Friday July the 21st Jim took Alex and I to Port O'Connor for a day of fishing. Alex and I got up at 3 AM and drove to Jim's house in Katy where he was waiting to load our gear. We left his house at 4 for the 2 1/2 hour trip to the launch ramp. Alex slept part of the way but I was too excited to sleep. I had heard the tarpon were in the area and had brought my 12 wt and my 8 wt for Trout and Reds. I also brought a med spin reel for Alex and a med lite spin for me. I bought Ice and paid to launch and we went down the channel looking for live shrimp. If you ever take a kid with you, get some live shrimp so they catch something and don't get bored. We picked up 2 quarts of some good shrimp and headed out to a wading area we love to fish. Jim, as usual took off to our left and Alex and I stayed near his 16 foot John boat. After a short wait Alex had a fish on, it was a small trout but was a start. I hooked up with a 14 inch flounder and switched to my fly rod. Storms were all around us but the lightning was far enough away I was not worried. 

 

 

Jim came back to the boat and it started poring. The rain was cold but better than the usual 98 degree Texas morning. The fish kept biting so we did not care. We saw a tornado in the distance and kept watching the weather just in case. After 15 minutes the rain let up and we fished for a while longer, then decided to find some bigger fish.

We headed out to the beach front looking for Tarpon. As we cleared the shallow water we saw fish hitting all over the surface. I put on a muff diver and waited till Jim put the boat into position. Just as he cut the motor I tried to cast but had tangled the fly line at my feet. I quickly made a cast but the fish had moved out of range. Jim started up and turned toward them, this time I got a good cast off. A Mackerel came up fast and took my fly. I did not have a steel leader so he cut me off. I tied on a long shank hook with crystal flash and buck tail, cast again and hooked a lady fish. Alex's eyes lit up as the fish jumped all over in front of the boat. I told Alex to get ready as we pulled up to some fish hitting on top. He made a great cast and hooked a Ladyfish. 

He pulled as it jumped out of the water and flew about 10 feet toward the boat. He released it and we started drifting through schools of feeding fish. Jim, Alex and I each hooked several Lady fish and as we went through a weed line Jim's reel screamed. He thought it was a small tarpon as it pulled all the fly line off in and instant. As he got into the backing the fish turned toward the boat.

After a short fight he pulled in a 26 inch Spanish Mackerel.

As we drifted toward shore we saw fish tearing up a point at a back bay. We put out the anchor and started wading to the point. As we got close I hooked a Mackerel and it took my fly. I tied on another and a Lady fish cut me off. Jim pulled out some Scientific Angler Pike and Musky wire leaders and we started catching fish. If you tucked the rod under your arm and did a 2 handed retrieve fast, you would catch a Mackerel or Ladyfish. Jim found if you let the fly sink a few seconds then did a slow retrieve a trout would hit it. I don't know how many trout Jim caught but it had to be in the 40s or 50s. I caught 36 trout, 27 Ladyfish, a Jack, several mackerel and some small yellow tail during the 2 hours we stayed there. Alex put a yellow tail on a hook to see if he could catch something bigger. I stayed near Alex but Jim was hooking them one after another so I waded toward him. All of a sudden Alex yelled SHARK. I turned toward him and went as fast as I could in the waist deep water. When I got close enough I saw Alex in the boat and he said a small black tip had come in to hit the bait fish which were swimming all around. He got out of the water and watched his rod with a live fish to no avail.  I went back to casting but changed flies. I put on my new shrimp pattern in bright green, that takes an hour to make but looks just like a real shrimp. I started catching bigger trout and kept 3 that were almost 17 inches. I released all the trout that were under 16 inches and the Mackerel. At about noon the tide changed and the water got dirty, so we decided to move.

I wanted to catch a few Mangrove Snapper as they taste great, so we moved to some old pilings where the snapper would hold. Jim hooked a Lady fish and as he started to release it, it jumped off the hook and sent the treble hook into Jim's little finger. It went deep past the barb and was close to tendons. He and I both tried to gently get it out but after 20 minutes and a great amount of pain we decided to cut the trip short and get it removed by a professional. We pulled into the dock and waited for Jim to back the trailer up so we could load the boat. Alex put a shrimp on and tried to get a Snapper from the dock but they were all small. All of a sudden Jim was back ready to fish. A guide had been at the bait shop where Jim was asking about and emergency center and the guide said I can get that out. Jim said lets do it and with the help of a nice lady they held his finger to the desk and used the string method to jerk it out. 

 

 

We headed back out to the back bay we like to finish the day at and the tide and dirtied up the water some. I thought we could still get some Reds so we dropped anchor and started hooking up with some undersize Reds. We each caught several each and by 3PM decided to call it a day. 

We put the boat up and Jim started cleaning the fish. All of a sudden a game warden showed up and checked out our catch. All the fish were well over the size limit so we had no problem but the 2 guys who had just cleaned their Reds were lucky cause most were way undersize and at $80.00 per fish they would have been out several hundred dollars. It pays to follow the law on size and bag limits.

We got ready to go on that long journey home with a dinner or 4 in the cooler and a great memory of fishing on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Mark