Sargent is located along the Texas Coast 76 miles south of Galveston. It is located between Freeport and Matagorda Texas. Sargent’s environment is more pristine and clean then Galveston. It is a fishing, birding and hunting paradise. There is no Industry on the Bay. This pristine paradise surrounds a small community of maybe 700 resident and is called the Greater Sargent Ecosystem which the little town of Sargent is located. It it is on the Northern part of East Matagorda Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The community of Sargent Texas has some of the best fishing Bird Watching and Hunting on Texas Gulf Coast. Greater Sargent is blessed with some incredible Watershed for the Bay. The area has clean habitat for fishing and outdoor wildlife. The habitat consist of rivers, canals, bay, beach, surf , the Columbia Bottom lands and the Gulf of Mexico. Also offshore fishing thrives because you are closer to deep water then Galveston. Fish Sargent.com is a guide to the local area surrounding Sargent. It is first to help you learn about the business of Sargent Texas and the Greater Sargent Ecosystem.
Sargent Fact: Travel time to Houston 1.2 hours.
Sargent Texas is a sportsman mecca. The town is located right in the center of the Greater Sargent Ecosystem consisting of East Matagorda Bay and the area between The Colorado and San Bernard rivers. The town of Sargent Texas itself consist of Caney Creek the Downey’s canals and the Sargent Beach. The canals where dug in the 1960’s by the Downey Brothers and have built up slowly with homes. Trailers and camping are allowed on a temporary basis. The canals produce fish and crabs and many people fish under the lights on and incoming tide at night. There are many different Subdivisions in the area but they are farther North away from the Gulf of Mexico and East Matagorda Bay.
Visit from Houston and Sargent is the closest gateway to “East Matty” or East Matagorda Bay. Houston is about an hour by car. Sargent’s people provide a visitor a glimpse into the old days of a gentile Texas with their eclectic ways and gentle manner and are always willing to assist in your exploration of their unique way of life and area. It is truly a fishing, birding, and hunting paradise.
If you’re looking for Hollywood types like Brad Pitt or Barbara Streisand you won’t find them here in Sargent Texas . This place is pure Texas. There is no pretense in Sargent. It is what it is. One road in and one road out which makes it isolated from other more industrialized areas of the Texas coast. The People of Sargent on East Matagorda realize this fact and cherish the fact it is one of the cleanest and undeveloped bays on the Texas Coast. Sargent has in the past limited development.
Sargent Fact: Sargent is the gateway to Matagorda Bay.
The greater Sargent Texas ecosystem is part of incredible fish habitat in and about East Matagorda Bay. East Matagorda Bay is surrounded by a vast pristine and mostly intact ecosystem and watershed which consist of a coastal prairie, sandy and muddy beaches, and the old growth forest called the “Columbia Bottomlands”.
Sargent is on Caney Creek a small river watershed is a the one of the main sources of the fresh water that enters the Eastern part East Matagorda Bay.
East Matagorda Bay has diverse fish habitat. There is plenty of crabs, small bait-fish and shrimp who live is the bays grass fields and oyster reefs for the giant trout and red fish to eat and grow on. Giant Speckled Trout have been caught and released. Sargent and East Matagorda Bay have no chemical plants, no industry, no aquaculture, and very limited road access . The mixing of salt water and fresh water has created the complex ecosystem rich with fish.
Sargent Fact: Sargent is surrounded by “Old Growth Forest“. The Colombian Bottomlands.
Sargent is in the middle of one of the biggest “Old Growth Forest” southern preservation efforts in the United States?
“The Columbia Bottom Lands”
This is a system of old growth forest and slow meandering fresh water mixing with saltwater it creates what biologist call a convergence zone. The Zone surrounds the greater Sargent ecosystem and East Matagorda Bay. That life zone which includes Coastal Prairie, Old Growth Oak Forest, Oyster reefs, large intact underwater grass beds, and small freshwater rivers. These systems create a great habitat and spawning grounds for fish, water birds, shrimp and many other animals. Over 26,000 acres of old growth forest have been preserved so far in this effort. Some of the largest last stands of “Old Growth Forest” in the southern United States are in the Greater Sargent Ecosystem.
Sargent Fact: Caney Creek was once the Mouth of Colorado River.
Two Federal Wildlife preserves anchor this pristine Ecosystem. Surf Fishing on Sargent Beach at Mitchells cut you can notice green water creeping toward beach in Gulf of Mexico. Turn your head to the left and look east and the Sun rises over the San Bernard Federal Wildlife Preserve. Now turn your head West you have Lake Austin and the Big Boggy Federal Wildlife Preserve and East Matagorda Bay. If you look North you See the Caney Creek Woods or” Austin’s” Woods “which are part of the Great “Canebreak Forest“. The San Bernard Federal Reservation exemplifies this ecosystem.
“Austin’s Wood’s” are the Great Columbia Bottom Land old growth Forest that is being preserved today around Sargent. So named because Stephen F. Austin was living around West Columbia and was the first Anglo to explore them in Early Texas History. “The Greater Sargent Ecosystem” is right in the middle of this great effort led by the US Forest Service and many other groups including: US Fish and Wildlife , Columbia Bottom Lands Map, Gulf Coast Bird Observatory, and the Nature Conservatory .
The largest White Oak in Texas is in the San Bernard and can be viewed by appointment with Park Game Warden. Its an adventure getting there because the forest is so rich and thick. Old Growth Forest.
Sargent Fact: Texas largest white Oak in Texas is located in Sargent’s backyard.
Sargent Fact: Sargents Canals offer a constant 3 foot deep.
More than 80 percent of Texas native oyster reefs have disappeared. Conservation groups are hoping Texas’ decision on how to use federal Restore Act funding includes large-scale restoration and rehabilitation projects aimed at the environmentally and economically important mollusk. Houston Chronicle photo by Shannon Tompkins
The San Bernard National Wildlife Preserve
Greater Sargent Ecosystem
View Greater Sargent Ecosystem in a larger map Big Boggy Federal Wildlife Preserve which includes”Dressing Island” Bird Island: 
