Shoalwater Paddle-In was a typical PACK Outing / Adventure that included wind, rain and lots of fish. Eleven hard core paddlers / anglers launched from Charlie’s Bait Camp Friday morning, wind was blowing 13 mph SE. For this Outing we had three first time PACK Outing participants:  Allan B, Tim Cagle, Robby M.  It was a hard 5 mile paddle to the camp site on Grass Island. Reds were found biting along the way which lessened the hard paddle. After camp was set up, everyone took off looking for fish. Reds were seen by all tailing in the tall grass along the North shoreline of Grass Island, and Long Island. You could see the Reds were feeding on small shrimp and minnows. The Kayak Kid was the only one to have any real success with top water lures, everyone else found the Norton Bull Minnow pearl with chartreuse tail the lure the Reds liked. By the end of the day the wind was gusting over 20 mph.

Saturday morning the wind was nil so most of the group headed over to Long Island. The Kayak Kid set the stage by landing 25 Reds, 2 on Fly. RobbyM a recent transplant from California on his first PACK, and Gulf Coast adventure discovered site casting, and catching Reds was easy. Robby had his limit of Reds before 7:30 am fishing the North shoreline of Grass Island. He heard over the radio that the Kid and others were on fish on Long Island so off he went, and his luck continued. By noon the wind was up to 15 mph SE, by dinner it was up to 20 ++ mph SE. Tim C reported that he was not used to fishing water this skinny. He spent Saturday morning looking for deeper water to try for trout. One dink for his efforts. Then he hooked up with Buzz after lunch and Buzz graciously gave him some pointers for fishing the skinny water...and it worked. He had nice action on a pearl/chartreuse Mirrolure topwater. Those reds were blasting the thing he reported.  The group did not get back to camp until after 7 PM. As long as the Reds were biting everyone stayed with them. The group returned to camp rather exhausted after a full 12 hours of fishing. Everyone caught fish. Lots of Reds. Only two Trout were landed for the outing, biggest being 24”. One Flounder was also strung.

Reds and the big Trout were Saturdays evening’s dinner. After dinner the Cohibas came out along with some Aged Irish finest. The History of the World Part I was discussed, then the rain came and everyone ran for cover. Sunday morning the wind was blowing and it was decided to break camp early before the forecasted 25 mph SE winds and rain made the paddle back unbearable. Half of the group paddled across Shoalwater to take advantage of the protection Long Island offered from the wind. And yes, the Reds were found to be still biting. Tim C reported that on Sunday morning he caught 4 reds (3 keepers) in about 45 minutes (with lots of other blowups) all within about 20 yards of each other. He went home with his limit for the dinner table. On one cast a red hit the lure but didn't get hooked, it circled back around and hit it again...no hookup, then he saw the Red swim up to the bait, which he was just letting sit still, and the Red just looked at it then swam away. It was wild!  On the paddle back I must admit, it was a real joy pushing a fully loaded kayak into a 20 mph wind .