PACKTX August 2011 meeting notes

PACKTX held its monthly meeting on August 16, 2011 at the Sosa Community Center, 1414 Wirt Road.

Ron Romeis opened the meeting and welcomed visitors and new members. He reminded everyone to check the website (www.packtx.org) for details on upcoming fishing trips and monthly meetings / start times. We’ll be starting the monthly meetings at 6:30pm in the future.

The tournament originally scheduled for Sept 10 has been cancelled and now we’ve got an open date. Let Ron or one of the other officers know if you’ve got a trip you think would fit that date.

It’s time to start thinking about club officers for 2012. If you’re interested in one of the spots, give Ron a call.

Recent trips:

South Llano River (near Junction TX) – Jim Richards. This spring fed river lived up to its expectations and gave the group plenty of water AND plenty of fish. This is always a good trip for families and is a combination of fishing, swimming and paddling. Even with the heat, some of the group camped at the state park and said conditions were fine.

Port O’Connor – Marcos Enriquez. The fly fishermen of PACKTX gathered up for this event and fished out of the Fishing Center in the metropolis of Port O’Connor. Reports from the trip included fish, lots of paddling and more shrimp than they could eat!

Upcoming trips:

Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) – Ken Jennings. This group is heading south for the annual trip to the beach on Fri Aug 19 and returning Sun Aug 21. Looking forward to hearing about their adventures at the next meeting.

The guest speaker for the meeting was one of our own members and kayak tournament angler, Jim Tesch (Ninja). He had lots of good tips on fishing, particularly in areas that are new or unfamiliar to us. He also provided prizes for a drawing.

His presentation was entitled, “Fishin the Edge”. Some of his tips included:

a) safety first, read the regulations and be sure you understand them

b) use Google Earth, books, maps and other sources of information before you arrive at your destination for help in setting up a game plan before you arrive

c) look for edges, shoulders, ledges, reefs, grass, weirs, etc….anything that is a break line or provides a place for fish to hide

d) check the water movement direction (tide and wind), visualize how the fish may be facing and waiting for bait to come to them, show them your bait from the same direction

e) all types of lures will work but some stand bys are: jighead with soft plastic, topwater and popping cork with gulp

Thanks Jim for a great presentation!

The next meeting will be on September 20^th, 6:30pm at the Sosa Community Center on Wirt Road.