Sunday, July 1, 2001

Getting a peace in Port Mansfield

Mel Talasek, of Matagorda, lured this 30-inch trout from knee-deep waters near a Port Mansfield spoil island.

PORT MANSFIELD - Crowds are to anglers what sunlight is to vampires.
   We tend to shun the clamor of fellow fishermen whenever possible, but mostly feel we must tolerate the intrusion for convenience or because of limited choices.
   However crowded the waters, hope of angling success is our cross, to keep annoyance at bay. If this works for you ... great. But if you're searching for a more solitary experience, at least occasionally, relief is not far away.
   Port Mansfield, a small community carved from the King Ranch in the late 1800s, is a little more than a two-hour drive from Corpus Christi. Yet judging by the lack of boat traffic you'd think it was closer to ... well, Transylvania.
   OK, that's the last vampire reference.
   I recently visited this remote port, south of the Land Cut, with a couple of Matagorda Bay refugees, high school English/journalism teacher and Bay City scribe Bink Grimes and his fishing guide buddy Mel Talasek. Grimes' father, Danny Grimes, and Talasek's grandson, Blain, 12, rounded out our group.
   Familiar waters
   An excuse frequently given for not fishing Mansfield is that it lacks adequate lodging. Former tournament bass angler turned saltwater guide Bruce Shuler and his wife Shirley have responded to this deficiency with their Get-a-way Adventures Lodge. The newest building on Port Mansfield's limited landscape houses 30 and offers a competent corral of guides to familiarize guests with the Lower Laguna Madre.
   I had fished these waters once before, but I got there by boat from Bird Island Basin. Driving is easier.

Blain Talasek, 12, of Matagorda, demonstrated casting skills beyond his years. This redfish was his payoff.

   This time, I inadvertently picked one of the windiest days of the year to visit Shuler. But the innkeeper/guide seemed confident he could shield me from the brunt of a 35-knot northeast gale. This was no easy chore, because reaching protected waters means boating across about eight miles of unprotected Laguna Madre.
   But the boat ride was relatively painless, despite making the trip in Shuler's no-sided, tunnel-hulled scooter. The payoff was the largest clear-water flats I'd ever seen. I've never been to Florida, but I image the Sunshine State holds similar waters. I'll find out soon enough why Shuler calls Mansfield the Texas Keys.
   Finding redfish
   The bottom is firm, the water knee-deep for miles, and redfish contrast nicely against the light-yellow sand. Sightcasting is simply a matter of finding someone to pole you around.
   Instead, we waded along a gut that parallels the Padre Island shoreline and blind-cast with Top Dogs. Grass is scarce in much of this wide expanse, scattered in spots and thick in others.
   Redfish seized our Top Dogs with exuberance, often signaling their strikes with noticeable wakes. Don't you love it when you see them coming?
   In shallow water, there's no place but up and out for a fish to go, resulting in spectacular blowups.
   Fly-fishers rave about such flats. But few come here.
   Along the shorelines
   Port Mansfield doesn't offer quite the variety or amount of bay structure the Coastal Bend holds. Things such as oyster reefs and worm rocks are scarce. But anglers who frequent her waters have learned to use what nature and man have given them.
   For example, anywhere the Intracoastal Waterway passes, including Port Mansfield, dredge materials form spoil islands along its path. Shuler showed us one of his favorite manmade shorelines within a short boat ride of his lodge, where trout patrol belly-deep waters in spring and summer. It was near here that Talasek enticed a 30-inch trout to strike a black/red Top Dog.

Port Mansfield innkeeper/guide Bruce Shuler specializes in shallow-water redfish and trout, mostly south of the Land Cut.

   I was not as lucky, though Shuler and I did find solid trout along the spoil banks, as well as at a couple of cuts that run perpendicular to the backside of Padre Island. There are about a half-dozen of these so-called wellhead ditches between the Mansfield Channel and the south end of the Land Cut.
   Bagging big trout
   Wading is the best way to access these structures, though getting there will require a boat. If you prefer to drift, try the back end of West Bay. This spot is good for trout and redfish in spring and summer. West Bay has plenty of shallow grass beds and mostly soft bottoms.
   Gladys' Hole, near the Land Cut, also produced fish for us. It's a large ditch that intersects a wide flat, which is particularly good for early-spring trout.
   According to Shuler, the best time for big trout is mid-February through March, along the west bank of the Laguna Madre north and south of the Mansfield Channel.
   But if you ask Grimes and Talasek about the best time for big trout, they'd say it was just after my visit, a couple of weeks ago.
  
  

Talk about fishing in the Coastal Bend