Matagorda Area Fishing

Hello all, I’ve grown up bass fishing and heard the transition to salt is prettt intiitive for bass anglers. Im staying in a campground on NE Matagorda this weekend, and I’m struggling to put anything together. We fished Powderhorn and there was bait jumping everywhere but never got a bite (tide was low, maybe thats why?) We fiahed the small Port O’Connor jetties and saw huge schools of mullet and sheepshead but never got a bit there either - the waders in the area also skunked. We have kayaks. We’ve been fishing the standards - gulp shrimp under popping cork and on a jighead, topwater, jerk shads. Any tips on what kind of patterns I should watch for this time of year? Am I just in the wrong places? Going to try East Matagorda in the morning, fingers crossed. Any tips appreciated!

If you’ve made it out to the Port O jetties, sounds like you’ve been traveling quite a bit for kayaks. While I’d love to tell you a few places, I leave that to other folks. Where I think I could provide some insight is from a strategy perspective. It’s not enough to see bait. You need to see that bait breaking or getting attacked.

Redfish and flounder are typically will be in 2 ft of water and less while trout are deeper. Mixed grass and sand shorelines with guts are the kinds of structure you’re looking for. While I’ve heard shrimp and a popping cork can be effective, I would also advise throwing some soft plastics to cover more ground. You could also try to rig a shrimp on a jig head and treat it like a soft plastic, especially if you’re fishing shallow.

Hope you find these thoughts and suggestions helpful.