Panther Point 2011 trip report

Wind, rain, fish…….and no mosquitoes!

The PACKTX group returned to Panther Point during the weekend of Oct 7-9, 2011 for a weekend of kayaking and fishing.

Eight guys left Fulton Harbor on Friday morning via the “Skimmer” with Capt. Tommy Moore. Jim Richards, Chris Busch, Joel Berry, Paul Able, Aaron Ferguson, Greg Corbett, Gary Zulko and Will Henderson. Three others (Bruce Behrens, Brad Valtierra and Andrew Dabney) left from Charlie’s fish camp and met us Friday morning at the campsite on Panther Point.

The weather forecast for the weekend called for windy weather and 20-30% chance of rain so we were prepared with our long tent stakes and plastic bags for tent anchoring. Sunny weather greeted us about noon when we arrived at the campsite. Little had changed since last year and we were able to set up camp at our usual spot about midway on the shell bar.

Some folks headed out to fish while others napped or explored the Panther area. Joel Berry won the award for “Most Efficient Fisherman” on Friday. While the other 10 highly experienced and skilled PACKTX fishermen paddled around, fought the wind and hunted for fish, Joel caught the biggest redfish of the day using live mullet while sitting in his recliner in front of his tent!

Friday night was a great evening to sit outside, soaking up the light from a nearly full moon. Everyone prepared their own meal and most folks called it a night early, wanting to be ready for a full day on Saturday.

Saturday dawned with sun and very windy conditions. Everyone split up and covered the Panther area, while looking for areas to fish that were protected from the wind.

Greg Corbett, in typical fisherman fashion, claims the "big one got away". Greg explained he was throwing a fly he tied himself, a holographic Clouser fly, when the fish of a lifetime hit it and headed to Amarillo with his fly. However, his line got tangled on all of the stuff in the middle of his Native causing him to lose drag on the fish and causing the leader to break off. So, there is an aquatic monster swimming around in San Antonio bay with a nice fly in its mouth-or at least so says Greg.

On a more serious note, Greg landed his first Specked Trout (on a pepper/chartreuse paddle tail recommended by Gary Z). This fly also worked well for Jim R while he also caught trout at Gary's newly found fishing hole.

Gary Z seemed to have the touch for locating trout during the weekend. He figured out that they could be found about 20-50 yards away from the shoreline and caught with topwaters or jig/plastic’s. Jim R, Chris B and Will were fishing in the same area as Gary and were also catching trout. Will H’s biggest trout was 23”.

Brad had limits of reds on both Friday and Saturday - he must have them penned up somewhere in the marsh. Brad also showed off his other catches on his I-Pad later on Saturday night after dinner while he was signed on to the internet. Jim R said that when he started working, carbon paper was used to make copies - imagine connecting to the world from a shell bar in the bay!

Bruce B and Andrew D (both as usual) also caught fish on Friday and Saturday while fishing with Brad.

Aaron F landed some slot size and smaller redfish and a nice sized drum (caught on Gulp shrimp).

The big fish of the weekend went to Paul Able. He landed a 30” redfish while fishing the shoreline of Matagorda Island. Aaron was nearby and able to snap a picture before Paul released the fish.

Everyone came back from fishing on Saturday evening a little early…..the big incentive was a fish fry coordinated by Bruce Behrens and company. A big thanks to Bruce for suggesting, coordinating and overseeing the Saturday night party. Bruce's mix for the fish batter, using pancake mix and crackers was great as usual; Joel claims the whole secret was the technique that, he (Joel) used to get the batter onto the fish. The menu included fried fish, fried potatoes, apple pie and brownies (what more could you want!)

Again, the night was great for sitting around the camp since the wind died down and the moon gave us all the light we needed.

Sunday morning started out cloudy with slightly lower winds…..but, storm clouds were all around the area. Fishing was good for about an hour until about 9 am when the wind, rain, lightning and thunder came on strong.

From 9am until about 11:30am, the PACKTX group rode out the storm and experienced nature up close while waiting for the Skimmer to return to the campsite for the pickup. On Friday, the campsite looked great and plenty big enough for the weekend. But, on Sunday with the higher tides and waves coming higher up on the bar, the island shrunk. Everyone took shelter in their tents. We knew things were going to be different when some of the air mattresses in the tents felt like water beds when water levels rose and got under and into some tents.

Not everyone was hanging onto their tents or floating inside their tents; Jim R was lying in his tent on his dry air mattress and re-reading the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Who says we’re not a cultured bunch!

The Skimmer returned to pick us up around noon and we loaded our gear in record time and returned to Fulton for our trip back home.

It’s a small world. During the trip back from Panther, Jim R found out that Captain Jay’s mother was one of his high school English teachers and that Captain Jay's sister took ballet lessons from Jim’s wife. Quite a coincidence. Jim told Captain Jay to tell his mother that he enjoyed the Great Gatsby so much while he was in her class that he had just finished reading it again while hunkered down in his tent during a monsoon.

So, another memorable PACKTX Panther Point trip. Check out the website (www.packtx.org) for pictures.