Meeting was lead by PACK President, Brad Valtierra

2 Visitors, 29 Members, 31 total in attendance

Safety minute

Trip reports:

- Matagorda Island (Bruce Behrens) – good weather but windy, fish caught
- Boca Chia (Ken Jennings) - good weather, fishermen came in from Dallas, Brownsville, Beaumont and Houston, fish caught, Ron R and Joe O were also in the area and fished with a guide

Future trips

Llano River (near Junction, Jim Richards), June 21-24

The Lonestar Kayak Series resumes on August 18.  See www.lonestarkayakseries.com for more information.  Bruce, Aaron and Jim T are participating.

Show- n- Tell

Greg Corbett showed an innovative way to retrieve a fly or fly line from trees near the water.  He used a teacup hook attached to a short wooden rod with a cord that is put on the end of your fly rod.  The hook is then placed over the branch, the fly rod pulled out and then you can pull on the cord to reach the fly or fly line.
 

Speaker for the evening: 

Bill Balboa (281-534-0110), Galveston Bay Ecosystem Leader with TPWD was the speaker for the evening.  He gave an informative and entertaining talk on fish health, particularly in the Galveston Bay system.

Bill has been involved with monitoring fishing conditions and overall fish health/numbers for many years on the Texas Gulf Coast.  His group uses gill nets, seines, long lines and other methods to collect data on fish, shrimp, oysters, crabs and other marine species.  Bill analyzes the information for trends of the marine system which are used to assist in making changes to the TPWD regulations.

Data from the past 20 years shows a healthy fish population with a noticeable increase in flounder in the past year.

Bill and his group are always open to input from interested parties such as PACKTX and he welcomes comments.