Like hunting, for me, the fishing experience is as much about the setting as it is the fish you catch (or don't catch). I grew up, as most Houstonians do, fishing the Galveston Bay complex. It is there where I developed a passion for fishing, but not until I was introduced to Matagorda by a friend of mine and his family, did I gain a true appreciation for the coast and what it can do to a person.
Matagorda, unlike Galveston, is a pristine bay system, that for the most part, was as unchanged when I discovered it as it was when La Salle was shipwrecked there in 1685. For this reason, the coastal bend of Texas and the quaint town of Matagorda, is as good as it gets for sportsmen. I recall a trip late one December, where in three days time, a group of us put together two nice boxes of fish, shot a limit of doves, half limits of quail, and topped it off with heavy straps of ducks and geese. We did this all without ever hearing another gunshot or running into another boat.
Despite my attraction to Matagorda from a sportsman's perspective, it's the people that have made it so special for me. The aforementioned Gibbons family played host to our bunch of college co-eds for many years. It was a fun time in our lives; how they mustered the patience to put up with our shenanigans for so long, I'll never understand. Their hospitality was and is much appreciated, as we remain close friends today.
Although Matagorda is still a small fishing village, it is growing at a brisk pace. So far, it's handled the influx of people and dollars well. My hope is that as this continues, we do our best to preserve the natural beauty that makes it such a captivating place.
