Plans go awry, but I still landed a big one

By Jim Darnell
Daily Record Columnist

December 20, 2007 10:36 am

— As he pulled into the driveway of the Stanley-Fisher House Bed and Breakfast, which happens to be the oldest house in Matagorda County, outdoor journalist Barry St.Clair of Athens said, “We’re gonna be a triple threat to the critters on this trip.”
Our annual outdoor writers trip to Matagorda County, sponsored this year by Third Coast Outfitters, Stanley House B&B, Bay City Chamber of Commerce, and the Bay City Community Development Corp., was set up for a duck hunt on Monday morning, fish Monday afternoon and goose hunt Tuesday morning. That was the triple threat. It didn’t quite work out as planned.
Things got off to a good start with a seafood feast at the Waterfront Restaurant on Matagorda Harbor. We watched the annual Christmas lighted boat parade from the restaurant deck while enjoying shrimp, oysters, stuffed flounder and gumbo. When we returned to the B&B plans began to deteriorate. Our duck hunting guide got sick. Trip canceled.
But all was not lost. There a silver lining. We got to sleep in and enjoy the elite breakfast cooked by the B&B innkeepers Peggy and Rick Stanley. I have stayed in dozens of B&B’s but I never experience the second B. We’re always up too early for breakfast. So it’s usually coffee and a muffin. But not this time. While feasting on eggs, sausage, fruit, biscuits and cinnamon rolls, Don Hubbard from Orange, Texas, said, “I’m sure glad the guide got sick.” And he wasn’t referring to only the good breakfast. The duck hunt would have involved a 15 mile boat ride across Palacios Bay in 32-degree darkness. It was sure warm at the table.
We were to meet our fishing guide at the Matagorda Harbor at noon, so Barry and I went early to fish from the shore in the harbor while waiting for the guide. Casting plastic shrimp tails on lead head jigs didn’t produce much as we worked our way around the harbor. Then something stopped my lure. When I set the hook it didn’t move. Hung up on the bottom. Then the bottom began to move. I knew that whatever I had hooked was real big.
I put as much pressure as I could with my lite spinning rod and 12-pound test line but the creature just powered away. Then he came up to the surface and wallowed and splashed. It was a huge black drum. Then back to the bottom again. Black drum are powerful sluggers but they can’t make long, hot runs. A redfish that large would have run under one of the boat stalls and cut the line. But the big drum just slugged it out with me. Give a little. Take a little. Very slowly I gained ground. Finally, after an exhausting 20-minute fight, he was whipped. Barry reached out and dragged the 50 pound monster up the shore.
Barry is the current largemouth bass record holder in our state with a 18.18 pound lunker caught from Lake Fork in the 1990’s. I told him that I was going to paint my drum green and put a black stripe down the side. Then Texas would have a new bass champ.
After pictures we released the huge drum back into the harbor. Not such a bad morning when you catch a 50 pound fish while waiting for the fishing boat to arrive. Barry caught a nice speckled trout before we walked back to the dock to meet the guide.
After passing through the Matagorda Locks our guide turned the boat up the Colorado River. The river is one of the best places to fish in the Matagorda area during the winter. Trout and redfish run up the river to find deeper, warmer water if the salt content is adequate. It can be a real bonanza for fishermen.
After a couple of drifts we had three trout in the icebox and Houston writer Bill Mills released a 19-inch redfish. But on our next move the outboard engine went wacky. End of fishing trip. We idled back to the harbor.
Would our goose guide be afraid of us next morning? We had managed to make one guide sick and blow up the other one’s outboard. All was okay Tuesday morning except the weather. No wind. No fog. Just a warm bluebird day. Great for fishing, not goose hunting.
But Third Coast Outfitters (1-888-894-3379), Randy Triplett and his young guide Nick Stilwell were able to call in several speckle-bellied (white front) geese. The snow geese stayed up in the ozone. Randy looked at me and laughed, “I’m glad speckle-bellies aren't as smart as snow geese. We would be out of business.”
Randy’s lab, Chester, was a pill. He can’t set still. Always moving. Wagging his tail. Moving the dead geese. Licking blood off the geese. Nick gave Randy fits about his bad dog. Then we shot our last goose. It went into a long glide like a wounded B-17 bomber. Chester took a line direction on the goose that was disappearing over the horizon and took off. He crossed the rice field, forded an irrigation canal, burst through a tree line-thicket, swam across a pond and disappeared. After what seemed like an eternity here came Chester with a big spec in his mouth.
Randy proudly said, “That’s why we put up with Chester.” Even Nick was nice to the big black dog after that unbelievable retrieve.
For a great Matagorda excursion call the Stanley-Fisher B&B at 979-863-2920.
Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host/producer of the syndicated outdoors show God’s Grest Outdoors. His column runs every Thursday in the Daily Record.