How can a weather report be so wrong? I had a couple of relatives coming down for the weekend. We were expecting clouds, light winds, and maybe a shower or two. Instead we got strong winds punctuated with heavy thunderstorms. Saturday morning was a washout. Saturday afternoon was basically a blowout, couldn’t get into Matagorda Bay or ESB without getting soaked. I ended up anchored in Saluria near the ruins letting my guests fish off the back of the boat and catch gaftop, which they seemed content to do. At least they were catching something. By this time my enthusiasm was pretty low and I was halfheartedly pitching a fishfinder rig baited with dead shrimp to bank and slow dragging it back. After about the 20th cast to the same basic spot, I noticed my line moving back towards Matagorda bay. I thought great, another hardhead as I lifted the rod tip to set the hook. To my surprise, it felt like I had set the hook on a granite boulder. Once the fish felt resistance, it took off on a drag screeching run toward the bay then reversed and shot back up the bayou. Once I got a feel for the weight of the fish, I was not wasn’t too confident that we would land it since I was using 10 year old AbuGarcia baitcaster on a medium heavy rod. But after about a 15 minute fight, I landed the largest Jack I’ve ever caught.

We took a quick run to the Jetty Sunday morning keeping a watchful eye on the clouds and the weather alert feature activated on the radio. The inside of the jetty was unfishable due to vegetation being washed in. Several boats were anchored over the deeper areas outside the jetty. All seemed to be catching Gaftop. Around 10:00 am, a severe weather alert came across the radio for Galveston Bay. A little later I overheard ship traffic talking about mooring until the weather passed. So we gave up and shot back to the ramp. We were out of the water maybe 10 minutes before the storms started again.

Overall, a slow wet weekend.