Fall fishing on the Texas coast

Last Friday, I filled up my truck with gas at $2.09 a gallon. It has been years since it has been this low. This and other signs said I had to go to the coast to get some fishing in before things changed. And so I did.

My typical drive to the coast takes me through the backroads and small towns like Lockhart, Luling, Nixon, Kenedy, Skidmore, Tynan, and Mathis until I finally get to Corpus. Along the way, I pass over several rivers I wish to one day fish such as the San Marcos river, Guadalupe river, and San Antonio river. But I digress.

I arrived in Corpus late in the afternoon to find my cousin with his truck ready to go to a spot along the Laguna Madre for some night wading.

The area we went to was particularly nice with a drop off located about 100 yards from shore. The sunset was a beautiful one as they typically are this time of year. Up in the sky you could see the crescent moon with a bright star above it. As the moon set, it also turned a blaze orange just like the horizon. It is indescribable how cool the feeling is being outdoors on an evening like that.

We fished for a few hours that evening and only ended up with one keeper trout. I did see a meteorite slowly streak across the starry sky and eventually break apart into four smaller chunks before it disappeared. That was cool!

We headed home to rest and prepare to fish from the boat the next day.

On Saturday, we went out in my cousin's flats boat and fished several spots along the Laguna. I had to cast with my elbow tucked in all day to avoid stressing my bad shoulder. I caught the first keeper trout but my cousin ended with the most trout.

At one point, we had reeled in and weren't paying too much attention while drifting when all of a sudden, I look up and see a large school of black drum right in front of us. My cousin had a popping cork rigged with shrimp that he cast right in front of them and was able to hook up and land a nice drum. I was not prepared and so didn't end up with a black drum. We searched for the school but did not find them again.

Later at a different spot where the water was a beautiful green tea color with darker areas, I was casting a soft plastic minnow and hooked a redfish of around 23" that gave me a good run and then went into the cooler with the rest of the trout and the black drum. All we needed was a flounder and we would have a Texas grand slam. Around 3pm, we decided to return and moor the boat at the dock, rest up at home and go back out before sunset.

The idea was to head to a spot with some lights to fish for trout at night. We got there before sunset and hung around until 7:30pm but the lights never turned on and the mosquitoes were out in force.

After we returned to the boat ramp and trailered the boat and left it at home we drove to the nearby naval station. They had one long pier that was ideal for casting with the fly rod. I could see small trout everywhere and tied on a #8 glow Clouser minnow and the trout kept hitting it the whole time we were there which was only a couple of hours. None of the trout were bigger than 12 inches but it was still a lot of fun and they devastated my fly.

I was glad to have had the opportunity to fish the coast with my cousin and also to bring back some fish. I also got to fill up my gas tank for my return trip at $1.99 a gallon. Not bad. Not bad at all.