| Kip rocked in from his endless job in El Paso and was determined
to fish regardless the conditions. Unlike every duration he stayed last year,
this particular weekend was not blown out. It wasn't perfect either but very
fishable in terms of wind/wave condiditons. We packed up and headed out around
sunset Friday driving down in the 'Mean Green'. The tide was mediocre and
driving was average despite having to go very slow with no real developed
road. As the sun was going down the fog was setting in quite thick. The driving
through the highbanks was 4wd and slow but not too bad. Into the 30's we
past Joey and crew who just had a bait picked up. Our goal was to find decent
water and Sessions planned on meeting up with us sometime Saturday.
We kept on rocking on and the weed kept getting worse the further south.
With hopes it would let up we kept heading south. It never let up, just came
in thicker with the fog. We finally decide we are going to rock down and
just stay at the jetties and try to catch some bait for the next day. Somewhere
down in the 50's in the fog we almost ran over this lil guy... Its not uncommon
to find an individual like this randomly throughout the year who are either
sick or fatigued.
We leave the bird and head on to the rocks. We get there and are the
only ones on the south end of the beach. There are a couple camps back in
the channel but other than that no civilization. Kip and i begin tossing
baits and are invaded by Hardheads. After a few minutes Kip hooks up to a
decent fish and lands a Redfish.... a tagged Red at that!
Tag is still being researched to find out organization, not sure if it is
a CCA or not.
We fish for a couple more hours getting invaded by more Hardheads
and a single Whiting. We decide to crash.
The next morning Kip wakes up around sunrise and the fog has
already begun to fade. I zonk out til about 8:30am and then get up. Kip had
earlier seen massive schools of Cownose Rays swimming by and comes back to
get me. We go out but only see a few here and there. We then fish for more
bait and it is still slow. The water looks great despite coming out of the
north. I rig up and walk along the beach and freeline a shrimp. After a bit
I am rewarded with a nice Sheepie.
It then gets slow again and we decide to pack it up and head
back up the beach to find a decent spot. A few miles up we finally run into
Chris who was on his way down to find us. After contemplating a game plan,
we finally decide to stay south since the water was looking nice. While it
was rougher and contained more weed than up north, we figured it would lay
down. We agree on a spot which had not much weed out past the 2nd bar, however
plagued the wade gut.
We spend the next couple hours rigging up baits. While Kip and I did
bring a variety of baits with, it is without a doubt more effective to use
fresh baits. Chris also obtained a freshly caught Jack in the highbanks.
Chris' buddy Henry came down in pursuit of the perfect Red and while fishing
with fresh shimp hooked up to perhaps more than he bargained for as the snap
swivel of his leader had a mechanical failure resulting in losing the unseen
fish. We finally get baits out and wait. Weed is present and a couple baits
have to be run again. It is close to sunset by now and Kip's rod with the
Bonita goes off. Fish On!
Kip begins to fight the fish for a while and as I am about to get
some video, one of my rods goes off... double hookup! Kip soon gets his first
Sandy of the year to the beach! After a couple pics, the shark is tagged
and released.
My shark had actually swam into two other lines and Chris quickly
jumped in the inflatable and went to clean up the mess. After a few minutes
the cluster is fixed and the game is back on. Not long and I finally get
my Sandbar to the beach. Another fat female and after a quick pic is released
into the foggy haze.
With 4 baits still out we wait. A perfect time to cook up some goodies.
Chris once again cooks up some killer fajitas, sausage, and pork. We feast
and sit down talking the talk. Kip crashes early and right before midnight
Chris's 12/0 goes slack. Originally we thought it had been cut off but realized
something picked it up. After a couple minutes it is finally obvious there
is a shark on there. Stubborn but not too hard of a fighter until it approached
the 1st bar. A few more minutes pass and I go out to leader the shark. We
beach the Sandy and see it has a unique deformation of the dorsal. It had
grew like that for sometime and was not soft, tender, nor flexible. It is
also happens to be a fat mature Male Sandbar... with swollen claspers, once
again encountering such a specimen for the 2nd year in a row leads me to
believe that the healthy population of mature winter Sandbars in our area
are here possibly breeding.
Here is a closer look at the dorsal from the shark in 'exhibit B'... aka
'Taco de Tiburon'
A few pics and the shark is released. We are now down to 3 baits and
both Chris and myself decide to crash.
The next morning we wake up and the conditions are a lot better despite
the fog. The weed is not too bad and the swells have calmed slightly. Chris
wakes up after a while and checks on the baits in the zodiac. Both his and
mine 12/0's are untouched but Kip's big bait had a chunk taken out by a good
fish. We run a couple of baits early and end up with a large pregnant Sharpnose
that did not make it, while the unborn pups were released and swam away their
survival from the premature birth will be uncertain but is worth the try.
The sun is out and we maintain a few baits for a while.
Chris while having to get back for work, leaves and we transport the
rods to the rack on the Green Machine. in the early afternoon the fog begins
to roll back in.. very thick. Due to safety reasons we decide no to kayak
some pre-rigged baits out at this time. So we are left to leave to old baits
soaking for now.
A couple more hours pass and the fog remains thick. As the sun begins
to set we get a couple runs and miss the fish. Kip runs out again a Whiting
to the 2nd gut. Within less than 10 minutes he is hooked up on the Fin Nor
spinner.
After a valiant fight it is no match for the reel. Kip gets in another
Sandbar and our 4th total for the trip.
A quick photo and the shark is released with a tag.
We leave two 12/0's out and an Avet 50 out all night without takers.
Weed shows up but due to a slow current doesn't wipe us out. The next morning
we bring in baits and the lines are covered in tiny jelly-like creatures
and with any contact at all with your skin provides a nice zapping sting.
Having supposed to be back the night before I begin packing up but decide
to yak just a couple more baits out... well because we are typical
sharkfishermen. The wind cranks up out of the south and by 11am we call it
a day despite the pretty water fixing to go to crap. We travel up the beach
and find a distinct color change caused by various currents making a night
and day difference from the nice tropical like waters we were fishing and
the rough muddy Mississippi-ish water that is present on the north end. As
you can see the weed is here too.
Fishing in February continues to be hot for Sandbars and while
majority are running between 6 1/2' and 7', there should be a few lunkers
out there before they head off within a month. Once again the beach provided
a relaxing and semi-productive trip with a few nice fish. March is right
around the corner and the Sargassum has already shown up in abundance. I
hope this is not a sign of things to come but from what i've seen offshore
the past couple of months, we better get some relentless south winds to push
away from the area. Congrats to Kip on his nice duece Sandbars.
Til next time... see ya on the sand.
- Rockstars Out!
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