It figures an Advocate of Packery Channel would mis-spell the Name

Packary?? Channel starting to pay dividends

South Texas fishing options just got betterBy Jim DarnellSpecial to the Record
Millions of dollars and thousands of man hours spent on opening the Packary Channel into the Gulf is now paying dividends. And not only in higher property values on that part of Padre Island. Fishing in the upper Laguna Madre and Corpus Bay is receiving a big boost.Last week, instead of fishing the gas wells in Corpus Christi Bay as I normally would do this time of year, my brother Wayne and I trailored my Kenner across the Port Aransas Ferry and down the beach highway to Padre Island. We launched under the Kennedy Causeway Bridge and made the short run down the Packary Channel, through the new jetties and into the Gulf of Mexico. Packary Channel is one of the many natural passes from the Laguna Madre to the Gulf. It has been sanded in and closed for years. Occasionally, Packary, Fish Pass, Yarbrough Pass and other small passes are opened by hurricanes. But they usually silt in quickly and close. But Packary has now been reopened, dredged and permanent jetties built. This makes it the only fish pass into the Gulf between Aransas Pass and the Mansfield Channel.My nephew, Jonathan Darnell, lives on the water near Packary and says that the reopening has already helped the fishing in his area.“I fish the lights around docks and piers at night and greater numbers of fish, especially big ones, are showing up,” he said.As we emerged from the jetties into the Gulf, Spanish mackerel were already busting into big schools of small minnows in the clear green water. Fishermen on the end of the south jetty were hooking them right and left. Expecting to catch speckled trout, we were not really equipped for mackerel. They have razor-sharp teeth and steel leaders are essential. We had none. But we tied on quarter-ounce lead-head jigs, threaded on soft plastic cocohoe minnows and started casting towards the big balls of minnows.Action was immediate. Most of the strikes were distinct and the line went limp. They cut through our 20 pound test monofilament leaders like a butcher knife in warm butter. But some got hooked in the lips or outside on the head. They stayed hooked. Those that inhaled the hook cut off.Spanish mackerel are built like long silver bullets, have a big forked tail and are covered with yellow spots. They are fast, vicious fighters. Most of the fish weighed two to four pounds.Small, clear plastic minnows best imitated the real deal that they were feeding on. But other colors also produced strikes. During those first two hours I also landed a small king mackerel about 28 inches long.While we fished two big work cranes were placing the final granite cap stones on the north jetty. The noise didn’t bother the fish.We had to be careful to not get too close to the end of the south jetty. Dozens of fishermen would begin to shout and call you some choice names if you drifted into “their” water.Later in the morning I set the hook into a fish that was definitely in the big leagues. Line smoked off my spool as the drag groaned. “Crank the engine,” I shouted. “He’s going to spool me.” Wayne turned the boat and moved toward the fish as I gained line. About that time the cell phone rang. Wayne answered and said, “He can’t talk right now. He’s on a big fish and it’s about to get all his line.”Slowly I gained line and then would lose it as the fish made another powerful run. With a lite spinning rod and 12 pound test line you just have to hang on and take your time. Slowly but surely I was winning the fight. Finally, Jonathan netted the fish. It was a big bonito that probably weighed 10 pounds. Bonito are powerful fighters that you normally catch miles out into the Gulf. I caught this one 200 yards off the beach.Wayne and Jonathan were losing more lures due to cut lines than I was. We concluded that it was because they were fishing slower. This gave the fish better opportunity to inhale their lures. My faster retrieve resulted in more fish being hooked outside their mouth, thus avoiding those sharp teeth.I like the new pass better than the Port Aransas jetties. They’re safer. With so many big deep-sea fishing boats, huge tankers and U.S. Navy ships plowing through the Aransas Pass you can get sunk or washed onto the jetties. Only small fishing boats and kayaks were fishing at the end of the new Packary jetties.With the dog days of summer ahead the water at the jetty ends should stay flat and green. Fishing will be great. That’s unless a thunderstorm arises. I’ll have more on that next week.Jim Darnell is an ordained minister and host/producer of the syndicated outdoors show, God’s Great Outdoors. His outdoors column appears every Thursday in the Daily Record.