Port O Connor & Matagorda Island
Our second day in Texas consisted of sampling the Llano and Guadalupe River, and we caught new species including Guadalupe Bass, Texas Logperch, Gray Redhorse, Orange-Throat Darters and Green-Throated Darters. After sampling the fish, aquatic insects, and water quality we made the trek down to Port O Connor Texas to meet up with our island guide Cooper Knight. Once we arrived and went through some slow gates we introduced ourselves, met a past Valley City State grad Chris Evans, and started unpacking the gear we needed for our stay on Matagorda Island. We split up into 3 groups for the shuttle to the island. This was the only way to get 14 people and all of our supplies out there. I was a part of the second group. When we left the dock there were numerous species of birds and a family of porpoises feeding on mullet in the flats.
Cooper Knight informed us that Dillon Praus had already fallen into the water at the island while trying to tie the boat to the dock. He told us that our instructor Casey Williams yelled saying there was a gator close by and it sounded like a moment I wish I could have witnessed. Once we got all our stuff unloaded and tents pitched, most of us went right to fishing. Others tried out the cast net or sat around camp chatting with Cooper and Casey while Casey cooked a delicious supper. It was a fresh coastal boil consisting of corn, potatoes, onions, sausage, and of course fresh shrimp.
I caught quite a variety of fish including; croaker, pinfish, mullet, and hardhead catfish. Emily and Morgan both caught a variety of species with the cast net. Among the weirdest of their catches were flounder, blue crabs, and a knife. The most targeted fish that almost everyone ended up catching either the first night or next morning were speckled trout. They were a blast to catch using swimbaits or topwater lures. The sunset was neat to watch with the abundance of wildlife and open water all around. Later that night some of the group went out “herping”, looking for reptiles, while the rest of us slept. They had no luck finding reptiles but were able to see deer, raccoons, and black-tailed jackrabbits. I was unable to join them, I was busy vomiting from not feeling the greatest. It was probably from the full day out in the sun. After vomiting I felt refreshed and ready for bed.
The next morning most of us got up early to start fishing before the day’s activities. We started with a boat tour from Cooper Knight. We saw an abundance of birds varying from waterfowl to shorebirds. My favorite birds that we spotted were the white-phase reddish egret and the whooping cranes. The whooping cranes interested me by the dance they were hunting and jumped around. The group came across a bunch of oyster boats, where they drag the bottom sediment and collect the oysters. The oyster season only had a few days left so they were working in full force. Cooper brought us into town to get gas allowing me to talk to a couple fishermen while they were cleaning some black drum. After we got the boat filled up with gas, our group headed out to the beach that separated the bay from the ocean. We walked around it for a while finding seashells and sand dollars before heading back to the island.
Once my group got back the second group went out for their boat tour. I started to fish for a while before I had to take down my tent and pack up camp. I switched my fishing style from a popping cork to a ¼ ounce jig head with a crawdad paddle tail with a lime green tail. It took me two casts to catch my first speckled trout. The coloration of the fish was beautiful, and it put up a great fight for its size. To keep speckled trout, they must be 15 inches or longer. I caught 8 speckled trout that afternoon and only one exceeded that length at 16 ½ inches. When the second group came back from their boating trip Cooper Knight took the first group back out to seine in the bay. Emily and I drug the big seine while Morgan had the bucket for fish. We caught shrimp, croaker, and a bunch of pinfish according to Dusty Mcdonald. After we were done sampling, we headed back into Port O Connor and packed up all our stuff back into the U-Haul. After packing up we went out to supper with Cooper Knight at a seafood restaurant in a neighboring town. Once we were done eating we headed back to Cooper Knights house where we set up camp in his front yard. The next morning, we packed up and headed to the San Marcos River at Palmetto State Park.
