| PINS Surf/Kayak King-Mac Report
Padre Island National Seashore,
TX
August 7-9th, 2008
Report by Oz |
Kip and I waited out the weather looking for some better than
fair conditions. After Hurricane Dolly slammed South Padre, the beach has
been a mess in terms of water clarity/temperature. A Tropical Storm had also
just hit the northern part of the uppercoast earlier in the week. But the
good news is weed was not a nuisance. Our plans were to go down and run big
baits for big sharks, but if the toothies did not cooperate, then to Kayak
fish if conditions permit.
I rocked down sunrise around 5:30am. Stopped to breakfast. One
of the great luxuries in life is the breakfast tacos from Stripes... yeah
buddy. Hit the beach as the sun was coming up.
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Tide was going out but still high. I rocked down south and setup camp
and put out some baits waiting for Kip. Whiting were hard to come by... I
did pick up a small Bonnethead.
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The Mullet surprisingly were quite thick along the beach, but no predators
other than a plethora of Gafftop Catfish in the cool muddy water. Right before
Kip showed up, I had a good run on one of the only Whiting I caught which
was placed in first gut... ran and ran and dropped it. Probably a big ray.
Kip showed up and we messed around with the Gafftop for a while then
got ready rigging up some big baits. Right before sundown we had 3
good baits deployed past the color change on the 3rd bar.
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The first day we had 5 cutoffs but got all the leaders back. Not a
single bait was touched overnight. Perhaps either the cool dirty water or
even the Shrimpers pulled the sharks offshore, for now they were virtually
non-existent along the beaches. Come sunrise we went out to pick up out leaders
and with the conditions laying, decide to get ready to do an offshore kayaking
adventure.
We get out far offshore and find the birds. Bonita (Little Tunnies)
were everywhere along with Kings and Jacks. I trolled a deep-dive and immediately
pick up a King.
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King was Released
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Kip was also in the action right off the bat. With an assult on the
surface with Top-waters, the Kings were in a feeding frenzy. Kip jumps several
and finally hooks one.
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Kip's first King Mackerel of the trip...
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I would continue to troll around and have the lure blasted a few times.
I finally get hooked up on a solid 30lb+ King and fight him to the yak and
he straightens the hooks before I can manage him. Fixed the hook issue and
trolled around some more and get hit hard... but doesn't fight like a King.
After a while I get in a Jack Crevalle which would be saved and run out later
that nigiht.
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Meanwhile, Kip would rockout another King.on the surface.
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I would change lures on the one rod and while doing that throw down
a Mullet. Somehow I managed to catch and release this monster from the deep.
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Chasing the birds again, Kip would hammer a large Jack of his own
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The wind picked up a bit and we duked it out for another hour or two
trying something different and picked up several fish. The dirty water had
moved all the way out to where we were anyway so we yakked back to camp.
That night we had fresh Jacks out. Through the night we though it
was going to happen but we never turned a click. The next morning we brought
in the baits and were virtually untouched other than a slight invasion by
crabs.
The weather again was excellent in the morning and the seas were fairly
calm. We decided since the shark bite is not on we'll duke it out offshore
again. Took us a while and while we didn't see hardly any bird action, we
did see a fair amount of surface action and we knew the Kings were out in
full force again.
Kip would strike first with a top-water King.
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The surface action was unreal. Top-water fishing was the name of the
game today. You would cast out and have multiple breaches by King Macs and
if they didn't take it, several would follow it to the kayak. Having actually
brought some top-waters this day, I decided to slam them too. Instantly get
hooked up and land/release my first King of the day.
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Kip would soon strike back with another.
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I would get another one after the release of the previous
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The action was absolutely epic in terms of King Mackerel fishing.
The most explosive and entertaining action I've had in the kayak in a while.
I would soon land and release 2 more Kings on the same top-water before losing
it on a good fish. While I should have brought more of the same design the
only other top-water lure I had was a Yo-zuri without trebles. Though I would
give it a try and sure enough just the movement of it walking on the surface
would create chaos from down below. I soon get hooked up on the other lure.
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A small group of birds would show up curious with the chaos. Kip went
to chase them down and was greeted not by a King, but another large Jack.
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After knocking out 5 Kings on Top-water lures, I would soon switch
to drifting baits in hopes of larger Kings. Instantly I'd get one.
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Then another...
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and another..
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and instantly another..
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and after another couple or so I finally get my last King of the day.
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On this fantastic day of days in the kayak, I would land and
release 11 King Mackerel. For both days, Kip and I combined for 17 hard-fighting,
torpedo breaching Kingfish, many on top-water lures. We gave it our best
shot sharkfishing with fresh Jacks but the sharks were just not around. The
water still remains horrible out to the 3rd bar but is currently weed free.
Hopefully the coming days or weeks will clear up the water and warm it to
the normal temps.
Until the next great weather window..
-Oz POST your comments
about this Report in the EC FORUMS!!
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