Report submitted by 'Oz'

PINS Late Winter Surf Report Padre Island National Seashore, TX February 8th, 2006 Tweet

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It's the middle of the week, flat surf with a still prevailing current and clearing water... I wonder if fishing will be any good?? ;) I decided to head down in the afternoon while 'Sharken' and his buddy following not far behind.

We set up camp inthe high banks where the color change was offshore about 600yds. We then began the tedious process ofcatching fresh bait. At first nothing, but then we were catchinglarge Whiting and Pompano on demand.

A few minutes pass and I decide to go back to the grind trying to catch more Pomps and end up landing a Bonnethead Shark.

While releasing the Bonnethead, my 4/0-wide on my 552 goes blazing. The fish had picked up a large whole Whiting placed about 350-400yds out. I set into him for a good hookset and know immediately it is a solid fish. I already knew what it was but just how big...

After about a 30min fight, we see the first glimpse of the shark over the first bar. The large broad dorsal sliced through the water. We get her in and Kyle helps leader the shark. She ends up being a very fat 7'0" Sandbar Shark.

After a couple quick pictures we tag and release the Sandbar and watch her swim off to deeper water. I have now landed 4 Sandbars at or over 7' with my biggest being 7'2". Somewhere out there that 8'r is wating for us ;)

While landing the Sandbar, both my 6/0s get nailed... one with impressive teeth marks on a large Pompano (likely another Sandbar), the other resulted in an Atlantic Sharpnose.

The problem with the winter-time blue bird days as such... if a larger shark such as a Sandbar doesn't destroy a fresh bait, you can almost bet a Sharpnose will home in and find it. Once again I get back to the grind and run fresh baits back out consiting of more Whiting and Pompano. Within several minutes, the 6/0 with the Pompano I just dropped gets blasted. I grab the rod and let her run for about 10 seconds the lay into her for the hookset. At that moment, there was an explosion on the horizon as the shark blew up on the surface. With the chaotic action she ended up throwing the hook. Bummer... Brought the bait in and more niceley displayed teeth marks on the remainder of the bait. The culprit in all likelihood another Sandbar for have had 2 other do the same thing in the past and land.

Once again I run a last array of fresh baits out. At this time Kyle had to head back into town and left me to fend for myself... and his12/0.

I ended up staying til around 8:30pm until the moon was right over-head. Two out of the three remaining baits of mine got blasted... one by a smaller shark (sharpnose) and the Pomp get destroyed by something rather larger (likely Sandbar).

Overall it was a great afternoon and got to see some teeth. Having knowingly hooked up to two large Sandbars, and possibly a couple more added to a great Feburary day of fishing.

- Oz

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