Capt. Fern Gonzales was wade-fishing in shin-deep water in East Matagorda Bay with the intention of targeting redfish when he hooked up with a hefty speckled trout. The speck ended up having a tag in it from the Trout Tagging Texas program, which revealed that it had traveled more than 25 miles from where it was originally caught and tagged in the surf.
Gonzales had already caught a couple of reds while using the same croaker as bait when he felt the speck thump.
“As the fish got closer, I noticed that it had something hanging off of its body,” Gonzales said. “I thought it was a twig or a piece of grass at first, but then I realized it was a red tag that was covered in some moss. After I landed her, I put her in the water in my fish bag and walked back to the boat, which was only about 40 yards away.”
Gonzales measured and weighed the trout, which ended up being 25 inches in length and about 5.5 pounds. He took note of the number on the tag before posing for a photo with the fish, and then released it safely back into the water.
“My buddy got a video of me releasing the trout, and she swam away strong,” Gonzales said. “I had been hearing about a group that was tagging and releasing speckled trout along the Texas coast, but I wasn’t familiar with the program. The founder of Trout Tagging Texas, Chris McKinley, ended up reaching out to me shortly after a photo of the tagged trout began circulating on social media, and he explained
to me that the fish was originally tagged in the surf.”
According to McKinley, the same trout had been tagged and released along the beach front, about 5 miles east of the Colorado River by Riley Freese about a month prior. Freese was fishing the surf with McKinley, helping him tag fish, and originally caught the trout on a soft plastic jig.
“From where the fish was caught and tagged in the surf to where it was recaptured and released once again in East Matagorda Bay, the speck had to have traveled between 25 and 26 miles,” McKinley said. “It either swam east down the beachfront from where it was caught and then came up Mitchell’s Cut and into East Matagorda Bay, or it swam west and then up the Colorado River before entering the bay. Regardless of which path the fish took, it covered over 25 miles of water from where it was initially tagged.”
McKinley said the Trout Tagging Texas program has had 13 recaptures of tagged trout this summer. Of those fish, Gonzales’ was the first trout to be tagged in the surf and then recaptured in the bay.
