The weekend started off with a wet and cold Friday night just as the preceding week had been. The entire week I had the urge to get out in that cold wet weather but I have to pay the bills somehow so work it was. I woke up early Saturday and the forecast for the day was the same as the day before. I took the opportunity to do some things I had put off like getting a haircut. Yes! I prefer to have my hair that short and I DO pay someone to cut it that way. I was heading somewhere on Sunday so I went and got some crabs. These were the best beat crabs I had seen in a very long time. We were set but where were we to go? Most places had way too much fresh water and heard not a single report from the other places I wanted to fish. Off to Matagorda we went. At least there we had several options to fish. Our options were the bay, the river channel, the piers on the river, the surf and the jetty pier in the surf. What a selection. I knew one of these would pay off. We got up early as usual around 9:30ish and noticed the sun was shining outside. Had not seen that in a while. Now the rush was on to get to the beach as soon as possible. Well after packing, waiting on a train and biscuits at Whataburger we finally made it to the each around noon. We drove down the beach until I found a really nice pocket where a new gut started and it was about 30" deep 10 feet from shore. I easily was able to cast to the third gut without much effort. We saw birds working, tide was coming in and a few mullet were jumping. It had all the signs of being a great day in the surf. NOT! Any bait that was casted past the third bar was down the beach in two to three minutes. We were picking up debris that looked like it had come from the river. Leaves, twigs and stuff. The water actually tasted fresh. If you have fished the surf with me you know I do not have any trouble fishing the first gut. We set up all the rods in the first and second gut and settled in. We did not even loose a bait. We had fresh mullet, whiting and crab with not a one being touched. Around 2:30 we decided to move. Where now? We took a look at the jetty pier and I figured we would have the same results. It is my theory that there are deep holes where the fresh water in the river just flows over the heavier saltwater trapped in the deep holes. Finding a deep hole was our target. The other aspect of this is those drum are more tolerant to brackish water so we decided to fish exclusively with crabs from now on. Well shortly setting up we had our first run but we missed it. We proceeded missing about 3 more runs without hooking up. Strange and not the norm for us since we use circle hooks and have good hook up ratios with them. With us having plenty of good crabs I decided to fish the next one topless (without the shell). 5 minutes later we had the first fish on! He is not the biggest drum ever but a welcomed sight none the less.


We fish for 30 minutes or so and decide to check the baits. Too our surprise most of the rods were empty. Those darn fish took the bait without us even noticing. We then sent all the baits topless. Shortly afterwards my rod takes off. Fish on! Then Albert yells FISH ON! I was right there he did not have to yell that loud. The pier is not even 40 feet wide. Two fish on the pier at the same time with only two anglers fishing means only one thing TROUBLE!


This was what we got from our efforts.





We then set up all the rods in the two locations we had caught the only fish. Looked funny. The entire pier to ourselves and we were casting just feet from each other. I then get some action and get onto this fish.


We then went thru a dry spell with the baits not being touched. Then we started to have runs but the baits were coming in bit in half or not on the hook at all. I think it was a school of small drum or some other crab eater. At one time I thought I had seen a freshwater catfish on that brown dirty water. Must be my eyes? I got up to check my light drum rod and it liked like it was moving because of the wind but I was not sure. I the picked up the rod tightened it up a bit and the 15# line started to scream out of the little reel. After a good fight and a few tense moments where the fish almost went under the pier and the surf weight getting caught up on the net the fish was landed. I had trouble lifting this fish so we decided to weigh it. He was short but fat pushing the scale to 46 pounds. Not bad on the small rod.


Albert had about 4 more runs but did not manage to set the hook on any of them before we left. We ended with 5 Big Uglies 38, 38.5, 39, 40 and 41. Believe it or not in that order. Sorry this post was wordy but I had allot to say. I want to thank God for the opportunity to fish as hard as we want and enjoying what I like doing the most!