PACK Trip Report - Shoalwater 2017

[Ken J]

PACK fished and camped Shoalwater this past weekend. True to PACK Outing traditions, we had to deal with Mother Nature, temp was Hot, we got rained on twice, low tide that negated the Mirage Drives in navigating the shallow water. However, we slaughtered the fish.

Friday – We all arrived at Charlies Bait Camp earlier than planned allowing for an earlier than planned launch. When we turned into the cut that leads into Shoalwater we encountered a very low tide that negated the Mirage Drives in navigating the shallow water. The Kayaks with the Mirage Drives had to paddle or pole four miles of the six to our camp location on Little Grass Island. The wind was nil, the air temp was hot and all consumed a lot of water. Based on our consumption of water we all wondered if we would have enough for the trip? Upon arrival at Little Grass Island we set up camp and started to fish. We could see a lot of bait activity between Little Grass island and Shell Bar. The trout were there, it seemed every cast we made we had a trout. We caught a lot of fish, granted the bulk of the trout were dinks, about a 5 dink to 1 keeper ratio.

Saturday – Saturday morning we headed over to the North Shoreline in search for reds. The water clarity was very clear. Only two rat reds were caught. Again, the dink trout were plentiful. Then the rains came and we got drenched. We got tired of searching for reds, so we went back to where we fished Friday, between Little Grass island and Shell Bar. The bite was still on. At noon time Marvin M reported that he stopped counting the number of trout he had caught at 60. All hands confirmed the same trout numbers. We did get slimed by a few gafftops that were landed on soft plastics. One of our members got himself lost while fishing the North Shoreline. We were in communication with him via VHF radios and were able to direct him back to the camp site. It is interesting how someone can get disorientated in and around those islands, they do all look alike. We had a fish fry Saturday night, during dinner all had commented how hot it was in the tents Friday night, all had decided to take off the rain-flys on our tents. Then we heard on the VHF Weather Channel about the heavy weather headed our way. You could see the dark sky heading our way. The rain-flys went back up on our tents, then the rain, wind, and temperature drop found us. All took refuge in our tents. After a hard day of fishing, and the much cooler temperature we all had a good night’s sleep.

Sunday - Because of the possibility of more rain we decided to break camp early and head back to Charlies. The wind was out of the North East at about 10 mph, and the air temp was actually cool. Those kayakers with the Mirage Drives took the cut thru Shell Bar into Espiritu Santo Bay back to Charlies. Mike E fished Shoalwater on the way back and continued to catch dink trout. PACK can confirm that the trout population in Shoalwater is very healthy. Those dink trout will be keepers next year.

All had a good time, we will be back again next year.

Pictures: http://www.packtx.org/Photos/tabid/58/A ... allery-385

Enjoy.

Tight Lines
Ken J


PS added by Marvin M who was on the trip.

Great write-up! Thanks again, Ken, for planning this trip and getting it all together. When I got home, Tracy asked me how it went and would I do it again? I think she was a little surprised at my enthusiasm for it. I would absolutely do it again and the next time, knowing what I know now, I would pack quite differently and have a much better idea of what’s good and what’s not. I’m making some notes on that so that I don’t forget what I learned…important at my age.

The one thing that impressed me on this trip was paddling into that school of reds on the way out to Grass Island. They were all around my kayak and didn’t even seem to care about it until I stuck my paddle in the water. Then they casually swam away. Also, the one red I encountered after that was the biggest I’ve ever seen. I came up behind him and he didn’t dart until I came close to touching his tail that was partially above the surface of the water. I don’t know what would have happened if I had been rigged to throw to them but I can assure you I will always rig before the trip from now on.

I very much enjoyed chatting with you and now I honestly admit that I’m sorry I didn’t get to know you better a long time ago. Thanks for a bunch of great stories and experiences. And I’m shopping the internet for a decent battery powered fan.

Regards,

Marvin

[Kayak Kid]

Shoalwater was my very favorite of all the PACK fishing adventures. I sorely miss that trip most of all.

I've been thinking about how a four or five wt. spinning rod would be a kick and a half match with all of those dinks.

[Drifting Yak]

Sounds like a great/fun outing! I gotta do one of these PACK trips!

[Kayak Kid]

Marin,
I guess you fell for Ken's line of BS too. I did the same about 14 years ago....,with absolutely no regrets. He is but one of the many gentlemen sportsmen/kayak fishermen/ environmentally concerned PACK members that you will come into contact with.

A couple of tips:
A necessity, along with your fan, is a goodly amount of talcum powder and moist camp towels. As you seem to have discovered, space and weight are at a premium. A fast water boiler along with freeze dried meals is an easy fix foe hunger. It's loaded with salt, but, on hot summer days, the salt probably won't be a problem.

It took. me a long while before I overcame my stubbornness and began taking an air air mattress on the camping trips. Heavy and bulky, but makes all the difference to those of us over the age of 25.