Caney Creek/Sargent/East Matagorda-ish - Tips and safety advice appreciated

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rgrayson
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Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 9:25 pm

Caney Creek/Sargent/East Matagorda-ish - Tips and safety advice appreciated

Post by rgrayson »

I'm likely heading to my usual Matagorda spots on Saturday. However, I have been pondering for a while launching at the Crab Trap and trying to fish Caney Creek. The area in green is where I'd like to try but the area in blue is a possibility. It'd be a bit of a hike to get there. My main concern is the area in red and how safe that area is. Anyone familiar with it and is it kayak accessible? I'm all about safety and even though I always have my PDF on, I do my best to avoid needing its services. Any information is appreciated.
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Chubs
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Re: Caney Creek/Sargent/East Matagorda-ish - Tips and safety advice appreciated

Post by Chubs »

rgrayson wrote:I'm likely heading to my usual Matagorda spots on Saturday. However, I have been pondering for a while launching at the Crab Trap and trying to fish Caney Creek. The area in green is where I'd like to try but the area in blue is a possibility. It'd be a bit of a hike to get there. My main concern is the area in red and how safe that area is. Anyone familiar with it and is it kayak accessible? I'm all about safety and even though I always have my PDF on, I do my best to avoid needing its services. Any information is appreciated.
I camped my RV at Sargent over the summer. I'm not sure if the bridge or the beach access road is clear yet, but there is a public boat ramp on the barrier island, if you have a 4WD you can drive along the dirt road on the north side of the island. It's maybe a little less torn up driving wise than trying the beach.

You can also launch at the end of Dolphin Way Road (I never saw any "no parking" signs so I assume it was legal). Only thing is it's not back in launching and won't work if you are towing a trailer. If you can slide the kayak out of a truck bed though to the water that will cut down on your paddle.

The things you circled, the green circle is very shallow but if the water is high you can make it.
The red circled area is fine as long as you stick to the sides and keep moving while it's safe to cross you will be fine, just don't fish in the middle of the channel because at best you are going to piss of boaters, at worse you are going to get run over.
The blue area I never made it out to but same rules apply there as the red area, stick to the edges etc. The far north pass is extremely shallow and it's all hard packed sand.
I saw boats fishing the areas you circled though all the time. Not too many other kayakers were ever seen out that far (probably due to how long the paddle is). Mostly I saw other kayakers fishing dead caney lake. Not a bad fishery but I never limited out. Always caught at least 1 keeper of some sort though and this was in the middle of summer. I bet it's better now, maybe I'll make a trip out there again soon :)
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Mulligan
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Location: Houston, TX

Re: Caney Creek/Sargent/East Matagorda-ish - Tips and safety advice appreciated

Post by Mulligan »

The only two times I tried that spot, I drove along the beach to get to the cut opening up to the Gulf. Just past that fishing pier on the gulf size, you can access the beach. This was over a yr ago, so with all the storms/hurricanes we've had, that beach may have changed so be careful. There's always debris there. Weird thing about that area and beach, there seems to be a mix of hard mud mixed in with the sand on the beach. Not soft mud, so usually I didn't have problem driving on it.

Never tried that green area.

Like Chubs said, lot of boat traffic within that red circled area so be careful.

I fished that blue circled area and was ok. Caught bunch of croakers for bait for my offshore trips one day. I went further west of that blue circle and caught several good size reds. If you do go further west, it gets really shallow. I had to get out and drag my yak about 80-100 yards to get to that east Matty bay side.

I have to imagine that main opening to the Gulf should be a good spot for the flounders leaving the shallow marsh! Good luck!
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