atrout.htm
https://coastalanglermag.com/salinity-a ... led-trout/
https://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/hsi/hsi-075.pdf
According to the last link, under 5 ppt is lethal to Speckled trout. Normal sea water is about 35 ppt.

Keep in mind surface salinity and salinity at deeper levels won’t often be the same. Saltier water is denser and tends to hug the bottom. I know I’ve caught trout when the surface water barely if any had a taste of salt. From what I’ve seen, most folks tend to think waters get too fresh for trout before they actually do get too fresh. Trout will move up creeks and rivers as it cools down in the fall as long as the freshwater runoff upstream isn’t too overwhelming. It seems hard to freshen up many bays even with huge local rainfalls and some upstream runoffs. I know it happens, but maybe not as much as people think.
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Re: How's the weather

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

karstopo wrote:I bet Tobin will have some good information on this.

Here’s a link or two to some information on trout and salinity
https://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/biolog ... atrout.htm
https://coastalanglermag.com/salinity-a ... led-trout/
https://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/hsi/hsi-075.pdf
According to the last link, under 5 ppt is lethal to Speckled trout. Normal sea water is about 35 ppt.

Keep in mind surface salinity and salinity at deeper levels won’t often be the same. Saltier water is denser and tends to hug the bottom. I know I’ve caught trout when the surface water barely if any had a taste of salt. From what I’ve seen, most folks tend to think waters get too fresh for trout before they actually do get too fresh. Trout will move up creeks and rivers as it cools down in the fall as long as the freshwater runoff upstream isn’t too overwhelming. It seems hard to freshen up many bays even with huge local rainfalls and some upstream runoffs. I know it happens, but maybe not as much as people think.
More good info, Thanks
Now that I think about it, my 1st trip ever to Matagorda was after a week of heavy, heavy rain. Since I had never been on the beach before we really didn't know what to expect but the bay was so full from runoff and high tides that we had to drive across several areas where water was flowing out of the bay and across the beach on the way to Mitchell cut. In fact, we couldn't even get to the cut the first day account of a large channel of outflow around 4ft deep and 100 yds wide about a mile before we got there. We actually thought we were at the cut until the next day when the water level dropped and we were able to cross the channel in my truck and continued til we reached it. We didn't know at the time time that was wasn't the norm. That was about 11-12 years ago and I've never seen water crossing anywhere along the beach like that since. We caught a lot of fish on that trip so I guess it takes a lot more rain than to change the salinity enough to turn the fish off.
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Re: How's the weather

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

Ron Mc wrote:stocked redfish live in Braunig and Calaveras lakes in San Antonio - they can tolerate brackish water that trout won't venture into.
50-lb redfish and 35-lb California Corbina have been caught there.
Like specs, corbina is another member of the croaker and drum family, scienidae.
Still, trout can tolerate 17 ppt - sea water salinity is twice that, 35 ppt.
That' right, I forgot about redfish being stocked in freshwater lakes. We fished for them at Fairfield a couple of times years ago. I never caught one but my buddy caught a couple.
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Re: How's the weather

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I've never fished them either, but read stories. Apparently they school and beat bait against structure, which is also a hoot when that happens in salt.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Sat Sep 22, 2018 11:11 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: How's the weather

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Like Ron said, redfish don’t require any salt in the water, except, as I understand it, to breed. I think most of the slot reds we all chase are juveniles so they probably aren’t looking to breed. We’ve caught redfish way up in oyster creek in lake Jackson and I’ve caught redfish way up Austin bayou near Liverpool and other inland areas far from the bays.

I think it was Tobin with Troutsupport that once upon a time on TKF said shrimp and maybe other forage will leave the marsh if the water gets too fresh, but I’m working off memory and I could be wrong.

I’ve noticed times when Shrimp and bait seem to be absent from an area, but haven’t been able to nail down why much of the time.
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Re: How's the weather

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I think my 17 ppt is that number
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Re: How's the weather

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https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/mfr483/mfr4832.pdf

This article has a lot of information on brown and white shrimp in relation to environment, salinity and temperatures. Dig in as much as anyone wants. I’d rather go fishing. The storms here are putting the brakes on that.
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Re: How's the weather

Post by imaoldmanyoungsalt »

karstopo wrote:https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/mfr483/mfr4832.pdf

This article has a lot of information on brown and white shrimp in relation to environment, salinity and temperatures. Dig in as much as anyone wants. I’d rather go fishing. The storms here are putting the brakes on that.
Too much technical info for me to stay focused :? so I'm with you, I'd rather go fishing :D
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Re: How's the weather

Post by gregtheaussieangler »

Never really understand it but if my gut says its a good day, I'll be right out there!
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