For the past few weeks we have been planning a kayak fishing trip to Matagorda Island State Park. We would kayak what we thought would be 6 miles from Port O’Connor to the island, stopping occasionally to cast our lines. If needed we would camp at one of the surrounding islands if we couldn’t make it in one day. The guy that put this together cancelled the week before due to family issues coming up. Should of been a sign since he was the only person familiar with the area.

We left Austin for Port O’Connor on Thursday around 8am. We arrived at around noon and headed to the Parks and Wildlife HQ. We find out some information that kind of screws us. First, we cannot camp on any of the islands between POC and Matagorda ( This changes later as another Park Ranger says the first ranger is a dumb ass). Second, the trip to the island is really 12 miles and 10 miles if we cut through the islands which we were going to do. Third, the winds are a constant 25mph and will be hitting against us.

So we get our kayaks packed and start to head out at 1:30PM. This was later then we wanted to leave. Pretty shortly into the trip we could tell this wind was going to kill us. We are so behind that we are unable to even fish at all. Our only goal is to get to the island. We are making really crappy time. We get to about the half way point and we are beat. We keep going and then run into a oyster reef. YAH! This tears the shit out Clint and I kayaks. After we get out of the reef I notice my kayak has taken alot of water and is getting hard to get it moving. We are thinking that the oyster reef popped a hole. We stop and stand up on the reef and tip the kayak to drain it. We inspected this and didn’t find any holes.

At this point it is 6:30PM and we are only about half way to the island. We have 2 hours till dark and no place to set up camp. So we decide it would be best to head back to POC. Shortly after heading back a bull shark pops up between Clint and I. That was bad ass! It takes us 2 hours with the wind to our backs.

I won’t go into the other details of how crappy things turned. But our 3 day trip turned into a day and a half.