Galveston Bay Charters

Recently I participated in an Xtreme Redfish Trail tournament in Matagorda, TX. with Lance Humbarger. I have known Lance since the Redfish Cup, FLW, and Troutmasters days, but had never fished as partners in a tournament.

We began our pre-fishing on Wednesday leaving from Matagorda Harbour with conditions less than perfect. The first problem was the wind, not only was it blowing 15+, it blew out of every direction on the compass as the day wore on. The other problem was the tide, or the lack of tide. The water was as low as I have seen in Matagorda in a long time, excluding the passage of a cold front. Despite all the negatives we took off down the intracoastal with high expectations.

That didn't last too long, the first place we looked at started with an abrupt stop while coming off plane. In other words we ran aground. After some evasive maneuvers we began to fish the area, but I quickly realized the reds were not in this pond or if they were they were swimming sideways to avoid sticking their backs out of the water. So, off we went again.

This time it was my turn to come up with the next brill ant idea. My brilliant idea was to look in another pond, which doesn't make much sense considering we just ran aground in the pond we just left. None the less, I committed to the plan and headed towards our next area. As we approached the area I new it was not good, because there was more mud and oysters exposed than there was water. But of course I had to continue to persevere.

The other sign that things were not going well was that Lance quit talking and his hands grew white as he gripped the hand rail harder and harder. As we progressed through the minefield we finally fell into a small bayou that allowed us to come off plane and take a break, also allowing Lance to make an observation. The observation was "What are we going to do now" and my response was " Hold my water bottle I'm going to try to get to the pond at the end of this bayou". With nothing else said and Lance's white knuckles, we headed to the " perfect" pond. When we got to the "perfect" pond we came off plane to an abrupt stop, you know what that really means, and the "perfect" pond was one big mat of grass with no water. That's when the famous question popped up again "What are we going to do now?"

After some additional evasive maneuvering we made our way back to the intracoastal. Lance and I continued to persevere for the next two days with more abrupt stops and evasive maneuvering and by now you know that means running  aground and pushing.

After three days of perseverance and having attended the Captain's Meeting the famous question came up again, let's say it all together, "What are we going to do now"? My brilliant answer was "I don't know".

After much discussion the night before the tournament we decided to stay with our shallow water pattern. The morning of the tournament Lance and I headed to an area that we had looked at twice during pre-fishing, but with little success. As the morning progressed we worked schools of small reds tailing along the grass shore lines. After a few evasive maneuvers, you know what that means, we continued to work our pattern.

By the time we headed to weigh-in we had culled our way to 15.78 lbs good enough for 4th place. The point is, perseverance caught those fish!

 Thanks, Good Fishing, and God Bless!

 Capt. Trim.