Packery Channel - "Fish of Souls"

After winning the Fishing Tournament here on Friday, I have been trying to fight this dousy of a cold -- brought on by the "chill to the bones" from wading into the Gulf waters for 3-1/2 hours up to waist deep and more.  Saturday seemed like a good day to pay a couple bills and that involved driving over to the Wells Fargo bank in Flour Bluff, just a short distance from the H.E.B. store across the street -- good time to stock up a few food items and more Fish Bites.

My mind was also drawn to a guy cleaning some really nice Sheepshead late Friday afternoon while I was cleaning my small but, numerous Whiting which had won me the tournament.  This guy said he had been to Packery Channel (which I passed on my way to the bank and store) and he said one guy caught a 23 or 24 inch Sheepshead.  So, I picked up some frozen shrimp at H.E.B. too since I had to pass Packery Channel on my way back to the RV park.  Why waste gas?  So, I stopped at the jetty there and dug out my heavy jacket and walked the short jetty for awhile to see what might be happening, if anything.

The wind was pretty stiff and out of the north and northeast whipping up some sizeable waves on the beach side but, some nice fish were being caught and I even bumped into that same guy as he was leaving with three more Sheepshead in his bucket -- heading back to Pioneer Beach RV park's fish cleaning station.  I spent a little more time walking and watching, trying to determine if I felt well enough to stay and try my luck.  After a short drive up the beach to the nearest port-a-jon, I felt the wind had died down enough to at least try a few casts

Long story, short.  I caught four nice Sheepshead and three were keepers -- one just shy of 15 inches.  I lost one really nice one over 20 inches when it broke my line as I tried to lift it from the water covered boulder just beyond the one I stood on -- should have had my net closer at hand but, didn't.  I also caught a beautiful, small Red Drum some 17 or 18 inches but, released him.

I usually don't fillet my fish but, since no one else was in the small building, I decided to get some practice on these three fish (and I didn't feel like popping all those huge scales off them).  Two of the fish were not quite dead and beating their hard heads against the table didn't get it done either.  After getting the fillets off both sides of the first one so that the skeletal bones and spiked dorsal fins were exposed with the tail and head still left on, it reminded me of the silohuette on the book writtern by Gary Williams -- "Fish of Souls".  Eery looking!  A couple were still twitching when I carried the bag of remains to the dumpster across the street.