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Trip to Cedar Bayou yesterday

506K views 927 replies 211 participants last post by  Favre4 
#1 ·
I made a trip to Cedar Bayou yesterday 4/13/2014. I wanted to check things out before dredging got started, and see just how bad it has sanded in in the last year. I haven't been there in 2 years in my own boat, and wanted to see how far I could get towards the surf before it got to shallow to float my 23' Shoalcat (floats in 8" of water).

Coming in from Mesquite bay is fairly shallow, with the waters at the bay entrance only 2-3' deep. As soon as you enter the bayou, it drops off to 5-6' for most of the run towards the surf. Within 1 1/2 miles of the surf, the bayou gets really shallow with sandbars now extending almost the entire width of the bayou. We made it to the camp on the island side, where surveyors had set up to offload equipment and atv's for placing survey markers in the planned dredge area. The entire area from where the bayou shallows all the way to the gulf had been well marked for the dredge. Most of this area is 100% dry land right now with most being 3-4' above sea level, with vegetation over many areas. Dredging here and into Vinson Slough is going to be monumental task.

We were able to get the boat about 300 yards past the surveyors camp, where the bayou just abruptly stopped from recent sand washover. (See pics below) From there, it was at least a 1/2 mile walk to where the old TPWD signs and cable were. From where the old TPWD signs were it was another 1/4 mile to the surf, following the bayou's original channel, where it connected with Vinson. There was a distinct dune line all the way down the beach in front of where the old channel entered the gulf. Dredging here is going to be tough, as evidenced by severe washover from the dunes into the channel during high tide events. Once the bayou is open, I'm sure that tidal scouring will take care of this issue.

From the last I heard, per the permit, dredging was scheduled to begin on April 15. As of April 13, there was NO heavy equipment in the area or the ICW on the way to Mesquite bay. The only signs of activity were a few primitive ATV trails left by the surveyors. No whooping cranes were observed in the area, as most are a little further north now, along the ICW, staging for their trip to Canada.

Dredging needs to commence on this project ASAP, and I would have thought that more assets would be in the area as of April 13. This is going to be a BIG task, but it will benefit the entire coastal bend area when complete. I'm ready to see the "sand flying" lol.

Also, there is a TON of oil/tar on the beach of Matagorda island from the recent oil spill in Galveston. 20' strip of sand plus lots of vegetation were covered with tar and oil as far as you could see along the beach. Nasty stuff, wish I would have brought some turpentine/baby oil with me.

Pics below show the last area in the bayou with at least 1 foot of water, almost 3/4 mile from the gulf. Oil/tar ball pics in other photo.

Capt. Rick Hammond
 

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#3 ·
Contractor could not bring in heavy equipment until the 15th (per permit) which is tomorrow, they plan to start barging the equipment over tomorrow from where it's staged. Contractor expects a few days of mobilization and lay out then they'll have the holiday weekend this weekend but plan to be up and running wide open moving sand by Monday morning. They expect the project to take them 5 months to complete which could have been cut down quite a bit but the Feds will not let them do any work at night due to the possibility of turtles being in the area during the spring and summer. The project is as much a dirt job as as dredging job especially for the first few months. I'll have some pics from the next couple of days I hope and plan to visit the site a few times throughout the project. As far as the oil there are clean up crews working their way south on matty island cleaning it up as they go, heard reports of dozens of dump trucks being out there this last weekend.
 
#4 ·
Good to hear... I will probably be out there sometime during the week after Easter, to see whats happening. Saw some dredge equipment staged near Conn Brown this weekend, was hoping this was headed to Cedar Bayou. Plenty of dirt to move before dredging even starts....

Keep us updated, "im headed South". Thanks.


Capt. Rick Hammond
 
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