I'm wanting to do some camping and fishing this weekend. Matagorda bay looks to be the shortest drive from Austin. Any good places around there? Nothing fancy, just a place to park a car or set up a tent.

Almost anywhere on the beach.

Great diversity there: in addition to the bays, you have the surf, Matagorda Harbor, the Colorado River/mouth, Caney Creek, and the Intracoastal Waterway.

You might check caney creek rv park. They have some spots for tent camping.

We ended up going to goose island sp. It was nice. Hardly anyone there. The water sites were full, but the rest of the park was pretty sparse. I waded a few hours in the morning, but only ended up with this guy:

I used to go camping out on this island in the bay when my buddy had a boat down there. There was great fishing right off the campsite and I never saw any other people out there. I don't know what it was called though

Yeah, Goose Island is near perfection.