Report submitted by 'Moose'
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Fugazi Offshore Report
North Padre Island, TX
September 29th, 2006
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We headed out of Packery late in the morning after Shindle and
I watched two whorlwind waterspouts coming down like Devils fangs out of
a large thunderstorm cell. We got underway and broke the jetties and headed
out to the blue water. Stopped at a shrimper and tried every trick but the
only thing in the area was a ravenous pack of bottlenose. We spared a few
suds to the thirsty shrimpers for a big sack of shrimp.
We fished a few rigs and got 3 limits of snapper. Also got a
mixed assortment of jacks that would get beheaded by the resident cudas and
a small scalloped HH. But after the first few victims they wouldn't cooperate
with full bellies.
We fished the entire water column with different baits. Each
zone would turn something up. Butterfly Jigs would pull up a variety of odd
creatures from the depths.
One of the mid depth live baits that OldSalt dropped started
to cruise off slow and strong. He grabbed the rod and hung on as the fish
peeled off a good bit of line. We untied from the rig and got the fish under
control still not quite sure what we were dealing with. Soon enough, the
silver flash of a 5 foot long Mercury Missile came to to side of the boat
within gaff range.
Oldsalt with his largest King yet. The fish weighed 44# on the boga.
I kept hammering with the jigs and managed to get a couple of
cut offs on small cudas. I tied up another jig on the fluorocarbon and sent
it down. I got a big hit on the retrieve. The fish acted like it wasn't hooked
and came up pretty quick, but as soon as it realized it was hooked it took
off towards the rig like a scud missile. Scott thought for sure we were gonna
lose it to the rig, but luckily we were drifting and able to put the breaks
on the train with the boat. It was a miracle those inch long fangs didn't
destroy the leader and we got the beast to the boat. There was a lot of respect
and caution as we slowly pulled that head with razors into the boat.
I've always seen those huge cudas on the rigs but never landed
one. We all looked at each other and looked at the beast, and we started
to wonder about records. We weighed it on the boga at 54#. I thought the
record should be around 70# or so, but we didn't know what it truly was.
We headed out to some rock piles looking for some AJ's. We were
chumming and drifting live and cut baits. Shindel had out a big shark rig
under a balloon. He asked us if we saw that? Saw what? Then underneath it
was a huge brown monster. Shocked Somebody said "Tiger" on the back. The
shape descended out of view and left us to ponder the biggest monster we'd
ever seen. Several Remoras showed up all of the sudden at the boat. "Hmm,
that was strange" we thought.
About fifteen minutes later the shape shows up again behind
us and cruises towards us. I then realized that I was looking at the second
Whale Shark I'd seen in 2 weeks. This time Scott, Todd, Mike, and I got to
experience a swim with the massive fish and his entourage of ling and remora
escorts.
Every one had a chance to ride the beast and experience the
truly humbling power and grace of such a massive creature. It's like riding
a living dinosaur. The first shark with Oz was very docile and never spooked
when we interacted with it. But this shark was a more cautious and would
spook and dive when we grabbed on. It's pretty much the norm that pepole
believe these whale sharks are not very dangerous. But after interacting
with them, make sure to avoid the tail. I've got it on video, which will
be released soon, but at one point the spooks and gives a good thrust of
the tail. If a diver had been in it's way, it would have probably knocked
them out and potentially drowned.
So if you are lucky enough to run across one these fish and
decide to dive with it, use caution when swimming near the tail!
Since the Whale Shark was there, we stayed out as long as possible
and talked of sea monsters on the ride in. When we got to the docks, Todd
got on the computer and checked out the records. He came back out with a
funny grin and said we got a shot at it, the TX record Barracuda was 52.81#
and earlier my cuda got a 53# on the boga. But not really expecting to be
so close we didn't keep the carcass in the best condition, because it sat
out in the sun for about 4 hrs. We called Roys and had them stay open a little
late so we could get it officially weighed. At Roys, Scott and I both thought
it would have lost about 4-5 pounds of blood and dehydration. We were right
on and it came in right under 49# Confused Close, but not the right cigar.
Oh well, we got some huge monster bait for PROJECT TERROR...
...where the scientific and the Terrifing emerge
see you on the water
- Moose
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