| PINS Surf Report
Padre Island National Seashore,
TX
December 9th-12th, 2004
Report by Curmit |
The trip started out with a early deployment of Repo, Kip, and myself
heading down to the beach ahead of everyone else on Wednesday night. We drove
down to the 20's and found a decent place to set up camp. We piled out of
the truck and before long we were soaking fishbites in search of catching
something for cut bait. We started out at the bottom with no bait at all
in hopes of parlaying synthetic bait all the way up the food chain to some
rockstar shark baits.
The fishbites eventually paid off with a couple of small whiting that
we promptly cut up into nice edible chunks. First out of the gate with a
decent fish was Repo with this bluefish.A little while later my rod equipped
with one of my infamous leaders goes off and bends over really far. After
a nice tug of war I landed a really nice bull red. By this time it was getting
pretty late and we had managed to catch a few whiting for bait so we all
set our tent-cots and crashed in anticipation of what the beach was going
to offer us in the morning.
My new theory of fishing the beach goes something like this, "Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday are golden days on PINS because unless you are Oz
you are not supposed to be there and instead be slaving away at your job
and watching the message boards for reports predicting the weekends
possibilities.
Well Thursday started out pretty golden as I was awoken out
of my sleep by Kip crawling out of his tent-cot and exclaiming that there
were lots of big fish in the waves. Like some sort of chinese fire drill
the three of us came flying out of our comfy shelters and ran to the waters
edge with rods in hand.
In all my trips to PINS I have been waiting to be in the right
spot at the right time for a full on jack assault on the surf and today turned
out to be the glorious day that it finally happened. Repo and Kip were first
to the waters edge with lure chunking rods and both of them were instantly
rewarded with the magical sound of drag on their first cast. In the haste
of trying to get a rod in the water I grabbed the surf rod that was already
rigged with last nights cut whiting on it and cast it out into the water.
Repo and Kip were both in the midst of battle and before I could get a rod
rigged up with a lure my surf rod with the whiting jerky on it goes off.
Triple hookup within mere minutes of crawling out of bed, this is what we
all return to PINS over and over again to try and experience and we were
smack in the middle of hundreds of jacks cruising by us surfing the waves
on the first and second bar.
As luck would have it the jacks that Kip and I were hooked into
managed to get off before we could land them but Repo once again was first
out of the gate with this nice jack.
During the first round with the jacks we noticed that the surf was
teeming with finger mullet and we quickly netted some and rigged up some
surf rods with mullet and cast them out. In no time at all chaos soon erupted
with our rods bending over and the magical sound of drag could be heard drifting
with the gentle breeze. Repo and I were getting jacks and for some strange
reason Kip kept hooking up with really nice Reds.
The action kinda mellowed out with only single hookups following each
other when Kip's rod goes off big time. In a matter of moments a hundred
yards of line has been towed into the gulf and soon we could see some really
big splashes out in the area of the third gut. Kip was thinking tarpon
but from the splashes I saw it sure looked like blacktip to me and after
being pulled down the beach in classic style Kip finally managed to hoist
the feisty fish over all the bars. As it came over the 1st bar we were treated
to that sight we always hope for, a nice dorsal fin cutting thru the water.
With a perfect hookset in the corner of the mouth Kip landed this nice shark
on a mono-circle hook rig.
We were not able to measure it since we were way down the beach but
it was a nice shark and Kips largest to date, after a quick photo session
it was released. Prior to jogging down the beach to join them on the shark
battle I had put fresh baits on my pole and casted it out thinking that for
sure something would nail it while we were gone. Luckily for me the jack
waited till we were walking back and we were treated to the sight of a surf
rod buckling over from a long distance perspective. I got back to my rod
and battled yet another jack to the beach. Here is a pic of that jack.
I had grabbed my fishbite rig during a lull in the action and casted
it out and soon after the jack was landed I see the fishbite rig bouncing.
I get the first of many pompano that fell victim to my fishbite rig. A short
while later Repo's rod goes off and he begins an extended battle with what
turned out to be the largest jack caught all weekend. Here is a pic of Repo's
mega jack that we had to force to fit into the ice chest.
To follow his prior trend Kip's rod goes off and he lands this really nice
bull red around 41 inches.
With a large head start on his battle Repo lands his long before us
and quickly casts back out only to just as quickly be hooked up again and
it turns into a quad hookup as he battles the fourth fish of the frenzy.
Here is a pic of Kip and finally a jack for him instead of a red.
The next hour has at least one of us hooked up with something and
several more fish were landed. Well by now the ice chest was plenty full
and we had jacks lying all over the beach with no where to put them and since
we had so many of them we decided to start doing art work with them.
Noon arrives and luckily for us starving fishermen the fish decide
to give us a lunchtime break so we can get some nourishment in us since it
has been nonstop since we woke up. In classic form though I only had time
to finish my sandwich before my break was terminated by the magical sound
of drag once again drifting thru the breeze. Here is a pic of the jack that
ended my break early.
By now we were in a serious situation, we had the beach in front of
camp littered with jacks and the ice chests already plum full to the brim
with jacks. Repo decides that since he has to make a work related run back
into town that he will go back and get some more ice chests and ice. Hoping
that Oz was around we fill the truck up with jacks with the additional plan
of trying to get them stashed in his monster freezer back in town.
Wow this report is getting long already and so far I have only covered
half of the first day, LOL, man I love that beach.
Since it was Repo's weekend the bite came to an almost standstill
while he was gone back in town. I did manage to get a couple more fish and
lo and behold the macks made a brief showing. During the afternoon I had
one nice screamer that got dropped on a cast whiting into the first gut but
other than that we started getting things ready to start taking out big baits
since we had accomplished our goal of obtaining some rockstar baits.
As the sun starts to go down Repo makes it back to camp and the freezer
plan worked with Oz being home and after dropping off the jacks he snagged
Oz and brought him out to the beach to join us. Kip and I had a couple of
baits out and Oz quickly went into action and rigged up some of the ever
bountiful fresh jack and yakked out some baits also.
Around this time Henry shows up with Mike D. following him after talking
him into joining us out on the beach for a trip that for him was to only
last less than 24 hours since he wasn't supposed to be there and had plans
on the weekend. The sun set and we began the preparation for the feast of
the evening and enjoyed yet another killer meal on the beach amongst awesome
company and surroundings.
For the most part the shark fishing was totally dead that night with
no rods having any runs to speak of except one run for Oz and nothing was
landed. We kicked back and got some rest and all went to bed anticipating
the morning and what it would bring.
When the sun rose it was immediately obvious that things were not
going to be quite the same because the tide was way out and the wade gut
was now dry sand. We rigged up rods and got them in the water hoping that
they would come once again. Around this time Moose and Dusty show up and
get set up north of the main camp. A couple of hours goes by without much
happening except Oz bringing in a bait that had been nailed prior
to sunrise by something very large from the looks of the bite. That
was most likely the brush with the big one of the weekend and it was a big
bummer that it managed to surgically remove most of the jack bait without
getting a hook in it's mouth.
Eventually a nice flock of birds show up to the south of us and we
can see them slowly working towards us so once again the chinese fire drill
begins with everyone refreshing baits and getting lures rigged. Once again
the jacks, while in much smaller numbers come tearing thru the surf wrecking
mass destruction on anything they can fit in their mouths. The run only lasted
for a brief while but Moose hooks up first, then Oz, then me, then Repo,
then Mike D, then Kip. Chaos once again is upon us with fish being battled
up and down the beach.
By this time the total amount of jacks landed within our camp is now
over 20 fish and the trip is quickly becoming something we will remember
for a very long time. Despite the jacks coming thru the bite was pretty dead
with only a couple of reds and pompano landed, mostly by Oz. Here is a pic
of a 22 1/2", 5-6lb Pompano Oz got during the afternoon.
Around noon Repo decides that we do not have enough food and heads
back into town, I went with him so we could stop by Roys for some supplies.
On the way we come across a small family with the wife hooked up on a nice
jack, it was hooked on a pomp rig and was quite a battle for her. I went
out and grabbed the jack for her and got it to the beach.
Yakmon and Shindle showed up right after we got back and set up camp
south of the main camp, we were all very glad that Yakmon was able to make
it out to spend time with us, he is going thru a difficult time right now
with his father being very sick and in the hospital. Yakmon our thoughts
and prayers are with you and your family and I for one was really glad you
could make it out there and I am sure everyone else was also.
Good times were had and got to meet a couple of new people, Vern and
a friend of his joined us and it was great meeting you guys. The party lasted
most of the night, well okay basically all night and it was great to hang
out with everyone.
The next day arrives and new baits are put out in anticipation of
some action. Repo was bound and determined to pop his shark cherry on this
trip and with the slow action on the land based rods he and Kip decide to
give the yak sharking a try. I helped them out with leaders and such and
off they went out into the surf. A little while later I looked out at the
water and saw that they were next to each other and upon a closer study of
the scene I could see that Repo's rod was bent over. Repo lands a 5' Bull
Shark from the kayak and was released.
After a round of high fives things die down a bit and then something
else that was a long time in coming and a ton of effort put forth towards
happens. Shindle is seen running backwards while putting the hookset on a
run and finally it is fish on for Shindle.
While the fight was not dramatic the shark was and Shindle brings in
a very nice sandbar shark, which I think might be the first sandbar caught
off PINS so far this season, I might be wrong though. Another round of high
fives erupts and congrats to Shindle on an awesome seven foot four sandbar
shark.
Shindle claims that he was given some good mojo by a unlikely buddy
that showed up at his truck and hung out with him all day long. After feeding
him a couple of times he was named Mr. Wiggles (a friendly pelican) and while
he acted very strange there was nothing wrong with him and he could fly just
fine.
The wind began to pick up coming out of the south from that point
on and it made for a very sandy evening to say the least. After dark the
current began to really get some power behind it and started to knock weights
loose. I saw that one of Henry's lines was loose and crossed over another
and when he tried to tighten it up it began to act a little fishy and in
no time he had a nice bull shark up on the beach.
Shortly after that Oz gets some action and has a blacktip take one
of his baits, he quickly gets him up to the beach for the pic and release.
For the most part that ended the list of catching that was done by
the camp and most of the lines got knocked loose by the current before long
bringing the fishing to an end except for one bait for Oz and one for Henry.
Henry's bait got hit during the night and around sunrise Oz's bait was
hit and appeared hooked up for a while until it spit the hooks after
a sluggish fight. Oz had a bite mark that was very impressive.
We packed up Sunday morning and began the trek home. Another awesome
weekend on the beach with awesome friends and more like what I would consider
family. Good fun guys!
- Curmit
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