Choosing my favorite part about the Texas trip was difficult, but in the end, I would have to say that Matagorda Island was my favorite part. In the two and a half days that we spent there, I was able to experience so many new things. The trip to the island took about 30 minutes by boat. Even this was a new experience as I had never been in the ocean like that. We saw several dolphins as soon as we left Port O’Connor, as well as all sorts of cool birds. By the time everyone got to the island, it was already dark, so a small group of us decided to explore as much as we could the first night. We went to the building just east of the campsite on the other side of the docks. The building walls were covered in Mediterranean house geckos, which we were able to catch several of. Next to the building was a little area of water with many different species of small fish, crabs, and bugs. Brooke was able to catch a fish with her hands, and Tucker managed to grab onto a pretty sizable blue crab.
One of my main goals for this trip was to catch a redfish or just about any saltwater fish, as I had never done so before. Thankfully, we got up early the next morning in hopes of catching some fish. Right off the bat, Tucker hooked into a really nice 19-inch spotted seatrout. Shortly after that, I hooked into a smaller redfish, which was thrilling because even though it was smaller, it fought really hard.
After about 15 more minutes of fishing close to shore, Dr. Williams told me to walk out into what seemed like open water, insisting that it was actually quite shallow after a slight drop-off. I was skeptical but listened and walked out. After about 30 feet of walking, the water started to get deeper, reaching a little bit above waist deep, but shortly after that, it rose back up until my calves were barely in the water. It was incredible to see how far out the shallow water was, and after I had gone out, Tucker, Noah, Derek, Zach, and Dr. Galt followed. We fished along the shore of the small island next to us for another 2 hours or so when Tucker, Derek, and I decided to return to camp to get food. We then decided to go with Brooke, Amber, Kelby, Q, and Tyler to the beach on the other side of the island. On our way there, we ran into the first rattlesnake of the trip, which I was able to get a video of. Once we got to the beach, we spent a good hour or two walking along the shore looking for shells, sand dollars, and just about anything else we could find, where I was able to find 15 sand dollars. After we had done enough exploring, Tucker, Brooke, Amber, Derek, and I went swimming in the ocean for a while, which was awesome as that was yet another new experience for me.
The next morning, at around 7:30, Tucker and I got dropped off a ways down the shore so that we could wade fish our way back to camp. We started by taking our time and casting about 4 or 5 times in between steps but eventually picked up the pace a bit as Dr. Willams had asked us to be back to camp by 9:00 because that was when they would pick up Pickle, the island manager. As we started moving quicker, hoping to get closer to an island where we knew there would be fish, Tucker hooked into a pretty big redfish. After seeing it get close, Tucker told me to try to net it, but when it saw me, it bolted back toward Tucker. It then began to wrap around Tucker’s leg, where the hook got stuck in his sock. After unhooking the fish, Tucker tried to measure it while I removed the hood from his sock, but between balancing on one foot and trying not to drop his rod in the water, he ended up dropping it back into the water, where it immediately swam away. After all the excitement, Tucker notified me that it was already 9:00. We immediately stopped fishing and started wading back to the campsite. The walk was fine until we got in between the main island and the small island, where it started getting muddy and swampy on both sides. This made us both quite nervous as the mud made it impossible to avoid stingrays since we could not see anything. We were also on edge because the swampy terrain on both sides of us seemed to be perfect grounds for alligators and snakes that we could not see. Eventually, we got to a point where we had to decide whether to take the long way through the annoying, muddy water or take a shortcut through the sketchy looking but much faster swamp. We chose the swamp as we did not want to be any later than we already were. Luckily, Dr. Williams was running behind, so we returned before him.
Once Pickle got to camp, we all packed into the back of his pickup, and he drove us to the other side of the island, where there was a really old lighthouse. On the way to the lighthouse, we passed a bunch of old trenches made during the Civil War. Pickle told us all about the lighthouse and how it was built in 1852 and then moved in 1866 after Confederate soldiers damaged it. We were able to climb the stairs all the way to the top of the 92-foot lighthouse, where we were able to see for several miles. I really liked this part because I am a huge history fan and love learning about old things. After that, we went herping where we saw a cottonmouth snake and a scorpion. We packed everything up the next morning and headed to Mason Mountain, WMA.
Even though Matagorda island was my favorite part of the trip, that does not take away how incredible the rest of the trip was. From seeing all sorts of new wildlife at Mason Mountain WMA to fishing for bass at Llano River State Park, I was able to experience all sorts of new things all across Texas.