Report submitted by 'Oz'
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PINS Kayaking Report
Padre Island National Seashore, TX
July 26th, 2004
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Kyle and I decided to hit the beach and bring both our kayaks.. in
hopes of going out and catching something before the unusual north winds
began to mess things up. Around sunrise we are about to hit the beach we
noticed the beach was on Fire!.. Literally. Seems a wildfire had burned possibly
hundreds of acres leading up to the area known as the 'sticks'. Thick illuminated
smoke clouds lit up the sky towards the east. Isn't the first wildfire and
won't be the last, just glad nobody was hurt.
As we hit the beach, the northern front already brought thunder and
lightning but luckily for us it was about to pass. The water was absolutely
amazing.. very clear and flat despite the winds. We stroll down on the high
tide and stop several times throwing lures with only a couple blow-ups on
topwaters. Driving surprisingly wasn't bad until about the 25 mile marker
where it went to completely horrendous driving. Lots of debris had washed
up the entire length of the beach.. looked more like a spring time event.
Many places had to be kicked into 4-lo. Down south in the 40' and 50's, very
high 'high banks' have formed within the past month. We threw more lures
into some very nice structure and nothing so we continue on.
We finally reach our destination and get our gear ready and decide
to immediately head out and fish from the kayaks while the conditions were
nice and we still had the chance. Even though it cleared up and the sun came
out, the wind was picking up and would only be a matter of time before the
surf would as well and the water to murk up. As we head out we travel through
thousands and thousands of Mullet. We get out to the color change and instantly
start drifting. Within a few minutes Kyle is instantly hooked up on a King
.
As I go over to help him with the gaff, my rod goes off and I am hooked up.
A couple minutes pass and Kyle's King managed to get off but I end up landing
mine. We re-bait up and make another pass and almost instantly I am hooked
up again. After a couple minutes I get him close enough to where I could
stick him with the homemade gaff Kyle made.
As I am landing mine I see in a distance Kyle is once again hooked
up and manages to land a nice King. The story was the same for the next hour
or so.. every bait would get hit. After my second King, my next drift presented
me with a monster Spanish Mackerel. At this time my yak was getting a bit
overloaded and decided to heAd back to the truck to drop off the fish. As
I am paddling back, I can see Kyle getting towed out to sea by another King.
He eventually catches up to me back on shore at get a quick pic of our limit
catch of Kings.
We rest up for a bit and head back out hoping for more Spanish or
even a Tarpon. My first drift hooked me into another King. Kyle meanwhile
was trying a new technique which was fairly productive. He hooked into and
landed some very nice Spanish. it seems from that point on the giant Spanish
Mackerel took over the waters. I end up landing a Spanish and look over to
Kyle and he is getting dragged down the beach. I catch up to him and know
he had a decent fish. While were anticipating a nice Ling or odd species,
sure enough it had to be a shark. After fighting the fish for about
15 minutes Kyle gets the shark up long enough for me to get a picture.
Click
here for
a brief video clip of Kyle's recent Shark encounter. (wmv
2.55mb)
The shark is quickly released and swims off below the kayaks. We try
paddling back upcurrent and seems every time we made progress, we would hook
into a fish and get dragged back down current. Finally get back to where
we wanted to be and as drop a bait, I see a shark I estimate close to 7'
come up and inspect a Ribbonfish. It bit the wire and missed the bait. I
wanted to land a shark but didn't want to fight this fish for a couple miles
so I headed out into deeper water where the birds began to pick bait at the
surface.
I get out there and hook up on a Spanish when I look back and
see Kyle getting dragged back down the beach. After a while he makes
it back and appears quite possible the same shark if not another large one
picked up his bait and started spooling him slowly. After a couple minutes
Kyle looks back just as a massive splash occurs way out. In all likelihood
the shark tail wacked the line and ended the fight early. After that we hook
into a couple more mega Spanish and decide since the surf and wind were really
picking up, that we would call it a day and head back fishing for trout on
the way out. All in all it was another great exciting trip and can't wait
for October, but until then I will settle for King Mackerel from the kayak.
Good fun!
-Oz
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