Matagorda rigs

[limbwalker]

Took the wife and daughter out today in the boat - we made it out to the rig that's 6 miles up the beach and 2 mi. offshore from the Matty jetties. To our surprise, there was nobody at the rig when we arrived around 2:00 p.m.

Using large cut mullet (frozen, that we bought at Rawlings), the girls had hookups within 5 minutes. Neither my wife or my daughter were ready for the fights they got, and both fish broke them off on the rig. But it was a pretty thrilling few minutes before that happened! The next fish, my wife got to the boat - a 32" redfish. After that my daughter caught the "smallest" fish of the day - a 27" red. There were periods of 10-15 minutes with no action, interrupted by fits of panic. It was a total blast to watch. I was playing guide and deckhand, re-rigging after they were broke off, cutting mullet and rebaiting hooks.

My wife had two VERY large fish break her off, one I assume was a big kingfish as it stripped a good 75 yards of line before it broke her off, and the other was a 3-4' shark that threw the hook when it surfaced about 40 yards from the boat. My daughter lost the biggest fish she's ever had on her line, presumably a 35+" red that took her down into the rig.

My wife was using a 4000 series Penn Battle spinning rig with 40# braid, and my daughter was hamstrung with my old 5500 c3 with 30# braid. The Penn did it's job but the 5500 was just too small. We've only been offshore in our boat 2x so most all our gear is too small for that job. But it sure was fun! They absolutely loved the action.

I am still surprised there was nobody else there. Would have been a pretty easy paddle earlier in the day and the water was beautiful.

[Killerbee]

I love that rig! Always a good time at that one

[limbwalker]

A couple pictures of the ones that didn't get away. LOL

[bison_snapper]

Nice, I always seem to get into redfish out there too. How was the water clarity?

[kickingback]

Cool report and nice pics! Glad you caught some. It's nice out in the Gulf right now!

[limbwalker]

Bison, the clarity was spectacular. In fact, it was clear to the beach other than where the dolphins were feeding around the 3rd sand bar.

[trolling dirty]

That is a great rig. I like it cause of the pelagics and also you get a ton of "brownwater" species there as well. I would troll around for the pelagics and jig at the rig for reds and specks. Good thing with a kayak with pedals is you can follow the fish around the rig if thats where it goes.

The reason no one is ever there is cause of location, which is why its so great for kayaks. Motor boats leaving out of Matagorda can cover the same distance (~6.3 miles) and go to deeper water rigs that are straight out of the jetties, so thats what they do. Meanwhile, kayaks can drive 5-6 miles on the beach and only have a 2 mile water commute. This rig is kind of a gem for the Houston area kayak fishermen

[Kalait]

Generally how long does it take a kayaker to paddle the 2 miles? Trying to get into shape on a nearby lake to paddle 6 to 10 miles. I did 5.99 miles yesterday in about 3.5 hours.

[trolling dirty]

With a Hobie with mirage drive, you could cover that distance in about 30 minutes (at about 4mph) without "busting your ass" so to speak. Usually people will troll on the way there so that'll slow them down. I imagine good kayakers with good paddle kayaks could move faster if they wanted to

[limbwalker]

That is a great rig. I like it cause of the pelagics and also you get a ton of "brownwater" species there as well. I would troll around for the pelagics and jig at the rig for reds and specks. Good thing with a kayak with pedals is you can follow the fish around the rig if thats where it goes.

The reason no one is ever there is cause of location, which is why its so great for kayaks. Motor boats leaving out of Matagorda can cover the same distance (~6.3 miles) and go to deeper water rigs that are straight out of the jetties, so thats what they do. Meanwhile, kayaks can drive 5-6 miles on the beach and only have a 2 mile water commute. This rig is kind of a gem for the Houston area kayak fishermen

Yea, I can see that. The rigs that are straight out from the jetties look pretty close. I haven't been out to those yet but I only have a 17' Carolina Skiff, and I'm not interested in going that far offshore. It's reassuring to have the beach only 2 miles away and know that if worse came to worst (motor won't start, etc.) we could eventually end up on the beach and catch a ride back to my truck.

We've only been out there twice in my boat. Last Novemeber we caught a day where the gulf was like glass and it was a cinch to run full speed all the way to that rig. Saturday, it was about 3/4 throttle but still a mostly dry ride. By the time we left, we were getting bobbed around a bit, but nothing the ladies couldn't handle.

I can see where having a peddle-powered kayak would be just the ticket there - giving you the ability to chase a really big fish. If I had been a bit quicker and had a better system for tying up and disconnecting from the rig, I could have chased one of the fish my wife had. It was stripping line and running away from the rig. But by the time I thought to untie and chase it, it had broken her off. We all would still love to have seen what that fish was!

I was wondering about jigs for a place like that. I have nearly zero offshore knowledge so any advice is more than welcome. I like the idea of fishing jigs rather than cut bait and I know both my wife and daughter would rather use jigs than bait.

[trolling dirty]

Absolutely. When I lived in Houston this was my go-to spot. The only live/dead bait I used there was either dead ribbonfish on a stinger or whatever I caught with a sabiki. These would be good for kings and other pelagics if they were around that day. From your description of the water clarity I would bet at least kings were in the area. I would also get these fish trolling topwater or diving jigs.

I suggest next time you come armed with some knife jigs such as this:

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/offshor ... -knife-jig

I bet there were specks, ladyfish, smacks, sand trout etc at that rig that day. I think you just didn't get them cause you were fishing mullet, which is only really good for reds and sharks. You take these knife jigs as close to the rig as possible and just pound them on the bottom and you'll get any of the numerous species that are there. I've even got king's on these jigs too at that rig. The sad news is theyre expensive and you could lose them if the fish circles the rig. In my experience, its the big redfish that will do that while fishing with this tactic. Also, the few days I went there and saw sharks around, those were the exceptionally good days. This makes sense as they were probably circling the rig for the buffet that was around.

Good call with the safety reason for doing what you did. Especially when you have guests with you. I have been in situations when the wind kicked up and I was a bit nervous heading back to the beach.

[limbwalker]

Thanks for all the tips. I'm completely new to fishing these rigs so I'll take any advice I can get. My girls would much rather fish with lures than bait, but it's what I knew would work, and they both had multiple hookups on fish they couldn't stop, so that was the experience I was after for them. They won't soon forget it!

I will most definitely go armed with jigs next trip and I know for a fact my wife will love that, because she's a big fan of the good 'ol Kastmaster spoons. It's one of the first things I taught her to fish when we were dating 30 years ago.

We would also like to catch other species, and smaller is definitely okay with them since they were getting a bit frustrated with having huge fish on the line and not getting them to the boat.

Just spent some time researching butterfly jigs. I feel very old now LOL My fishing tackle hasn't changed much since the 80's in freshwater, and the early 90's in saltwater, and I have a lot to learn about new lures!