Secret Flounder Fishing Spot Revealed Texas History and Always More...

Old Colonel Travis cut a dashing figure at the Battle of the Alamo. The legend of the line in the sand is certainty inspiring but the reality of his presence in Texas is that he was avoiding his debts elsewhere and when he stuck his head up over the battlements that day in San Antone and when he had it blown off pretty early in the battle he accomplished that. Same thing would probably happen to me but it was enough for Travis to have this fort on the tip of Bolivar Peninsula named after him. It's now a Galveston County Park. Entry is free and we took the self guided walking tour and Cathy showed me the equally legendary Cooney family flounder fishing hole that Bill snuck all the kids into in the 1970s before the park was developed and the property was off limits to trespassers which I guess kind of makes them like Travis, intent on avoiding trouble.       

The area had fortifications as early as 1816 but this spot saw building began in earnest in the first years of The Republic of Texas to protect Galveston Bay from invasion. Slave labor was used to erect the big dirt battlements and construction continued in one way or the other till WW2 when about 2500 troops were stationed here.   

There are good stations with historical facts located on the paths through the park. Cathy stands on one of the biggest gun emplacements and as far as I could tell there was never a shot fired in anger from this Fort. It seemed from the information available that every time a new gun was installed there was always some development in the enemy tactics or their own countermeasures such as aircraft and radar that made the gun obsolete and because of this some emplacements never even had guns installed. This brings to mind Ike's farewell address where he warned us about the military industrial complex. Nothing was really defended but people made money building.      

Even though the fort was sold as military surplus in 1949 chemical warfare is still a concern. 

Cathy heads to the smaller batteries that guard the narrow part of the pass. 

Cathy says these were open in the 70s and she went inside. 

Cathy located the secret flounder hole right here. In the 1970s the park was not developed and Bill would take Cathy and her younger brothers, Jim, John and Matt over a fence, along a jungle type path (it's all open, clear park space now) down the 15' seawall and fish for flounder from the rip rap breaking the waves. Cathy recalls the little boys hanging up a lot and requiring her deckhand skills but the water stretches out shallow for a long way making it great for the big flatfish.    

I saw no one fishing here on the rainy weekday morning we visited. We decided the climb down the seawall and over the rocks was probably easier when you are 16 instead of in your 60s and admired Bill for doing it with little kids as crew. 

Cathy says her brothers are going to kill me for reveling this spot but I don't thing they have visited it lately.    

Like the fort it's self all the gun emplacements are named for men killed in the Mexican War or WW1. Even with the sneaking in, the advancing over treacherous terrain and the uneven footing of the rocks no one was ever lost during a flounder trip and with it's development the park is a great tour and I bet the flounder are still there.