By Gerry “Lucky” Messmer and Paul “Many Rifles” Laster
Over the June 21-23 weekend, Paul and I hosted a great summer fishing pack-in in Boerne, Texas on the property of the Marquardt Ranch. I was able to pack-in early Friday morning and find a suitable location above the river overlooking the Guadalupe River. Paul came in after work several hours before dark. The pack-in was about half of a mile or so across some fields and a ravine. A fairly enjoyable hike and snake free as far as we know, though our eyes were always to the ground while we made our way through the knee-deep grass.
Being along the high banks of the Guadalupe, our campsite had extensive views of some fields and surrounding areas. This gave us a short walk down to the river’s edge, but with the ability to blend into the brush whenever the occasional Indian patrol would meander down the water in one of their “kai-ack” canoes.
Since both of us have limited experience with coarse fishing, we decided a fishing weekend was a great challenge to add to our mountain man kit bag. Many thanks go out to Brother Paul Jones for supplying great fishing kits! I received mine in the mail and was overwhelmed with the supplies in the kit, directions for tying the hooks on and the unexpected period correct fly!
We spent Friday afternoon and evening catching up on our lives, events we have been to and new gear we both have and of course, what gear we really need to eliminate to travel lighter. It seems that I can never cut enough gear out each time I pack in, but was inspired by Paul’s lack of “extras”. Paul has a habit of writing down all of the gear he brings on a pack-in – and then after the event goes back through and marks out whatever gear he doesn’t use. Many of my cuts need to come in the form of excess food I carry. I swear I can cook enough for the whole Red River Brigade when I pack in. It is time to lighten the load. Paul had bought a new pack from Bague Harold, who advertises in Muzzleloader Magazine, similar to mine and said he loves the way it fits and packs when out trekking. This was its second trip – and worked out great.
Friday night we enjoyed apples, dried fruit and nuts for dinner and drank heavily from the spring to keep hydrated in the heat. Also, along came Freckles, my Brittany spaniel, whom some of you know. He is my loyal and faithful steed of many a trip and getting quite old. He is 15 years old now and struggled with the hills and had to be carried from time to time. This may have been his last event, but we will see. I will keep bringing him as long as he will come! We are sure he had a great time and he did manage to venture out once at night on his own, but that is another story to be told.
Saturday morning, after a king’s breakfast of smoke cured bacon and eggs Paul and I headed down to the river to try our hand at fishing. We took along some cheddar cheese and supplemented with grasshoppers as we could catch them. We were able to catch some small crappie right away with the cheese and I had many strikes on the grasshoppers. I used a fishing pole cut from a small sapling and Paul wanted to try his luck with the ramrod of his fowler. The fishing kits from Paul Jones worked out great. With Paul’s simple directions I found that tying a hook to the line was actually quite simple and effective.
We caught quite a few small fish, but it seems the larger fish were either not fans of cheddar cheese or maybe just lactose intolerant. After several hours of fishing we went into the water for a swim to cool down and discovered the area we were fishing was only about 3-4 feet deep and not many deep holes for larger fish. We relaxed to the occasional sound of larger fish jumping out of the river and slapping back into the water.
We stayed in the water for about an hour or so and that made a huge difference to beat the heat. I can imagine that in the heat of summer many mountain men in this region spent time in the water cooling off. Along the Chisholm Trail in Salado, TX there is a great natural spring where the water comes out around 65 degrees. I have spent many days in the summer in that pool cooling off and it makes a huge difference just getting a break.
Saturday afternoon we spent at camp relaxing from a stressful morning of swimming and fishing. We had to slow down a bit and take a nap to recover from the excitement. Around 2 or 3, we made our way back down to the river for another swim to beat the afternoon heat. Another short 5 minute walk and we were back in the water. Before we went down to the water we pooled our food resources and put together a great stew of potatoes, rice, onion, bacon and some banana peppers all seasoned with some salt, pepper and garlic. We set that a little ways from the coals and let it simmer for about 90 minutes before we returned. It was a fine meal that even Freckles loved!
Sunday morning we broke camp after first light munching on dried fruit and the last of the apples before we packed out. Freckles was forced to eat the last 6 eggs to kick start his morning. Regrettably, Paul and I packed out only to return to the hustle and bustle of the steel ponies, honey do lists and electronic leashes!