Hello from Matagorda, Texas. By the time this report is posted, we should be getting close to the start of the 2017 offshore fishing season. Warm weather and a good abundance of seaweed offshore should give us a banner year for fishing. Bad news for Red Snapper though. The 2017 Gulf of Mexico federal red snapper recreational seasons open for the private angling and federally permitted for-hire components on June 1, 2017, at 12:01 a.m., local time. The private angler season will be 3 days and the federally permitted for-hire component season will be 49 days in federal waters. The red snapper total recreational quota is allocated 57.7% to the private angling component and 42.3% to the for-hire component. As you well know, the Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper population is the best it’s ever been. It’s hard to get past them these days. I’m beginning to wonder if the gulf ecosystem can handle this large amount of Red Snapper.
Matagorda Sportfishing Offshore Charters has made a couple of offshore trips since the last report. We took advantage of a couple weather windows recently and headed out. Had a great group of guys from Pennsylvania down to enjoy a calm Gulf of Mexico offshore day. They booked their trip 2 months ago and they hit the nail of the head with such a calm forecast. Since the Red Snapper season was closed in federal waters and Federally Permitted Boats cannot fish in state waters for Red Snapper, we decided to head out and catch and release some Red Snapper and to try out our new jig that we designed. The jigs worked great and we successfully caught and released several Red Snapper. At one point we had Red Snapper on the surface of the water and just sight casting for them, unreal! After that, we went on a hunt for Ling. Using the same jig we used for Red Snapper, we ended up catching several Ling as well as releasing several undersized ones. Seemed like the Ling couldn’t resist the jig and aggressively attacked it when it was presented in from of it.
We also had a good trip on May, 6th. Another nice weather window and we headed out deep to try our luck at deep dropping. Made our way out to some bottom area 67 miles offshore and started dropping. Ended up with some really nice Tilefish, Yellowedge Grouper and Scamp Grouper. These fish in my opinion are the best eating fish in the Gulf.
Observed several large areas of seaweed and did see some bait forming under them as well as mahi mahi. The fishing should really turn on in the next month.
To order some of our custom jigs we use for Red Snapper and Ling, visit www.matagordatackle.com. Our jigs are made in the USA locally in El Campo, Texas.
Lets go offshore fishing.
Captain Mark Holland | Matagorda Sportfishing and Offshore Tackle
www.matagordasportfishing.com