| PINS/Mansfield Surf Report
Padre Island National Seashore,
TX
November 6th-8th, 2004
Report by Oz |
Headed down Saturday evening with Moose to meet up with Curmit,
Todd, and Gato. We wound up at the Mansfield Jetties right at sunset.
Puretexn and ShawnQ were already there. I immediately hopped out of the truck
and hit the rocks. Ended up with a Limit of Trout and 2 Mangrove Snapper
within an hour. This kinda motivated a couple of the guys so Moose hit
up the castnet to collect some Mullet. In his attempts he nets this unique
ray/skate. It looks similar to Butterfly ray but with a pointed nose and
short tail. I have seen several of these before on occasion and think they
are a type of Skate. Anyhow, we keep it for bait.
The rest of the night was more of a relaxation. Come dawn Mike
is already out on the rocks fighting off the coons catching some nice Trout.
While the wind was fairly calm out of the SW, there was a bit of chill in
the air.
I grab my rod and hit the surf side of the rocks and notice the
clarity of the water was unreal. Nothing would touch artificial and saw some
small schools of Sheephead travel the rocks. Managed to get a click glimpse
of a Turtle following me around.
Moose and I decide to hit the surf for sharks so we pack up and head
up the beach several miles. The sun was just starting to come up and could
see massive amounts of finger mullet up close. We end up finding a promising
location and I hop out of the truck immediately grabbing the castnet. When
I get to about 12" of water I am nailed in the legs by 2 Jacks chasing Mullet
and Whiting that are trying to take refuge under me. I run back to shore
and grab a rod and spoon'r but by the time I get back in the water the several
Jacks have already moved on.
Moose and I begin to setup for sharks and run baits out. After about
an hour Moose's 9/0 with half the ray takes off. After a short while the
line breaks and the shark is off to the races. Bummer, you lose one your
rig one. He ran out another bait and we stayed with no action for the next
couple hours. Charlie Golla stops by and we talk to him and Big Daddy for
a while who reported tons of action early but then just stopping all of a
sudden. Charlie gives me a Jack and I HAPPILY accept. After about another
hour we decide to relocate so we move a few more miles. We pass the
Nic. and continue to head north a bit.
We set up again and run baits. Moose continued to hook up on some
aerial Blacktips but couldn't get a hook set. I show him a new trick
and he deploys the bait back out. The water really started clearing up and
the action about died for the next few hours with the exception of 2 nice
Spanish Macs I get on live Mullet. By now it is getting dark and we make
sure we have a couple good baits out a piece. Around 7pm The Ozinator rod
starts taking and shortly after Moose's 350 starts taking off. Game On! My
fish tore a good 150yds of line off before I turned him.. then he stuck.
I knew it had to be a ray. Anyhow, after waiting a couple minutes I get him
to move and try to horse him in as much as possible. Get mine to the 1st
gut and it stuck again.. I put the rod in the rod holder and let the fish
chill a bit while I help land Moose's shark. He gets in and lands his first
shark ever.. a very nice 5'1" Blacktip (with healed incomplete upper lobe
of tail).
While Moose gets the tagging stuff I go and bring my fish in. Finally
get him up close and couldn't see any signs of a dorsal fin and I knew I
absolutely had a ray. Anyhow get him up on the beach. Quite massive and measured
90" (7' 6") from nose to tail and went probably at least 125-150lbs.
I finally get the hook out and attempt to hold it up.
While releasing the Blacktip, Moose's other rod goes off but is eventually
cut off. I release the shark for him and come back to the ray to find he
regurgitated a recent meal. I gathered the items and displayed them (not
in any particular order). There appeared to be the exoskeleton remains
of a Calico crab or two along with shrimp and other stuff, and several
unidentified flat fish similar to small Sole or Flounder.
Anyhow we released the Ray and shortly after the one remaining rod
got cut. Fortunately we had floats on the two cutoffs. We decide to pack
it in and head to the jetty basecamp for the night following Repo and then
come back in the morning. Come sunrise the surf was dead calm and water crystal
clear. We take off to reclaim our leaders. Fortunately they were not picked
up by sharks during the night (although had a Jack with bite marks in mine).
We re-rig and run baits out. The water was so clear that after I deployed
my bait, I could see it sitting on the ripples of the sand in the gut. Could
see any and everything swimming around.. and likely a big reason for slow
shark activity on big gear. Finally see some birds working what I were hoping
to be Jacks and get the rod out and go after them in the yak.
I get out about 200yds and throw a live Mullet. As it hits and bounces
off the surface it gets nailed by a monster Spanish. I have a good fight
going on for about 5 seconds when I see a cannonball explosion on the surface
as a large shark destroys my fish. Had both the Spanish and Shark hooked
up for about 10 more seconds until finally cut off. Spent about an hour in
the yak with no more activity after that. The day remained slow due to the
ultra-clear carribean like water. We had good baits out and Moose gets a
couple of runs with Blacktips going airborne but the sharks were only 'teething'
the bait and not eating it. Late in the afternoon the wind started picking
up slightly and the sun hid behind the clouds. Moose finally gets a solid
hookset on a shark.
After a short battle on the 9/0, Moose lands his second shark ever..
another nice Blacktip at 5'3". We tag and release the shark and she swims
off into the gut. As predicted, the bite turned on again with the wind. We
could see many sharks free jumping about a half mile out during the afternoon.
Not long after the release of the Blacktip the Ozinator goes off briefly..
then sits.. goes off again.. sits, then after a couple minutes begins to
take off. I had a rather large bait and was hoping for JAWS but knew
it had to be a medium Bull.
The bait had been placed about 600yds out and most of the time was
spent reeling in the shark. After about 20 minutes of dragging the fish in
we finally get him to the beach and find that was indeed a Bull 6'1" (male)
with a big appetite.
Tagged and Released the shark and he swam off like a champ. And with
the crystal clear water you could see his shadow for quite a distance.
Moose runs out one last bait of the day and within 20 mins gets blasted
by another Blacktip going airborne but spitting the hook. After that
we pack it in and head to the jetties for one final trip to tell the
rest of the gang were outta here. We catch up with them and hear Curtis's
amazing story (should be posted in the forum soon). Overall, despite
the so/so bite, the water conditions alone made it worth it to get out and
enjoy the great November weekend. Thanks to Moose for offering to fish
with the group this weekend, it was definitely fun.
Til next time..
-Oz
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