George West, 1-21-2017

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Yakety_Yak
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Location: Houston

George West, 1-21-2017

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This trip was going to be a PACK (Paddling Anglers in Canoes & Kayaks) trip. This is a kayaking group in Houston that conducts meetings every third Tuesday of every month in the west side of Houston, Texas. Each month is a different guest speaker and the meetings are absolutely free. Not only does this group do meetings with guest speakers, they do kayak fishing trips as well every month. It’s a great way for any level kayak fisherman to meet other kayak anglers and to get on the water and fish. The website for this group is http://www.packtx.org

I decided after doing the Nueces River run for awhile now that I would bring a few friends along. I organized a trip down to GW and see if we could get into some white bass. The game plan was to camp out at Choke Canyon State Park on Friday and Saturday night and fish both Saturday and Sunday. All of us arrived at the park on Friday night. I managed to get out of Houston right before the traffic kicked in so that was a huge relief. My buddy, Scott, was along for the ride. He has a Bass Pro Shop Ascend kayak. That kayak is perfect for this type of trip. Both Scott and I got out of work at the same time, met up at my storage, then got on the road asap. By the time we arrived at Choke Canyon State Park, it was dark. After checking in at the ranger station, we went to our camp site and set up the tent. PACK President, Chris Arceneaux, was already at the camp site with his tent set up. Once at the camp site, Scott and I set up the tent. After the tent was set up, we relaxed and talked for awhile while waiting for Mike Smalley to arrive. If my memory serves me right, Mike arrived around 10:00pm. After he set up his tent, I think we spoke for around 15 minutes and then it was lights out for everyone. We still had to get up early, pack everything up, and head to the boat launch. While talking at the site Friday night, it was determined that we would only fish for Saturday and then head back. Winds for Sunday were supposed to get up to 40 mph. This was something that was not in the forecast initially. Even though the Nueces River has a lot of protection from the wind, there is no hiding from that kind of wind.

The next morning arrives and the dew on the ground and tents was extreme! My tent was absolutely soaked. I had to figure out a way that my tent would not get my car messed up at the same time the tent not get mildew on it. After figuring out that problem, I ate my breakfast and then it was time to get on the road to catch some fish. When we arrived to the boat launch, it was absolutely packed more than I have ever seen it before. Boats, kayakers, skiffs, jet skis, John boats, and more were on the water fishing for white bass. The line was long to getting on the boat ramp to launch. While we waited, we rigged our kayaks while on the trailer so that when we got to the ramp, we could unload in seconds and be ready to hit the water. The goal was to hit the water before dawn but because of the backup to launching, we were not able to hit the water until after sunlight. Finally, after a period of time, we were able to launch and away we went.

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The PACK members that were on the water were Chris Arceneaux, Mike Smalley, Scott, and myself. Chris and Scott decided to blind cast as they would go through the river. I tried trolling rattle traps at first but I was not getting any luck from that. I think due to all the boat traffic coming through, that it made it tough for catching white bass while trolling. The water was disturbed too much. After 30 – 45 minutes of trolling with no luck, I decided that I needed to change up my game. I saw Mike Smalley ahead of me so I asked him if he wanted to try something different. He agreed that we needed to do something different than what we were doing already. I took him to another spot where I thought would be productive. Before we left the area, I saw that Chris and Scott were hanging and that nobody was left alone. I also took a few pics before moving to a different spot. This was Scott paddling.

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Chris has a wooden kayak. He made this kayak from scratch. He was moving along but I managed to catch a pic of
him….

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After peddling awhile, Mike and I finally made it to the destination. Every time I come to the Nueces River, it never ceases to amaze me. One day everyone fishes in a certain area, then another day everyone is fishing in a different area. This particular day, we must of found where the rainbow ends because everyone was here at the spot we went. I saw around 10 – 15 boats and 30 kayakers. For a second, I thought I was at demo day for kayaks, lol. Every brand of kayak was there. I have a picture to show for this but I don’t want to give too much out in one report. Part of the fun on a fishing trip is the exploring.

For awhile, I was fishing in some deep water and catching on a rattle trap blind casting. I managed to catch a few but it was rough. I would look around and it seemed that the people using live minnows were slaying all the white bass. I made a mental note of that for the next time I came out to GW. Not long after I caught a few more white bass, a pontoon boat pulls up across the river from where I am at and starts fishing. The guy that owns the boat is a guide. The people that he took out immediately started hooking up on live minnows when they got there. Those guys were out-fishing me 2-1 and sometimes 3-1.

While I was fishing, I was getting to know the guys on the pontoon boat. The guy is Tux. He runs a lot of guided fishing trips out on the Nueces. It’s not a bad deal at all as his prices are pretty reasonable. If anyone is ever interested in doing something like this, hit me up and I will be happy to provide Tux’s info. While fishing, Tux invited me to bring my kayak over, anchor up next to his pontoon boat, and fish where they were at. I took him up on the offer to fish next to his boat. I made sure I was respectful of his area as his customers are paying and I was not. I did my best to stay out of their area. Everyone was very courteous. I managed to catch some more white bass and even a crappie. After a little while longer, Tux’s group limited out and they left. I had the place all to myself. There were still plenty of other people fishing in the area but nobody was too close to where I was at. At this point I saw Chris and Scott as they finally caught up to us. They had been blind casting the entire time from the launch to where we were. I knew they would not get lost because this river only has two ways to go, up river or down river. Now that Chris and Scott are here, they start to fish as well to see what they can find. About this time Mike decided that he had to be heading back because he had some things to tend to with the wife for evening plans. Mike called once he made it back to the launch to let us know all was well. During this time we continued to fish. I would say that we were done fishing around 2:30pm and then began to start heading back to the boat launch.

I trolled on the way back for the most part but again, not much would hit on the rattle traps. This was strange because last year the rattle traps were the bomb! No worries, I had half a limit of white bass so I was not complaining. After a long peddle, we finally made it back to the launch. I managed to snap a few photos before we made it on the launch.

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Right before I pulled the mirage drive and rudder, I stood up to stretch my legs. That felt good considering how much time we spent peddling. For those o f you that are not sure if you can stand in a Outback, here is proof that it can be done. I weigh 210 lbs and it’s not a problem for me.

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I don’t know about everyone else but for Scott and I, we decided we would clean our fish once we got back to Houston. We made it to the launch, packed up the yaks and gear, and then headed back to Houston. It was a great day on the water and we even missed the nasty winds that ended up coming the next day.
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