Matagorda Rigs Report

[Earl]

I made the drive this past weekend to Matagorda. The plan was to fish the 2 mile rig then head out to the new artificial reef about 9.8 miles out. I arrived about 4:30 and enough time to make a quick trip to the rig and check out the water color. There was a pretty good breeze and a little chop but my Hobie TI cut right through and was at the rig in 20 minutes. I immediately hooked up and landed the first of 5 jacks. My arm was tired after that. Then I landed a small SMac then headed to the beach. That SMac was dinner on the beach. The camping was pretty good with a full moon, my hammock tied to the truck and trailer, the beach traffic was pretty light also. BTW, you need 4WD to get down the beach 6.5 miles unless the tide is out pretty good. There were some stretches of deep sand.

Saturday AM I got up and made coffee under the bright moon and some breakfast. Soon as the sun came up the T-storms got started so I sat on the beach for a bit until the lighting calmed down. Off to the rig about 9:30 and I could see several other yakers making their way out there also. When I arrived there were two other kayakers there and one was hooked up then there were six kayakers and 4 hooked up, all were jacks. I had one jack then the proximity alarm on the rig started going off. I left for the 7-8 mile rigs as those jacks were dominating the scene, plus 6 kayaks around one rig is a bit much for me. The new reef was only another 2-3 miles out but with a late start and the T-storms still around I decided not to go out there. I will be back though later in Aug or Sep to make that trip.

As soon as I arrived at the first of 12 rigs I hooked up, first king of many for the day. I would no more than release one and another was on. Most were all small <40” but you would reel one in and could see 4-6 cousins underneath them. The water color was not blue but a deep green with decent clarity. There were no kayakers and only 1 power boat at a rig about a mile away. I only fished two of the rigs and kept busy until my arms were tired. There were some healthy T-storms onshore along the beach to just inland, a lot of lighting and a lot of noise but none offshore in my vicinity. I made back to the beach a bit before 4pm and all the other yakers were gone.



One of many. I lost track of the number but probably 9-11 total for the day.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid= ... 46453&z=12

My Tracks for Friday and Saturday
SYOTW,

Earl

[Blue Devil 7]

Good report. Stupid photo#@!%it I want to see the pics!

We also made it out to the rig at Matagorda this weekend. We decided Sunday morning was going to be our best window, but when we arrived at the beach there was a big T-storm brewing to the NE. We waited that out and as soon as it dissipated, we launched through the surf. This was only my wife's second attempt at BTB, but she got a good dose of it this time. We trolled spoons and crank baits on our way out and my son picked up a Smack about 3/4 of the way to the rig. Around the rig there were schools of smacks busting, and I saw spadefish on the surface and the sharks were thick. There was one other yak there as well and I saw him hooked up several times and I heard him say he has lost a jack to a shark. I immediately got a smack and then my son landed a 3+ foot shark. I got a second smack and while reeling it in, a blacktip tried to take it. Luckily he missed. Then my wife got in on the action, getting cut off with one smack, losing another at the boat and then finally landing one. Then I got a shark to my boat (I wanted my spoon back) and my son landed his second smack after it was also chased by a blacktip . I looked over at my wife and her rod is screaming. She hooked up with a good sized shark (on a spoon again). She got it close to the boat and cut the line. Then I hooked up with a strong jack and after a good fight it was CPR'd. The action was fast and steady, and we all had many other strikes that were missed or got off. We ran out of time since we still had to break camp and drive back to Austin, so we left them biting.

[Earl]

I do not speak social media, I do not have a Facebook, Snapchat, or Twitter acct, I do not take selfies with my fish, I do not ask my fish to pose, I do not spend my time offshore taking pictures, I do spend my time fishing, I fish for my enjoyment not for others. The report was a courtesy to those who do fish the area and are wanting some recent information as to the beach and water conditions.

Glad you had a good day on the water.

I think I now understand why the old timers stopped posting on TKF.

SYOTW,

Earl

[Blue Devil 7]

Sorry if I rubbed you the wrong way. My frustration is with photobucket and not being able to see the picture you had posted. I appreciate you posting the report.

[Earl]

Okay now I think I understand a bit. In the preview I get the picture as intended and on my laptop the same. However, when I get on my desktop I get the photobucket one finger salute. It is either PB or TKF. not sure which but I have thin virtue for either these days. I will see if I can get that thing to display correctly but it may be on the viewer end.

I am open to finding another photo sharing site. I do try to share photos with family and friend and PB has become cumbersome and more trouble than it is worth of late.

Sorry for being rubbed the wrong way. I just did not see you referring to PB and interpreted as other of my photo I took of the first king of the day. I rarely take pic of my fish so the one of 2017 that I did to be called Stupid just got under my normal thick skin.

BTW, what kind of kayak were you and your wife in?

On Sat I saw a couple in at hobie TI at the rig but without a sail and thought that to be odd. He was doing all the peddling and she was enjoying the ride.

Let me know if you are interested in heading to that new reef late Aug or Sep, weather permitting.

SYOTW,
Earl

[Sharpest]

I have switched over to imgur but I don't think you can access the third party linking function on a mobile device, only on the full desk top site. But it's free and it works so yah...

[TimmyT140]

The reason your picture isn't showing is because Photobucket has blocked 3rd party hosting, unless you pay them $400 a year. Everybody is quitting them.
I use Flickr, seems to work on my laptop pretty well. A lot of people are going to Imgur. Google Photos is another option, as well as TinyPic.

[Yakety_Yak]

Great to see you are back down hitting the deep blue yonder in the TI, Earl. Let me know when you are going to be down again and I will see if I can meet with ya on my TI. My only problem is that I can't do spots with 4wd as I don't have one. If it's 2wd friendly, I'm in.

[Blue Devil 7]

Yeah, my jab was totally at PB. I should have made that more clear. I'm a bit peeved at how they've cut off 3rd party hosting. I've lost a bunch of pics on various sites across the interwebs.

We might be interested in joining you at the close rig in Aug or Sept if we get a good weather window. I'm in a Ride 135, my wife in a Viking ProFish 400 lite,and my son is in a T140. We don't quite have the range to hit the reef 9+ miles out.

Here is the shark I caught on a spoon,posted from my new Imgur account .

[Earl]

Okay, thanks for the information on PB. I was already not happy now the deal is done. I will explore other options.

Yakety-Yak, yea I have not had much time to hit the coast this year. I have been busy spending extra time with my twin 17 yr olds who both leave for college in about 40 days, OSU and T A&M. We leave for Colorado later this week to knock out 4 fourteeners and spend some time in the back country then paddle the upper Rio Grande then drop down to New Mex to paddle the Rio Chama for 3 days. Then we are off to Gulf Shores for a week. I will get to do some BTB fishing there as the TI and another yak are going.

Blue Devil, nice blacktip. What kind of lure is that you caught him on?

SYOTW,
Earl

[Blue Devil 7]

That is an old Hopkins 388 spoon. I trolled that the whole time we were out there and it caught everything. I'm glad I didn't loose it. It has been in my dad's tackle box since the late 70's when we used to troll with it to catch big blue fish on our sail boat off of Va Beach.

[Mellow-Yellow]

Thanks for the post, was a good read.

[Killerbee]

Good report. Stupid photo#@!%it I want to see the pics!

We also made it out to the rig at Matagorda this weekend. We decided Sunday morning was going to be our best window, but when we arrived at the beach there was a big T-storm brewing to the NE. We waited that out and as soon as it dissipated, we launched through the surf. This was only my wife's second attempt at BTB, but she got a good dose of it this time. We trolled spoons and crank baits on our way out and my son picked up a Smack about 3/4 of the way to the rig. Around the rig there were schools of smacks busting, and I saw spadefish on the surface and the sharks were thick. There was one other yak there as well and I saw him hooked up several times and I heard him say he has lost a jack to a shark. I immediately got a smack and then my son landed a 3+ foot shark. I got a second smack and while reeling it in, a blacktip tried to take it. Luckily he missed. Then my wife got in on the action, getting cut off with one smack, losing another at the boat and then finally landing one. Then I got a shark to my boat (I wanted my spoon back) and my son landed his second smack after it was also chased by a blacktip . I looked over at my wife and her rod is screaming. She hooked up with a good sized shark (on a spoon again). She got it close to the boat and cut the line. Then I hooked up with a strong jack and after a good fight it was CPR'd. The action was fast and steady, and we all had many other strikes that were missed or got off. We ran out of time since we still had to break camp and drive back to Austin, so we left them biting.

Hey Bud
I was the guy on the yellow ocean kayak. It was an epic day out there. Quick question being relatively new to btb. How do you keep the dang Spanish mackrel from cutting you off? I used leaders but they still managed to steal all my gear! I ended up catching sevreal sharks and jacks. I lost a big cobia as well. I went back on Monday and caugh sharks and jacks again. Never even hooked a king that I know of.

[Killerbee]

Couple of pics

[Blue Devil 7]

Nice meeting you out there. It was a great day for sure! I couldn't believe how thick the sharks were. That sucks you lost a cobia. That's the one fish I really want to get.

I don't know that there is a surefire way to keep the smacks from cutting you off some of the time. We had that same thing happen to us the first time we went out there. We lost everything shiny we had with us. I've heard it explained that when one gets hooked, his friends want to get in on the action and will target the swivels at the top of your leader sometimes and it is best to use small black swivels if you are using wire leaders, and longer leaders. My strategy for this trip was to go bigger. I was trolling that big Hopkins spoon with a long heavy wire leader. I didn't get maybe as many hookups, but I still caught plenty of fish and didn't loose that spoon. I would also really fight the smacks hard. Once I know I has a smack on, I cranked the drag down and hauled it in as quickly as I could to avoid getting cut off by other smacks or hungry sharks.

[Killerbee]

Nice meeting you out there. It was a great day for sure! I couldn't believe how thick the sharks were. That sucks you lost a cobia. That's the one fish I really want to get.

I don't know that there is a surefire way to keep the smacks from cutting you off some of the time. We had that same thing happen to us the first time we went out there. We lost everything shiny we had with us. I've heard it explained that when one gets hooked, his friends want to get in on the action and will target the swivels at the top of your leader sometimes and it is best to use small black swivels if you are using wire leaders, and longer leaders. My strategy for this trip was to go bigger. I was trolling that big Hopkins spoon with a long heavy wire leader. I didn't get maybe as many hookups, but I still caught plenty of fish and didn't loose that spoon. I would also really fight the smacks hard. Once I know I has a smack on, I cranked the drag down and hauled it in as quickly as I could to avoid getting cut off by other smacks or hungry sharks.

I have never had sharks that thick. That one almost gave me a heart attack when he grabbed that 20lb jack while I was in the process of fetching my gaff from the front hatch. Sounded like a bomb went off next to me! Huge shark! I was sad to see yall leave lol. I don't have good sense so I stayed quite a bit longer. It never slowe'd down.

[Killerbee]

Nice meeting you out there. It was a great day for sure! I couldn't believe how thick the sharks were. That sucks you lost a cobia. That's the one fish I really want to get.

I don't know that there is a surefire way to keep the smacks from cutting you off some of the time. We had that same thing happen to us the first time we went out there. We lost everything shiny we had with us. I've heard it explained that when one gets hooked, his friends want to get in on the action and will target the swivels at the top of your leader sometimes and it is best to use small black swivels if you are using wire leaders, and longer leaders. My strategy for this trip was to go bigger. I was trolling that big Hopkins spoon with a long heavy wire leader. I didn't get maybe as many hookups, but I still caught plenty of fish and didn't loose that spoon. I would also really fight the smacks hard. Once I know I has a smack on, I cranked the drag down and hauled it in as quickly as I could to avoid getting cut off by other smacks or hungry sharks.

I have never had sharks that thick. That one almost gave me a heart attack when he grabbed that 20lb jack while I was in the process of fetching my gaff from the front hatch. Sounded like a bomb went off next to me! Huge shark! I was sad to see yall leave lol. I don't have good sense so I stayed quite a bit longer. It never slowe'd down.

Thanks for the advice on the smacks. I lost every jig that I had. I also lost about 100 dollars in large plastics. I had a 7inch red headed yozuri that was killing the jacks. I lost it to a shark. I also lost another 7inch yozuri in mackrel color to that huge ray that I was telling you about. Talk about a sleigh ride.

[trolling dirty]

When I fish the rigs, and particularly this one, I typically do 1 of 2 things. I either troll large circles around the rig and get jacks, kings, and (hopefully this weekend for the first time), cobia. Ill use big topwaters, bombers, and ribbonfish. I've never had an issue losing gear to spanish mackeral this way. If the smacks struck my trolling lines theyd hit the jig or the ribbonfish.
Only danger I experienced here is getting a shark (which would happen if i was too close to the rig. In my experience the kings are further out from the immediate vicinity of the rig. The other thing I'll do is jig a large knife jig near the rig while hovering near it against the current with my mirage drive. This typically catches me all sorts of fish and a variety of species. Last time I did this the spanish mackeral would steal my gear by nibbling at the swivel that connected my 50lb mono to my wire leader. It was frustrating and there were a lot of them. So I was basically throwing gear out of my boat. Hearing these reports (thanks for the reports by the way), I will attempt to either buy some black-painted swivels or tie a loop knot around my wire leader. I can't keep losing knife jigs theyre too expensive.

That being said, I'm looking to hit this rig again either this Friday or Sunday. I'll probably open up a separate thread for this later. But figured I'd drop a line here since all of you guys have been at this rig recently already. Answer the thread or PM me if you intend to haul some meat this wknd.

[Killerbee]

When I fish the rigs, and particularly this one, I typically do 1 of 2 things. I either troll large circles around the rig and get jacks, kings, and (hopefully this weekend for the first time), cobia. Ill use big topwaters, bombers, and ribbonfish. I've never had an issue losing gear to spanish mackeral this way. If the smacks struck my trolling lines theyd hit the jig or the ribbonfish.
Only danger I experienced here is getting a shark (which would happen if i was too close to the rig. In my experience the kings are further out from the immediate vicinity of the rig. The other thing I'll do is jig a large knife jig near the rig while hovering near it against the current with my mirage drive. This typically catches me all sorts of fish and a variety of species. Last time I did this the spanish mackeral would steal my gear by nibbling at the swivel that connected my 50lb mono to my wire leader. It was frustrating and there were a lot of them. So I was basically throwing gear out of my boat. Hearing these reports (thanks for the reports by the way), I will attempt to either buy some black-painted swivels or tie a loop knot around my wire leader. I can't keep losing knife jigs theyre too expensive.

That being said, I'm looking to hit this rig again either this Friday or Sunday. I'll probably open up a separate thread for this later. But figured I'd drop a line here since all of you guys have been at this rig recently already. Answer the thread or PM me if you intend to haul some meat this wknd.

Thanks for the advice! I was pretty close to the rig most of the time I was there. Do you have more luck on the down current side? I would drift a good ways off while fighting fish. I trolled back to the rig and caught several fish at what appeared to be 200 yards away. I hooked the cobia by the stick up and he pulled me back into it. The cobia hit a yellow bucktail jig. Thanks to Prof Salt for his gaff DIY. It worked like a charm.

[Mellow-Yellow]

Yeah, my jab was totally at PB. I should have made that more clear. I'm a bit peeved at how they've cut off 3rd party hosting. I've lost a bunch of pics on various sites across the interwebs.

We might be interested in joining you at the close rig in Aug or Sept if we get a good weather window. I'm in a Ride 135, my wife in a Viking ProFish 400 lite,and my son is in a T140. We don't quite have the range to hit the reef 9+ miles out.

Here is the shark I caught on a spoon,posted from my new Imgur account .

Blue Devil how long does it usually take you to paddle to the rig in your ride 135? I assume you troll on the way out as well. Been thinking about taking a trip to the rigs once with some friends, we usually just stay a few hundred yards from shore but looking to try something new.

[Blue Devil 7]

It takes us about 30-45 minutes to get to the rig, trolling or not.