Flapping In The Water

Adventure Location: Aransas Pass Jetty, Texas

Oh Boy here we go onward toward Packery Channel jetties to check out the breaking waves and try for some fishing. Of course it did not happen that way or at all.

The first stop was at the Aransas Pass jetty just to check it for anything new. By the time the excitement was all over, it was hot enough this Team wanted back in the air conditioning.

The city usually dresses the sand to make it good enough for vehicle traffic. It was not quite just right yet and some fancy tire work (as opposed to fancy footwork) had to take place before the Truck literally slid into a parking spot at the jetty walk. That was exciting!

So the camera was put into my pocket and my HAT was put on top of my sunburned head very gently. My plan was a ten minute walk out to the end of the smoother paving and turn around. That would give me a chance to check the water clarity and wave action before the twelve mile drive on down to Packery Channel Jetties.

Lo and behold a fellow on the jetty set the hook into something that was able to really fight back. This fellow’s pole is a very stiff model and it was well bent during the fight. The action of the critter on the other end of the fishing line and the tip of the rod’s response to the activity told me it was a ray of some sort. A few minutes later, my choice was a BIG ray of some sort.

After about twenty minutes of give and take on the fishing rod, the as yet unseen critter was finally getting closer to the rocks. At this point this next picture was taken. The fisherman was pouring sweat and getting tired. Check the bend in that stiff as a telephone pole fishing rod.
Note the guy in the red shirt. He is down on the moss covered slippery rocks where a wave can wash him into the channel. His idea was that he would get down there and manhandle the fish onto the jetty walk. My experience on these type of rocks says stay on the topping not down in the rocks. About two minutes after the above picture was taken, Mr. Red Shirt started to reach down to the water to grab the “fish”. When this over two foot wide ray popped up and thrashed around, Red got up on the topping really quick.

Now that it was known to be a very large stingray the style of “retrieving” changed to netting it. For those who do not know about stingray critters, they have a vicious spike on their tail that will impale you better than a bayonet. My personal experience with a much smaller one was that it drove the spike through the 3/8” thick marine plywood hull of a boat. So do not mess with the tail stinger.

Now Red was being much more cautious and the pole man was getting just about worn out. The ray was still very frisky. Several attempts were made to get the ray up for Red to net it. Part of the trouble is the ray’s wings were wider than the net. This is one of the failed attempts. That is Mr. Ray's tail that looks like a rope in the lower right of the picture.
Now we are somewhere around the thirty minute mark and the fisherman is really worn out. Now TheOFM would not be down on the rocks playing with a LARGE stingray. My body has been abused enough during my life.

This next picture is of the successful netting of the critter.
Mr. Ray was lashing that long tail every which way in a very short split second. When Red tried to lift Mr. Ray up, he could not do it. Mr. Ray was too heavy. Another fellow reached down and helped Red get the ray onto the topping.

In this next picture you can see the barb on the rays tail about one third of the way from the body. This one was about the size of a 20 penny spike.
Even laying on the deck it is a dangerous critter. WOW that was an exciting bit of action. My body was tired from just watching the action. The Team wandered on out the jetty like was planned in the first place. Sure enough more action awaited the Team. A total of 65 pictures were taken and still being edited today.

By the time the short but eventful walk was finished, the temperature was up to 92 and it was time to get cooler. Back across the ferry and home to the Castle we went.

Back at the Castle the blog work was proceeding well. Pictures were being culled and edited. Notes and outlines for future blog entries were being recorded and suddenly it was supper time. The little junky looking restaurant here in town has $4.99 specials every night.
Tonight was chicken fajitas, rice, beans, guacamole, pico de gallo with chips and good salsa. So my normal table was waiting for me as if it knew all the work remaining for me to do for the blog.

The unsweet tea and fajita plate hit the spot well. Then it was back to the computer to get to work writing blogs. At this moment it is a little after nine pm, so this entry is coming to an end. There is more to report but it will have to wait. My energy is gone from all the hard work running around trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.