Ella with her 1st Redfish, with Dad and Capt. Jeff Larson. Mom gets the photo credit. Great times and Great Memories!!!

I am writing you from Marken South Africa over looking a scenic Bushvelt with majestic age old mountains in the background. I have been bringing customers to Africa since the 90’s, personally I have been hunting in Africa since the mid 80’s. My longtime friends and PH buddies fine tune your Safari to meet your needs because of my long standing history with the guys.

South Africa and Namibia are the most scenic with an over abundance of wildlife to photograph, hunt or fish. These 2 provinces are the easiest to travel through with the best accommodations the Dark Continent has to offer for a vacation or hunting trip. If you ever wanted to take a photographic or hunting Safari, now is the time to book your trip.

Looking back at May, We believe you would agree that it was a good fishing month even though it was littered with minor cold fronts with some strangely harsh winds at times. The month of May’s weather pattern made for some interesting good catches and different Bay patterns. We were in the middle of the Trout Spawn which led to some great trophy trout fishing. Capt. Nathan Beabout had several clients break their personal best trout records on DSL baits and Top waters alike. The mid bay reefs were on fire when the weather was stable enough to safely fish them. The coolers filled up quick when you found the trout bite on the color change around the different reef transition areas. Plus, we had some crazy low and high tides within days of each other which made it interesting for most fishermen. This is where booking full time guides pays off. They have the edge being on the water everyday during the extreme changes. It made for some good fishing if you knew how to adjust for the changing tides.

We had booked several memorable trips in May. The 1st that comes to mind was my old high school football coach, Coach Neuendorff. Coach brought his son down for some great red fishing action in the back lakes on the extreme low tides. Coach and I stayed in the boat while Capt. Chris Cady taught the Coach’s son how to wade fish. It was on a post cold front with high pressure. The Reds were definitely more hungry than the trout. The waders scored using top water baits. While Coach and I caught em on fresh cut mullet. We had a great time catching up and catching limits of reds with a bonus few trout from the waders.

The other special day was filling in for Capt. Keith Hudson with his customers the Plezia Family. It’s always a little stressful when you have to fill in for the Legendary Captains of P.O.C. We didn’t get on a Typical Capt. Keith Smack Down but we were able to get Rick and Rhonda’s young daughter Ella on her very 1st Red and a nice Trout. The Good Lord gave us pleasant weather that day. Ella and her Mom caught several fish to make for a good fried fish dinner. Ella was the sweetest and most mannerly little 6 year old that I have taken fishing. She loved sitting between Dad and I as we ran the back lakes. She had a ball and she will be back. Great Days like these on the water is what we are all about.

Now for June, according to all the pictures my buddies have been sending me while we are hunting in SA is it looks like it is epic trout fishing to say the least. The Captains on the middle coast are making clients very happy. Wade fishermen and boat fishermen alike are getting tons of trout. The trout action is the best we have seen in recent years. You should come take advantage of it.

Please Give Scott a call for reservations at: 361 785 3825.

If you are wanting to get on an Africa Safari with my Buddies in SA please give me a call. They have openings at the end of July and August.

Enjoy your summer!
Captain Jeff Larson 281 217 0399

The Big Boats & Big Fish Are Coming! Poco Bueno – July 12-16

This tale all started a couple months ago when my best bud from childhood emailed me letting me know that him and his family were planning to fly on down from Minnesota to visit. Being that they have never been to my cabin on Matagorda Island (technically called Peninsula, but it’s surrounded by water…go figure) a trip out to the island was a definite must since there ain’t too many islands in Minnesota. However, Minnesota does have a healthy Moose population.

So after navigating through Houston traffic like Dale Earnhardt Jr. navigates the Texas Motor Speedway, I finally made it to the airport and picked up the famous Suter family for yet another adventure.

After a couple of hours of catching up while driving back from Houston, we made it back to my house in Seadrift to load up the boat and set sail (or start an Evinrude outboard motor) for the island.

Before I continue on with this adventurous tale, I do want to add a quick disclaimer that every time I bring someone out to the island for the first time, I always ask “ready for your life to change?” However, it normally has a different outcome than what was about to happen over the next 24 hours from when we launched my boat in Port O’Connor.

With the boat in the water we cranked up the motor and away went to the island.

Upon arrival at the island, I asked my buddy “so what do you think?” His reply was, “it brings tears to my eyes.” Maybe it was the salt air that got to him.

So over the next few hours, our wives chatted it up while our kiddos played in the water around the cabin. Needless to say, it was great times all around, especially for the Suter family since they had to de-ice the airplane wings before flying to Texas. That’s right, it was actually that [fill in the blank] cold in Minnesota at the end of April.

With the sun starting to set, we boated our wives and kiddos back to the docks for them to spend the night at our house in Seadrift while me and my buddy continued our adventure on the island.

Spending the rest of the night out at the cabin with my best bud from childhood while having a cold one (or many) sure was nothing short of a true blessing. We talked for hours on end covering topics such as politics, childhood, raising children, even the local cow population that resides on the island. Too bad we didn’t have our own news crew out there. We probably would have received some great ratings since cows graze on islands in TEXAS! Sorry, that was an inside joke for my bud in Seadrift.

After sleeping like a log at the cabin, I walked out on to the patio to overlook the beautiful scenery that Matagorda Island has to offer during the morning hours. However, something was missing…

After thinking about what was missing for all of 2 seconds, it came to me…the boat is missing.

Being that we were on the island, the first thought that came to mind was, my cooler & surfboard was still on the boat and the second thought was, D’OH!!!

So I got my phone and dialed the local Coast Guard station in Port O’Connor to explain the situation. About 30 minutes after calling the Coast Guard, I get a call back from them saying the boat has been spotted drifting around King Fisher Beach in Port O’Connor and that it’s secured and anchored. First thought that came mind was, thank the good lord! Second thought was, wait, I’m still on the island and my boat is miles from where I’m at, D’OH!!!

So I walked down the beach and hopped a ride back to mainland with a very nice family to retrieve my boat while my buddy slept in at the cabin.

Upon arrival at King Fisher Beach, my boat was nowhere in sight and now my buddy from Minnesota is stuck on an island in Texas. Needless to say, his family would give me an earful if I didn’t bring him back.

So I hopped a ride back to the docks, spotted some people launching their boat and explained to them my current situation. Without hesitation, they said, “sure, no problem, let’s go get your buddy.”

By this time, the winds were still blowing hard out of the southeast and the waves on Matagorda Bay mirrored that of the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii. Ok, maybe not the Banzai Pipeline, but you get the idea.

After a long and drenching ride back to the island, we picked up my buddy and then returned to mainland. Upon arrival at the docks, the Captain of the maiden voyage said to me, “it sure is an adventure with you Andrew”…yeah, he should talk to my wife. They could share their life experiences with me.

We then hopped in my truck to tow my empty boat trailer back to the house in Seadrift before commencing a search mission.

Over the course of the next few days, along with the help of a number of great people, the boat was nowhere in sight and still missing.

At this point, you must be wondering, where did the boat go? Did it magically disappear? Could it have been stolen? Maybe it was abducted by Aliens from another planet since they prefer Evinrude motors?

Being that my wife is much smarter than I am, she created a post on Facebook to hopefully gather some intelligence on the location of my boat.

Long behold, I get a call late in the evening that same day, letting me know that the boat has been found! So I ask the fun obvious question, “so where is it?” He said that it’s been beached up around the northern shoreline of Cox Bay and it is still in one piece and that he would go check on it for me the next day.
So the next day he sends me a picture of my boat and sure enough, it’s still there.

Now comes the fun part, how far did this boat travel and what path did it take? So I cranked up my super computer and by using historical weather data from NOAA, timeline of sightings, vector calculus and quantum physics (worked for Schrödinger’s cat…yeah that was a joke by the way), I was able to estimate its projected path using my proprietary “wing-it” computational methodology.

Being that my boat traveled over 20 miles on rough seas AND remained intact, I decided to rename her the “SEA DRIFTER” after being suggested by one of my fellow island buddies.

LESSON LEARNED: don’t trust an anchor, use a chain wrapped around your cabin, to keep your boat in one place.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who gave me a helping hand during this tale of the “SEA DRIFTER”.

Voyage of the Sea Drifter

Early Morning Plastics
Bay Flats Lodge

Summertime truly begins in the month of June. The kids are out of school for a couple months and families everywhere are making vacation arrangements, and a lot of Texans will choose to head to the coast for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. But whatever plans you make for enjoying the Texas coastal region this summer, plan on having to deal with the heat, and come prepared to do so with lots of drinking water, proper protective clothing, and tubes of sunscreen.

As the hotter months approach, look for ever-increasing amounts of bait fish to slowly be working their way along sandy shallows and shorelines that happen to have some grass thrown in the mix. Some good trout hunting places this month will be shallow shorelines first thing in the morning that have a sandy bottom structure that alternates slightly in depth as you walk away from shore and toward deeper water. Sometimes just a couple of inches in depth can make quite a difference to a summertime trout that’s hanging out in the shallows looking for that perfect sweet spot.

A key this month will be to locate active bait fish. With bay water temperatures now in excess of 80-degrees, warmer water means more bait. Large numbers of bait fish attract greater numbers of game fish, especially the trout and red fish, so find the active bait and you should have a good shot at finding the active trout and reds.

June is also the time of the year to start looking for the presence of large pods, or schools, of redfish – sometimes really big groups of them. Angler can often find many groups of them bunched closely together in a rather tight area, and then find smaller groups of them spread here-and-there along miles of summertime shorelines hovered around the presence of the large pods of mullet working on the surface of the water. Regardless, as shoreline water temperatures continue to increase, expect the numbers of summertime reds to do the same.

June anglers can also expect for croaker fishing to be in full swing this month. Some of your prime targets might be many of the exposed oyster reefs situated throughout the entire San Antonio Bay area, and early morning sand spots situated amongst beds of shoreline grass. On days when the wind and weather permit, look also to the surf waters just outside Pass Cavallo for some hot trout action. Trout on croaker in the surf is generally fairly good when you’re able to get out there, but top water action in the surf can also be undeniably one of the most fun things you can do as a coastal angler. Happy summertime to all!

We’re about as close to having all 8 cylinders firing at one time as we can hope for.  Our guides are hitting a rythm that has produced nothing but impressive results for our guests.  We’re in the 3rd fishing season “post drought” which broke in March of 2015.  Since then we’ve had repetitive fresh water inflows and that just keeps improving bay health and the overall fishery.  It looked like we might be heading for another drought but we’ve managed about 4” of rainfall in recent weeks and that’s keeping salinity levels in check and priming the pump for great fishing. Mother Nature has pulled the curtain back uncloaking concentrations of Trout over big water open bay structure and the fishing couldn’t get much better.  Solid Redfish have been holding to the same structure in tight on shell reefs with scattered “tournament class” fish preferring sand/mud of late.

Airboat Trips

Capt. Chris Cady has had great success tackling solid limits of back country Redfish aboard our new 2017 Air Ranger.  Lighter winds have made some days a challenge but shear numbers have just lit the rods up.

Flounder Gigging Report

Early Summer stride would best describe the gigging of late with great success for guests night stalking the flats by flounder boat or on walking trips.

Catch the latest coming “Hot off the water” by joining our Newsletter Today!

The fishing is always best when you can get away!

Capt. Kris Kelley, Castaway Lodge
1-888-618-4868 www.seadriftbayfishing.com
Facebook: Castaway Lodge