2007 Fishing Reports
By
12/29/07 Trout Fishing Trip on the Guadalupe River
One member had a great time at the 12/29/07 Trout Fishing Trip on the Guadalupe River. Mark Dillow is an annual lease holder with the Guadalupe River Chapter of Trout Unlimited, who have property on the river near Sattler, 13 miles west of New Braunfels. Mark caught a 22″ and a 20″ trout. The big one jumped three times before being landed.
8/24/07 – 8/26/07 Non-Chartered Coastal Fishing Trip
Two officers, five members, one first time guest and one daughter (nine participants) had a good time at the Annual 8/24/07 – 8/26/07 Non-Chartered Coastal Fishing Trip near Port Aransas. Ronnie Ross, Kevin Wall, and Mark Moore did well at Mud Island. Mark landed 24 and 28 inch Reds while fishing from shore. Ronnie and Kevin also caught numbers of Reds and Trout. First time guest Gavin Goodrich caught a 23 inch trout. My party (Tim Price and my wife, Chris, and daughter, Deanna) didn’t do quite as well. Tim caught a nice Skip Jack and a few hardhead catfish. I caught a Skip Jack, a Red, a Sheepshead, a hard fighting 4 lb. hardhead, and a couple more hardheads. Chris caught a couple of hardheads and a perch.
Both Ronnie and Tim had engine problems but were able to resolve them. The worst thing that happened was about 3:00 PM on Saturday near Mud Island. They were mainly catching hardheads, so they decided to try further down Mud Island. Tim started to head towards what looked like deeper water. He then turned towards the island. Suddenly a wave crashed over the bow, swamping it with water. Tim gunned the engine and steered 90 degrees to starboard but that just made the bow dive under the water like a submarine. In the blink of an eye the boat rolled to the right and capsized. Tim got on top of his boat and waved down a large bay boat. They towed us to 3 feet deep water. They were able to right the boat and bail it out. They then towed the boat back to Port A. They learned the importance of keeping life jackets un-stowed. Even if they hadn’t capsized, they would have had trouble in the ship channel was the waves were monstrous at 5:00 PM. Tim and I lost considerable equipment.
Six of us camped at Mustang Island State Park. Three camped on Mud Island.
6/28/07 – 6/29/07 Chartered Bay Fishing Trip
One officer and three members (four participants) had a great time at the 6/28/07 – 6/29/07 Chartered Bay Fishing Trip with Captain Scott Hibbits near Corpus Christi. The group caught 40 speckled trout (ending up one shy of their limit; one wasn’t a keeper) and John Bobo caught a redfish that was only 1/2″ shy of being a keeper. The group caught a total of 69 pounds of fish. Scott, Jim McGee, and John caught the lion’s share of the fish. Chris Rowley caught the largest. They launched at Bird Basin (in the Padre Island National Seashore), and fished exclusively in Laguna Madre around hidden structure and grass. It was a beautiful day with bearable heat and no rain. They were off the water by 2:00 PM.
4/20/07 Chartered Hybrid Bass Fishing Trip
Two officers and two members (four participants) had a great time at the Annual Chartered Hybrid Bass Fishing Trip on 4/20/07 on Lake Belton with guide Jay Garrett. They caught a record 29 fish – 26 hybrid bass, two white bass, and one approximately 3 1/2 lb. largemouth bass (caught by Jim McGee). This feat only took 1 1/2 hours. Chris Rowley started out with the hot pole but by the end they had all caught approximately the same number of fish. The fish will be fried at the 6/7/07 Club Meeting.