# Matagorda - Oilmans tourn.



## yakfishin (Dec 8, 2005)

Well if you like wind and muddy water you would be in heaven. The most irritating thing of the whole trip was the size of shrimp that the bait shop in the HARBOR was selling, they were about 1 1\2 " long at the most. We might have had 6 shrimp in a quart that were usuable. Caught a few Gafftops in the 5 lbs. range and some under size trout and reds. I really feel sorry for the guys that have to fish it all weekend, it was truely brutal. A question for everyone, is there a size limit on what shrimper can keep? On a more positive note, caught some fish and was not at work. 

Yakfishin


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## Spec-Rig.006 (Nov 2, 2007)

You an oil man yakfishin ... ?


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## yakfishin (Dec 8, 2005)

No, my brother does all the electrical and tables and chairs out there. My dad is an Oil man ( sells drilling bits).


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## 21tv (May 26, 2004)

yep, the shrimp size changes every few weeks, a couple of weeks ago I stood over the bait tanks and could have potlicked a dozen for the grill in no time, it's where they drag and when, a little bit of who mixed in there also


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## Diamond Jen (Jan 3, 2008)

You can get EXCELLENT dead shrimp at Buddy's Seafood (across the street from the Shell station). They have really good sized shrimp - far more effective than the little shrimp you are getting at the bait shop. Live/dead - unless you are triple tailing, should work the same. 

However, you can do just as well on Gulp. They sell them at Russell's, Rawlins or Stanley's and probably a bunch of other places too! Nonetheless, depending on the depth of the water, toss Gulp under a popping cork (trout rig) and get busy! You will catch fish! 

Now, if you are wading or running shallow, toss a super spook jr. I have a lot of success on topwaters wading Gorda no matter what the water looks like. 

Good luck! Keep us posted!


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## 6.5 shooter dude (Jan 8, 2008)

My tournament partner guided in it today he just called an said they didn't get to the bay till 10am he said there was like 1600 people in the tournament. he also said it was a tough day only two keeper reds


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## kingfisherred (Aug 12, 2005)

*Shrimp size*



yakfishin said:


> Well if you like wind and muddy water you would be in heaven. The most irritating thing of the whole trip was the size of shrimp that the bait shop in the HARBOR was selling, they were about 1 1\2 " long at the most. We might have had 6 shrimp in a quart that were usuable. Caught a few Gafftops in the 5 lbs. range and some under size trout and reds. I really feel sorry for the guys that have to fish it all weekend, it was truely brutal. A question for everyone, is there a size limit on what shrimper can keep? On a more positive note, caught some fish and was not at work.
> 
> Yakfishin


There is no limit to the size of shrimp a shrimper can catch or sell, they are only limited by the mesh size of their nets, which is set by TP&W.


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## boashna (May 28, 2004)

good job, the biggest trout on my boat was caught with a small shrimp. Here in houston most fish are below 20 inch and this one was 29.5.


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## salty angler (Jun 13, 2007)

Anyone know what the leader board looks like?


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## yakfishin (Dec 8, 2005)

boashna, 
I'm not talking about small shrimp  I am talking about shrimp that WILL NOT go on a hook.  I would have killed for a small shrimp. This small (.................) 
I actually, I just went down for one night and one day. My brother is still down there for the whole tournament, I will try to get a report form him.


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## Porky (Nov 1, 2006)

Wait a few weeks and they will have grown large enough for bait, It's not the bait shops fault. Blame it on mother nature. On the other hand I have had shrimp so big that some of the trout I was catching had black eyes and or bloody lips!


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## yakfishin (Dec 8, 2005)

It is the Bait shops fault for selling a product that is not useable. I have bought small shrimp before. These shrimp were not small, they were tiny. The large shrimp you can at least put on a hook.  I have been bay fishing with live shrimp for the last five years at least twice a month. So, I have seen every size of bait possible. Yes, my friend should have looked at the shrimp first and turned them down but he didn't notice until we started to put them in the livewell.


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## deke (Oct 5, 2004)

Capt Jay Baker said:


> My tournament partner guided in it today he just called an said they didn't get to the bay till 10am he said there was like 1600 people in the tournament.


Sounds like such a fun time on the water,lol,NOT. Capt. your bud is a brave man.


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## Gottagofishin (Dec 17, 2005)

I was supposed to be fishing that, but work got in the way. I talked to my team tonight and they all limited out on reds. Nothing worth entering though. Biggest was 6.25 lbs.

Wind is brutal.


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## hilldo (Jun 25, 2006)

It was a great event with a lot of great people giving to a great cause.

Please don't dampen the spirit of the event over some undersized shrimp drownin.


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## 100% Texan (Jan 30, 2005)

Hildo congrats on winning the 50 cal really nice gun.The tournament was as always the best party in town no one and I mean no one partys like the oilman.We caught fish on both days it was tough but I had waders and that helps when fishing in the wind.Yak the bait is small because they cant pull there nets thru east matagorda fortunately.The shrimp will get bigger as soon as the browns show up these are little white shrimp there catching now.On side note upon cleaning fish all my reds this weekend were full of little mullets and shad so shrimp is not on the menu as of now.


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## rgrgmg (Oct 21, 2005)

Great point Hilldo on the event. FYI - if you want big shrimp or "quality shrimp", RAWLINGS is the word! Of course when they have it. Russells always has them on the small side at a high price!


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## TWHJ28 (Jun 27, 2007)

The tent and all the prizes were awesome. This was my first one and it was cool, hope to fish it next year. Friday was slow for us only one red. Sat. we had one red that was 7lbs. 13oz. when we went to weigh it in 1st,2nd,3rd were all over 9lbs. with first being 9lbs 13. biggest trout was 7lbs something not for sure. the guy that caught it was staying with us and they told me they caught 8 keepers all weekend.


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## hilldo (Jun 25, 2006)

Thanks, Noo Noo! Now I've got learn how to fire the dang thing. I wanna bust a cap in somethin old school style. I'll be headin over to the American Gun Club soon.


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## Leemo (Nov 16, 2006)

yakfishin said:


> It is the Bait shops fault for selling a product that is not useable. I have bought small shrimp before. These shrimp were not small, they were tiny. The large shrimp you can at least put on a hook.  I have been bay fishing with live shrimp for the last five years at least twice a month. So, I have seen every size of bait possible. Yes, my friend should have looked at the shrimp first and turned them down but he didn't notice until we started to put them in the livewell.


If you don't like the size, quantity, or price I suggest you do not purchase them, Russel and Brandi work very hard to keep the place up to "par" so the public can have fun onthe weekends, no glory in the bait biz., and the last time I checked you could not order what "size" shrimp you wanted from Mother Nature..... LK


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## yakfishin (Dec 8, 2005)

You are correct that you can not order the size of shrimp from mother nature, but you can choose not to kill small baby shrimp that can not be used and will just die. "Yes, my friend should have looked at the shrimp first and turned them down but he didn't notice until we started to put them in the livewell." Noo noo you are correct about what the fish are eating. I was in no way trying to take away what the Oilmans tourn does, have been going down for the event sense it started.


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## Wakerider1424 (Nov 25, 2007)

Diamond Jen said:


> You can get EXCELLENT dead shrimp at Buddy's Seafood (across the street from the Shell station). They have really good sized shrimp - far more effective than the little shrimp you are getting at the bait shop. Live/dead - unless you are triple tailing, should work the same.
> 
> However, you can do just as well on Gulp. They sell them at Russell's, Rawlins or Stanley's and probably a bunch of other places too! Nonetheless, depending on the depth of the water, toss Gulp under a popping cork (trout rig) and get busy! You will catch fish!
> 
> ...


I will second the Buddy's shrimp!


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

I guess we did pretty good for an offsore boat...stuck fishing in the bay...AND very limited as to where we could fish in such a big boat. Just not many 25' twin engine bay boats running around out there. Sure came in handy coming and going across west matty though.

Friday we didn't do very well...only put 4 in the box, but the guys caught plenty throw backs.
Saturday we boxed 7 trout and one red...as on Friday they caught a number of throw backs.


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## yakfishin (Dec 8, 2005)

Hey Captn C did any of the big boats get offshore? Glad to hear ya'll caught some fish at least.


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

No one that I know of went offshore and I know many of those guides...I know two gray snapper were weighted in for the snapper division though.


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## tewltime (May 21, 2004)

*boats offshore*

The 27' Cape Horn "Sea Ya" made it out on Saturday. 6 hours on the water nad 30 minutes fishing. They caught a 17" and 19" snapper but as luck would have it, got caught by the swing bridge and missed weigh in by about 15 minutes.

And no I was not on that boat... I was on the "Jobsite" and tied up at the harbor.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

Captn C said:


> No one that I know of went offshore and I know many of those guides...*I know two gray snapper were weighted in* for the snapper division though.


I heard they were monsters, wonder who caught em, we need pics.......

.


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## rippin lips (Jan 8, 2005)

I had the pleasure to fish this tourny again with Ghost. It gets bigger and better every year I go. Dwayne I want thank you for the invite again.I had a blast and met alot of new folks.Aggreko team made out like bandits this year on prizes.Again a Big Thanks.Thank Gary for the trailer also it was nice to stumble across from the tent to pass out.That was 2 years in a row the wind was bruttle.It was good to see Havens down there also.Capt.Jesse and Capt.Ken Sabin Thanks for the conversation and I learn new stuff every day.I will make some jewlrey out of the pearls from the trout.Thanks http://www.tocift.org/ for putting on a great event as usual.

Woody


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## Run-N-Gun (Jul 5, 2007)

David Gregory's boat had the largest trout of the tourny at 7.1 lbs. They didn't catch alot of fish, but the ones they caugth counted. We only had one boat really dominate over the weekend and it had 36 trout on friday with the largest going in the mid 6lb range. Most of our boats had anywhere from 5-15 fish a day over the two day tournament, but like they said earlier, it was a blast of a weekend, just hope next year we will actually get to go offshore!!


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## rippin lips (Jan 8, 2005)

Yea he pulled it off .Aggreko rents his house from him.I stayed there last year.Dwayne and customers stayed there this year again.Davids boat bumped me down to 2nd.I lost a bigger fish early that morning made me sick to my stomach I thought it was over that was my chance.Then hour later I picked up a 6.6lb pulled out 2nd place for me.
Woody


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## Captn C (May 21, 2004)

CoastalOutfitters said:


> I heard they were monsters, wonder who caught em, we need pics.......
> 
> .


LOL

I know the lucky captain who put them on those two fish too...I doubt they would have to re-sized the pics to fit here!

I know a number of the offshore guides who were booked for this event and I know they wanted to get out there badly. I am surprized anyone tried and got out deep enough to catch anything. Those guy are more than hard core!


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## parker2 (Sep 8, 2005)

Fished East Bay on Friday with 4 trout 22" to 24 1/2" and two at 17"
All caught on Punkinseed and chartruse touts.
Sorry for the quality of the pictures.

Later
Parker


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## parker2 (Sep 8, 2005)

Picture attached.


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## Gluconda (Aug 25, 2005)

I heard Mr. Ed Douglas of Ed's lures was down there with his lures. Did anyone meet him or know how I can get a hold of Mr. Douglas for some of his Broken Back Lures? Thanks


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## Totally La. (Aug 11, 2005)

There were no offshore fish weighed in during the tournament. No one went out due to high seas.


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## Capt. Carman (Jun 5, 2007)

*Oilman*

For those of you that fished the river during Oilman, you saw the Pro-Kats go by and we were one of 'em.

We were very disappointed we couldn't take our clients offshore. It was very strange fishing in 12-18' of water. We had very high quality bait as well.

Hey, next year to all. Let's have a cold adult beverage.

CC


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## hilldo (Jun 25, 2006)

Gluconda said:


> I heard Mr. Ed Douglas of Ed's lures was down there with his lures. Did anyone meet him or know how I can get a hold of Mr. Douglas for some of his Broken Back Lures? Thanks


Checl your PMs...


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## ghost (Apr 23, 2005)

We had a great time at the tourn. Rippin Lips pulled in the second place trout and another one of my customers came in second on the Red with the most spots. (13) We raked in on the door prizes with one of my guys winning two of the raffle buckets. I won a $500 Academy card and the Richard Petty "Driving Experience of a lifetime". I will be driving a Bush car for 30 laps at Tx Motor Speedway in the near future, I can't wait! We pre fished Wednesday and Thursday and were on some good fish in West Bay. The ride across the bay was tough but the new Haynie cut through it like a dream. On Friday morning, we left out early to get to our spot first. I was running the south shoreline at about 30 mph when all the sudden I saw a green nav light start to pass me on my left. He was between me and the shoreline running in about 2 feet of water. Needless to say, I did not get up early to be second to my spot. I put the hammer down and 57mph was on the gps and the green light faded in the distance. As we were getting out to wade our spot, the second boat was just pulling in. Nothing like a Merc ProXS hanging on back of a Haynie. LOL. It was time and was for a great cause. Thanks Rippin Lips for the great customer service you provided to my guests.


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## hilldo (Jun 25, 2006)

ghost said:


> I did not get up early to be second to my spot. I put the hammer down and 57mph was on the gps and the green light faded in the distance.


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