We had an enjoyable saltwater fishing trip in September to the Aransas Pass area, just north of Corpus Christi. Our headquarters for the weekend was the Neptune Motel in Aransas Pass. The accommodations worked great for the outing. We rented a large three bedroom house for the “TWFF Headquarters” and the participants stayed in the comfortable motel rooms or efficiency apartments around the house.

On Friday night, we had the Mullet Mixer on the patio, of course all sorts of goodies were brought to share. The Austin TOWN group was having a bird watching trip this same weekend, and a some of the TOWN group joined us at the Mixer. Lavene Jones and Sheila Anderson pulled together a silent auction filled with great flies and supplies for the weekend ahead. Sheila has become quite an accomplished fly tier, she donated some fly boxes, Jack Lehman and Walter Laaf from Austin FF’ers had great saltwater flies, and Billy Trimble brought along some of his best “blind chicken” flies as well. Dean and Jennifer Thomas of Slowride Guide Service provided us with some local knowledge, recommendations for fishing spots on Saturday, and briefed us on the predicted tides, and winds for our expeditions. We decided to start on Saturday morning in three different spots, the Brown and Root Flats, Lighthouse Lakes area, and wade fishing across from the Aransas Aquatics Center.

Saturday morning, we met at our respective fishing spots, gathered and assembled our gear and started fishing. As is the case at the Coast, even early in the morning, the wind started to build from the southeast. And, as Dean had discussed on Friday night, the water levels were high in the flats. All of us, in all the different areas around the bays had difficulty seeing redfish or tails due to the wind, the high water and, in some areas, the clarity of the water. The fishing was challenging. We did have some success, though! Billy escorted a group on a long tour through the back portions of the Lighthouse Lakes. In the back flats, Greg Neubauer caught onto a small redfish. Julie Sieh, cast to some quiet water and, too, found a redfish up against the banks. Her group heard her squeals of excitement when her line tightened and a redfish was pulling hard. This was Julie’s first red. Most everyone else did lots of paddling, saw lots of mullet and not many tails.

Back at the Neptune on Saturday afternoon, the kitchen turned into a seafood house, and the living room and patio turned into a fly fishing shop with all sorts of auction items set out for display. We had a fine seafood dinner, with lots of steamed shrimp, grilled chicken, salad, and pie with all the fixings. Picnic tables were pushed together on the porch and everyone gathered to tell tales of the day, and share fishing stories while peeling shrimp.

Lavene and Sheila put together quite the auction, with great donations by Orvis, Sage rods and reels by Cary Marcus, Sportsman’s Finest, Cabela’s, Seaworthy Marine. The items also included guided trips by Chuck Scates, fly tying equipment, books, clothes, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Academy, and Redbone donated some beautiful artwork and a cookbook. There was lots of bidding action on a bunch of items. The auction filled our club coffers and we raised over $1450 for TWFF club activities and $150 for the Casting for Recovery® fund. Quite an accomplishment, gals! After the auction, many of the new purchases were field tested out at in the large grass area behind the house, with many satisfied fisher gals.

On Sunday morning, we awoke to another day of wind and overcast. Many sore arms and backs from too much kayaking on Saturday kept us grounded. Breakfast out and about the Aransas area, then on home. The Neptune Motel was a great place to gather, the scenic area of the Aransas Flats was enjoyable, the camaraderie at dinner and the bountiful auction, even with the challenging fishing made the outing a success.