We recently moved our fishing boat from the Seadrift / Port O’Connor area to the town of Matagorda, primarily to access East Matagorda Bay. East Matty is renowned for speckled trout. We also just wanted to experience new waters and Matagorda provides an interesting mix of river, jetties, two bays, and marsh. As this was all new water to us, we turned to guide Capt. Fern Gonzales to show us around.
Capt. Fern runs Gon Get’em Guide Service and has many years of experience providing excellent service out of Matagorda. The man can put you on the fish whether you are after redfish, trout, or flounder. We wanted to target trout.
The one thing that I found most interesting is how persistent Capt. Fern is on chasing the birds. He said more than once, “don’t pass up working birds!” Now, this is exactly how I grew up fishing down in the Corpus area. Anytime you saw birds working in the distance, you spooled up and ran to the gulls and terns, and were always rewarded with trout action. However, over the past ten years fishing San Antonio and Espiritu Santo we altogether quit stopping for birds because it was almost certainly ladyfish or gafftop. Disappointing to say the least.
In addition to the bay, Capt. Fern also took us into Big Boggy. The water was way high up into the grass so the reds were scattered. Nevertheless, it was a good education on that area.
We spent the next several days fishing on our own. The Colorado river, locks, and diversion channel are interesting. Our next goal is learning how to run the difersion channel into West Bay (without ending up stuck on a sand bar!). Once the temperature drops we will also be heading up-river to find trout searching for warmer deep water.
Matagorda is a small town but is really set up well for fishing. We stayed at Fisherman’s Hotel right across from the harbor. The harbor has two separate ramps, each with two lanes. There is a big, nice cleaning station that screens out the annoying pelicans.
You can reach Captain Fern Gonzales:
Gon Get’em Guide Service for trips, rates, and availability
Instagram for recent catch photos
979-429-0656
Tell him “those Coker boys” sent you!
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