Report submitted by 'Oz'

PINS Wild Kingdom Kayaking Report Padre Island National Seashore, TX August 6-7th, 2009 Tweet

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With a good weather window and summer time winds finally laying back down, I figured it would be theperfect opportunity to get back out in the yak and play seek and destroy. I rolled down the beach at low tide Wednesday evening. Finally get down the beach and get the yak all geared up to find and chase the birds in the morning and in hopes of finding some King Mackerel as well.

Come sunrise I am greeted with calm conditions, I couldn't be happier.

I get the kayak all geared up and fish finder mounted.

I get out aways and see action all around. I was picking up fish on the fish finder starting past the 3rd bar and figured they were Jacks. I get out to where I want to be and begin throwing topwaters. First cast... BAMM! After a few minutes I have a nice size king to the yak.

I carefully pull him up on the yak to get the hooks out... which the lure was wrapped around its neck. A quick photo and the King is released.

I continue throwing topwaters and 2nd cast.... BAMM Hooked up again! It goes down deep and uses its body weight... I'd figure it was a Jack... sure enough it was.

I land the Jack and a few minutes later I get another hook-up on an aerial King. Once again it is foul hooked near the head.

I finally get it up and release another smoker king on top-water.

After landing that 2nd King, I see the bird and surface action has amplified about 1/4 mile away. I haul over there and things are going bonkers. There are acres of Jackfish, Mackerel, Cobia, and Sharks feeding on several baitballs on the surface. In awe I couldn't find myself to fish just yet. I had to just sit and watch and take it all in and appreciate this whole chain of natures predators and prey in these unique feeding frenzies. Here are just several of manyphotos I took.

With the acres of mass action, it is evident of the amount of fish as can be seen on the fish finder.

I continue to take tons of pics... here are some more that I like...

(Cobia to the left, Shark on bottom right)

I finally decided to start fishing again and began throwing topwaters again. Instantly within a split second of hitting the water it gets snatched up by a Jack.

After over 30 minutes I have my 4th Jack (which was released)

I continue to fish and lose a couple of topwaters leaving me with only my big Tuna popper. I get an interesting creature come up for a photo op... This Triggerfish certainly wasn't affraid of me or anything else for that matter.

After a while I get a Cobia up to the yak... I start to practically hand feed it some chum I brought out, then fed him a bait. Fish on!

After a couple minutes I get him up to the yak. I wanted to harvest a Cobia but not knowing if it were legal size or not I did not stick it with the gaff. I let him tire out for a bit.

After a couple more minutes I get the Ling along side the yak. I knew it was close but not sure how much.

I pull the Cobia in the yak and take a quick measurement... 40"... it's a keeper! The fish goes in thefish bag and I get back to the birds. I decided to throw the large topwater, and sure enough it gets destroyed. Not long and I get the 3rd large Kingfish up to the yak.

The hook was in the corner of its mouth pretty good but I was able to release the fish.

After an exhausting, incredible morning, I decide to call it a day and head back to

With some fresh Jack, I rig up 4 big baits for the evening.

Right before dark I have the spread out.

Early in the night the Tiger moon rises.

Around midnight (while passed out sleeping) I feel the 12/0 go lose and hit the rod holder. I figured great... i'd been cut off. I take my time and get there and start reeling in the line. After a minute or two I catch up to the weight. I reeled in 100-150yds of line.Hmmm. If I didn't know any better, i'd say a BIG shark just picked up the bait but since it came in versus going out, I nevergot a hookset.. I'll leave it out and see what happens.

About an hour or two later another bait gets hit. The reel goes off for a minute and I am curious. Then goes off again and I get the hookset this time. But something is different. It keeps taking line ona wide 6 but I can feel the tail thrust... that usually isn't good. Then finally I feel dead weight. It took me about 15 minutes to get the fish in which ended up being a Blacktip hooked underneath at the base of the tail.

I get the hook out and a pic before the release.

Tried going to sleep but couldn't. It gave me a chance to take some night-time long exposure pics with the cam with only the light radiating from the full moon.

Eventually I do get to sleepfor a few short hours. Right before sunrise I can see the conditions did not pick up as expected... the water was still amazing! I am thinking... I need to get back in the yak.

I bring in the shark rods... one not touched, one with slight teeth marks, and the bait on the 12/0 that had been picked up the previous night was completely stripped, and the leader mangled. Big fish alright.

I pack up the gear and relocate. I meet up with Repo and Champ and convince them to head out in the yaks. They are a bit slow to get under way but are readying their gear.

I decide to get out early and let them meet up with me. I get out aways and the birds are scattered and less concentrated then before. I was almost 2 1/2 miles out before I found any big concentration of action. But when I got there, I was blessed with the scene of the final destruction of a bait ball by a pack of Blacktip Sharks.

Cobia would randomly swarm around looking for scraps.

Here you can see various Mackerel taking advantage of the anchovies.

But the main predators were undoubtedly the sharks..

The sharks were focused on the bait and couldn't care less about me.

I saw up to 8 large Blacktips destroying a single Bait Ball. This photo really didn't come out but I took it in photoshop to adjust the levels to help clear up and show some detail. You can see sharks swarming with one of them heading up towards the bait ball on the surface.

Slicing on the surface through the schooling bait was a regular occurance.

Unlike the concentrated acres of bait from the previous day, there were more predators taking advantage of less prey... until it was nearly gone. I watched again in awe and just took in the incredible sights. After a while, it was all over and the birds and predators had moved off hundreds of yards again. I paddle aways back towards shore and finally meet up with Repo and Champ who are just getting out. Earlier in the day I threw the big topwater and jumped a King or two but didn't land them. The boys had ribbonfish though which is King-Crack. Instantly they were hooked up on Kings. Trevor was the first to land one.

Patrick hooks up...

Then lands his...

While Patrick is battling fish, I throw a large silver spoonish lure and hook what was probably a Spanish, but instantly it got inhaled by a large Blacktip that went aerial and spinning out of the water about 15' in front of the yak! Then the shark dove down and rose again lauching out of the water spinning agressively. If I had video or a photo it would have made my year, but to see that and have it burned in my memory is just as good. Fortuantely the Shark didn't bite through the leader, but the hook pulled.

Trevor ends up hooking a Cobia after a while.

And then he nails an even bigger King.

We played around hooking various fish and took in the Wild Kingdom atmosphere. Put some meat in the bag and enjoyed the beautiful day. We headed off pretty early to make the drive back. Ihave seen many things in the kayak over theyears. I have seen countless baitballs being destroyed, bait pods with birds several hundered strong feeding during the frenzy, and a countless amount of Sharks and other predatory fish. Every time I go out and witness this natural process of predator and prey, I find myself just observing and appreciating the fact that you are seeing something that a handful of people on this earth get to experience. You are there... you are part of the atmosphere. The energy that gets emitted throughout calms you down and makes you alert to the fullest of your senses. It is a great joy to be able to experience this and is always a thrill... fishingor not. I did get killer pics and some awesome underwater video and the memories alone are worth it.

I can't wait to do it again...
- Oz

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