Over the fourth of July weekend, my Dad and I went kayaking along coastal Texas.

On the 4th, we woke up at 3am and headed down to Follets Island and hoped we would beat some of the 4th of July masses doing the same thing. We made it to the launch point around 5:30am and there were a dozen or so boaters there already, but luckily there was no real impact to our launch plans. We paddled from the launch over to the marshes near Churchill Bayou and spent so time exploring the shallow channels inside the marshes. Dad managed to catch a good size redfish but he’s very much a catch-and-release guy these days so it got thrown back in after an obligatory picture taking.

Around 11am we saw some strong storm clouds developing to our south and west and we decided to head back in to the launch. It was a good call; about a half mile from the launch the winds from the storm hit and luckily we made it back to the launch before the rains or any thunder started. It made loading the car back up a hassle but no real danger on the water itself. We managed to cover about 4 miles total during the day.

On the 5th we headed to Anahuac to launch into the Trinity River right at dawn. There was quite a bit of early morning gator activity along the main channel of the river as we followed it out to Trinity Bay. The water level is rather low so the current flow from the river was effectively non-existent.

Once we made it out to the bay we came across some old natural gas wells and tidal stations in some very shallow water. There were fields of water grass growing in about 2 feet of water and we saw an amazing amount of mullet fish feeding and frolicking in the area. Despite seeing plenty of predator fish activity, too, we never did get anything more than a nibble on our lines.

After we left that area we headed to an island south of the river’s mouth and landed for a bite to eat and a rest. We checked to see if any storms were headed towards our area and everything looked clear so we headed back out to the bay and fished another area with plenty of mullet activity. Smart fish, dumb humans so we caught nothing and headed back to the launch. We got back to the launch at around 1pm so it was a long time out on the water. We very nearly covered 7 miles total on this trip.

Being 4th of July weekend I expected a lot more activity on the water, but since kayaks can go places boaters can’t, in the end there really wan’t that many people out and in our way. Near the main channels there was always boat activity, and for the most part people are nice and slow down to reduce the wake when they pass near us, but not everyone. No one tried to deliberately swamp us this trip but Dad says it happens all the time to him.