| PINS Early Winter Surf Report
Padre Island National Seashore, TX
December 6th-8th, 2008
Report by Oz/Springs |
Rocked down the beach with James right behind. Curtis and Scott would
meet up later in the day. Hit the beach after picking up some Stripes breakfast
tacos. Water wasn't bad at first on the north end despite the wind still
blowing. But decided to truck on south and try the jetties this trip due
to the completion of the dredging. The sun broke the horizon and the erie
atmosphere still lingered from the cold front.
Click for High-Res Photo
Driving down I started to see a bunch of Peregrines from the
4wd sign and continuing south. Ended up seeing over a half dozen. Very cool,
have to love any bird that would add a seagull to the food chain.
Click for High-Res Photo
Click for High-Res Photo
After racing a couple down the beach (and not keeping up), I decided
to keep my eye on the water. Unfortunately there was no sign of bait or mullet
in the high banks. Kept going south. James was right behind me and we met
up around the turtle shack to make our final decisions.. James would stop
once or twice trying for Jacks but they just weren't there. We continued
on and made it to the jetties, with no one in sight. I get setup on the dredged
highbanks. James goes back up the beach a ways and 'Springs' and his buddy
were down to also investigate.
I slowly thaw some baits out and get some Whiting out pretty quick.
Only the pesky anklebiters would be in the area though. Curmit and Scott
would later show up. Both Curmit and James were both getting into the Pompano.
Click for High-Res Photo
I get some small baits out but things are slow and some pup sharks
are having a field day. I eventually a couple grander baits rigged and deployed
for the evening. Meanwhile in close, we nail several Reds.
Click for High-Res Photo
Later in the evening I get the worlds largest Whiting
Click for High-Res Photo
Just north of us James gets a run and hooks up on a decent shark.
After a while, he gets in a healthy male Sandbar.
Click for High-Res Photo
I left baits out and had small stuff mess with a smaller bait out.
Wind was dying but it was COLD. I decided to go to sleep. Froze my butt off
in the tent cot. Just before 6am, while still dark, the shark alarm on the
super-6 goes off. I get up on the platform and notice some bouncing. I figured
a Sandbar picked up one of the 'Big' baits placed closer in. The run was
slow then stopped. I got on the fighting belt thinking that it dropped the
bait and hoped it was still there. Got strapped in and then felt the fish.
From this point, the bait was out only about 250yds max. When I felt the
fish once again, it began to run offshore and then very quick. After 2 min
it had the after burners on and was absolutely smoking straight offshore.
I managed to wake Curmit up with the shark alarm and he saw me hooked
up and got the release bag all packed. The fish never stopped again and continued
to nuke my reel. Despite already landing two 10 footers on this reel, it
was the first time I've ever smelled the grease from the drags heating up
quite hot. It seemed the more I would try to lock the drag down the faster
it wanted to go. As far as i'm concerned, no reel I own would have ever been
able to stop this fish. Line was dumping quick and approaching the end of
the spool.
The last minute of fighting the fish I knew I had no chance and had
to find a way to break it off so not to lose all the line. With less than
50yds left I unstrap and grasp the spool as hard as I can and fortunately
break it off. And then finally Curtis is walking up to the truck with his
release kit and noticed the chaos. The whole event took between 7-10 minutes.
A tough loss but interesting nonetheless. Events later in the morning would
puzzle things even more. I noticed my float out there and retrieve it. Bait
was hard to decide for if whether it had actually been hit or not. But the
best we can gather is the following....
Apparently the fish was snooping around the bait. Somehow it managed
to get wrapped up in the line fairly close to the leader hence the bouncing
I saw when the rod originally went off. The shark had to have been tangled
up enough and broke off the line between it and the leader with the first
couple minutes leaving the leader behind and just dealing strictly with the
rod and reel. From the placement of the bait, the fish would dump and additional
500-600yds on pace to spool the entire reel in just a few minutes. I spent
hours and hours after thinking of 'just what it could be'. No it wasn't a
boat. I also brought up the theory of a possible Dolphin or Manta Ray, but
after talking with some of the oldest and most knowledgeable beach veterans
they said "No way, it undoubtedly was a shark. It was sensing the big bait
pacing and curious and ended up in an unlikely position before actually picking
up the bait." Prime monster hour with a prime monster bait. Regardless of
what it was, it clearly became the most destructive, violent run on rod and
reel I ever encountered. Highly reminiscent of Kips Big Shark Avet encounter.
I wake up and replace the big baits with small baits for day time.
They get nailed but mostly by pups. The weather is absolutely beautiful but
the wind is changing East and picking up. We cast quite a few of baits and
Curmit hammers the Pomps. Scott was camped in the channel the previous night
and had a solid shark on for a while before spitting the hook. He heads over
and joins us on the sand flats. We begin to hammer Reds, Sharpnose Sharks,
and surprisingly Spinner Pups quite frequently.
Click for High-Res Photo
Click for High-Res Photo
The day went on and we caught loads of fish. The Mullet became insanely
thick and Bluefish and Reds were taking advantage. Most Reds were oversized
but some were in the upper slot. Often we would have double hookups with
Bluefish or combos with Reds
Click for High-Res Photo
We would nail some more Reds and small sharks through the night as
the wind would pickup and switch south.
Click for High-Res Photo
I had three large baits out during the night but surprisingly they
did not get hit. I did get a pesky Sharpnose on a kayak bait which was
disappointing. Come morning Curmit and I would pack up and head off the beach.
Driving sucked. But despite all the events it is always home when out on
the beach. I thought there would be more Sandbars near the Jetty but have
a feeling they were pushed up the beach in the surf a bit. Oh well. Just
have to wait til the next break in weather to go back down. Hopefully we
can re-encounter the shark enigma the lies just offshore.
- Rockstars out
...And this to add to the Report by Jon aka 'Springs'
Hey everyone been checking in with the site for a while now to see
how the fishing is and wishing I was down there instead of over 200 miles
away. Only got to fish the surf once this year back in March. With work,
school, hunting, and bike racing its hard to find an open weekend with good
conditions. Well everything finally worked out and my buddy Cooper was able
to make a trip down with me. Left town around 5ish made it to Corpus sometime
after 7. After stopping at academy, getting bait, and fueling up we were
on the beach at last. The plan was to make it to around Big Shell and spend
the night there then wake up in the morning and cruise down to the jetties
looking for a spot. Made it to the 25 and decided to call it a night. Woke
up in the morning to this:
Packed up what gear we had out and trucked on down. Stopped at a couple
of spots to bait fish and realized I left my PVC pipes back home. Oh well
will make due with what we have. Made it to the jetties where the sun finally
started to show and warm things up. Caught some bait and decided to head
back north a few miles and set up camp. While we were unpacking decided to
run a bait out on the 6/0 so we at least had something out for the day. My
bait rod gets a decent hit a little later and while bringing it in I notice
the 6/0 has slacked up so Cooper starts to bring it in and we find this little
bait stealer:
A minute or so later I have this oversize drum on the sand:
After the release I go back to catching more bait. Finally get enough bait
for that night and right before sunset Cooper runs out a 9/0, a Tiagra 30,
and a 6/0.
We get a fire going for the night, cook up some deer steak, and sit
around waiting for some action. Tired from sleeping in the truck the night
before I lay it up for a little while only to be woke up around midnight
with Cooper telling me fish on which indeed there was. We run down to the
truck where Cooper gets to work bringing the fish in. Some time later it
is in the wade gut and I pull it up on the sand for some pics:
A 6'11" Sandbar. This was Cooper's first shark over 4 feet and the
first time for me to have my hands on a Sandbar. After the release we sat
around the fire for a little while hoping for some more action. Called it
a night sometime later. Woke up in the morning and my first instinct was
to immediately check the 9/0 and the 6/0. Walking down to the truck I notice
that the 6/0 has had some line taken out. I start to bring it in and feel
some weight to it. Then it starts to make some runs.
After a stubborn fight we finally get it to the sand and notice its tagged.
This Sandbar was 6'10" but a bit chunkier than the one the night before.
The tag # was 299733. Will be interesting to see when and where it was tagged.
After the release we are more than pleased with the trip and decide to start
packing up to deal with the drive home. We stop at a few spots on the way
back to toss some extra shrimp we had but no luck. Conditions as we were
leaving Sunday:
The weather made the beach a great place to be this weekend and getting
into some Sandbars made it even better. Hopefully I will be back down asap
with some more catches to report.
Later on.
- Jon
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