Report submitted by 'Oz, Skipjack, Brandon, Joseph, Frenzy'

PINS 2008 Mega Sharkathon Report Padre Island National Seashore, TX October 3rd-5th, 2008 Tweet

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SHARKATHON '08 MEGA-REPORT COLLABORATION

Got to the beach early Friday morning awaiting registration. A lot of familar faces graced the scene and the water and weather was looking optimal. Come 11am the madness is about to be unleashed as the registration is about to begin.

Kip, Shindle, and I are among the first to get registered and rock on down. Driving good due to low tide but due to drastically change. We get down south and I pull over to wait for Scott and Shindle and Kip proceed to head further south. While waiting for Scott to catch up I get a bait or two out. Skipjack are present and as the day progresses the birds and anchovies wander in. Scott finally catches up and we decide to just set up camp here. We'd slowly get our shark gear together and with some fresh Skippy's get some baits out. After a while Scott hooks up and lands a small Blacktip. First shark and things are looking good.

The sun sets and we have a good array of big and small baits out. Pretty soon Scott hooks up again and nails another Blacktip.

Not long and I soon follow with a smaller Blackitp

We leave the big baits overnight and are untouched. No Reds or Trout in sight but the Skipjack and pinner Blacktips are abound. During the early part of the next day we get weeded out pretty good with debris on the first bar. Scott packs it up and heads south to meed up with Kip and Shindle to see how they are doing. Meanwhile I keep big baits out.

I had just gotten another bait out when I look up the beach and a knuckle head in an offshore boat comes driving up the first gut. I *think* he sees my camp and swings over the first bar into the 2nd gut.. whooopy. Seconds later he drives by.. picks up one of my lines... crosses another... then picks up the last, all 100lb and 150lb braid. After a few more seconds he stalls out and wonders why. Iwas pissed but nothing I could do but hope he drifted ashore. Grabbed the video camera and digital cam and took some pics. Not a smart move on his part for the wind/seas were picking up and water murking up in close along with the fact of much dangerous debris also in close stuck inthe guts. Other than great disrespect for the surf fishermen, this could have proved very dangerous for the boat and his passengers if he had hit something. This guy also passsed Kip and Shindles camp very close to beach, nearly 10 miles away.

Anyway, it took me the remainder of the day to get everything organized, re-spooled, and rebaited. But I do get baits out and once again a pinner Blacktip picks up thebait. Not big but at this point i'm happy to see any fish.

Scott gets back to the camp and gets a couple good baits out himself before dark. The wind is picking up and I too have 3 solid baits out. After nightfall, we sit back and hope for something to come through but for the most part things are quiet aside from the wind. I did have a chance to make a fire and take a cool long-exposure picture of the truck.

During the late night/early morning we started getting weeded out. I had the tentcot on top of the truck and got out to maintain a line and the wind picked up the tentcot and threw it on the sand into a 4" tidal pool of water. Needless to say my sleepingbag and pillow and other junk in it got wet. Seeing how the day went I would expect nothing less. I locked the drags down and crawled in the truck and went to sleep.

I woke up in the morning with the baits washed up on the beach. Scotts too. On a better note I found some cool stuff while walking the several hundred yards to retrieve my line/bait. Ahhhh, at least it is over for this year. But with the weather being decent for most of it, there had too of been something decent caught. Anyhow, we head back to the weigh-in awards ceremony. Thanks to alll the Sharkathon crew for putting on another great event look forward to it next year!

- Oz

Now....

Report via Skipjack

My wife and I arrived on the beach at around 10:30PM on Thursday to start setting up the Check-In station for the 5th Annual Sharkathon Event. I tried to locate some bait by blind tossing the net around in the wade gut with limited success. So we hit the sack and prepared for tomorrow mornings check-in.

Got up around 7:15AM and was greeted by Ralph Wade and his toy poodle Maggie. Walked over to the tent to start pre-signup for anglers that showed up early. The crowd started lining up as we were preparing for Check-In. By 10:00AM, vehicles were lining the beach and anglers were getting anxious to start fishing.

Each year the Check-In process improves and continues to get faster and faster. This year we finished Check-in within an hour compared to last year's dismal 4 hour process.

After Check-In, I set the rod holders and start rigging some shark baits. As we know now, my wife was entered in the Ladies Division so my goal was to get her into a nice shark. The seas were a moderate 2 to 3 feet and the surf was gin clear and ready for Mother Ocean to toss me around in the kayak.

I want to preface this talk by stating that this is my personal opinion and if you can choose to ignore this next paragraph if you do not agree with the method. Nevertheless, I have been preaching this technique for years and yet, a lot of shark fisherman put large baits out for small sharks. The vast majority of sharks along the National Seashore are 4 to 6 foot. Most of these sharks have mouths that are no larger than 10 inches across. So rig your baits accordingly. I always put small Orange to Grapefruit sized baits on a 20/0 circle hook with 400 to 600 pound mono leaders and run them out. It has always been a successful technique to catching finicky sharks on PINS and I have only gut hooked ONE shark using this method.

I put a small chunk of cut skipjack out just past the third bar and it gets whacked within 20 minutes of the drop. I left the bait in place just to see if the shark would come back for more. 5 minutes later, a little bump but no shark, so I decided to reel in the bait. Of course, hook is empty and the leader is showing signs of a toothy critter. Rigged another chunk of cut skipjack and drop it just over the third bar. 15 minutes later it gets smashed by a large fish. I scream to my wife to put the belt on and get down here. The rules stated that I can't touch the rod or set the hook so I had to watch the line slip off the spool while my wife ran to grab the rod.

She could barely pull the rod out of the rod holder so I had her back the drag down to get the rod out and control the situation. She put the butt down in the belt and the fight was on. 30 minutes later and coaching from the entire staff of Sharkathon, Jes put a healthy 71.75 inch bull shark on the sand that turns out was good enough for first place in the Ladies division.

After that accomplishment, I wanted to try and catch a few meat fish for the cooler and started concentrating on trout and reds. Even though, the anchovies and birds were still busting in frenzies just past the third bar I just knew her shark was good enough and I could relax and enjoy the weekend. I tossed some finger mullet into the 1st gut and managed a solid 20.5 inch trout. Which turned out would have been good enough for second place in Sharkathon? Ha, go figure?

Continued tossing baits with limited success and managed to jump a few large skipjacks and bag a nice Spanish which I kept for some jerky later.

My Dad and I tossed topwaters the rest of the afternoon North of base camp and I have never lost so many trout before. The trout were kind of finicky and just wouldn't take a topwater down. My Dad and I finally retreated at Sundown to enjoy some great food, great beverages and great company for the evening. Capt. Billy Sandifer joined us for a few hours explaining the beach and today and how fishing has been and how fishing could be. Turns out, I enjoyed my beverages a lot and ended up sleeping in Saturday morning.

Saturday turned out to be a hard day of fishing in the morning. I couldn't find mullet small enough to cast for trout and reds. Eventually, when I did find small mullet, the weed would demolish my baits in mere minutes. It turns out Trevor had the right idea for the day.

I decided to go into town ( Corpus Christi ) and wait until High tide to put out more baits.

Saturday evening, after a short visit to town with a fresh shower I came out with an hour left of day light. The wind started to howl and the surf was building. I put out a small piece of skipjack just 50 yards past the third bar, it gets smacked by a shark before I even have time to get the life jacket off. This fish ends up being a 64 inch female blacktip (tagged and released).

How does the ole saying go? Catch one, Rig One? Well, I immediately get back in the kayak and swim another small piece of skipjack in the roaring surf. This time, I have time to dry off and put a fresh t-shirt on before it gets nailed just 30 minutes after sundown by another 64 inch female blacktip (tagged and released).

By this time, I wasn't going to rig another bait and paddle into the dark roaring surf because humans were born with gut instinct and common sense for a reason. It's been saving the lives of our species for years and I didn't intend to test the limitations of my instinct this evening. After all, I had just caught two nice sharks and my wife probably had the women's division in the bag.

Sunday, turned out to be as hectic as it gets. Sharkathon weigh-in preparations were way behind and we didn't consider the amount of time it was going to take to setup everything so we ended up being a little behind. We started taking Catch Logs at 12:45PM which is much later than expected.

That fat 6 foot bull shark, my wife caught, was good enough to take the ladies division and we walked home with a new pink kayak, a custom wrapped rod with reel, and $350 cash. Not bad, Not Bad at all.

- Skipjack

Now on to Brandon's Sharkathon Report...

Headed down the beach early fri morning to find a good spot in the high banks after hearing of shallow water down south. posted up just south of the 20mm where there were some nice wide deep guts and some birds working 250 yards out. The sand was super thick and there were two trucks stuck right at the 20 so we figured it would be a good spot to fish and get some entertainment from stuck vehicles.

At 11:00 I took off back to the four wheel drive sign to check in and when I returned I see my buddy Kevin had landed his personal best Jack, two slot reds a monster pomp and five skipjack. I was thinking man did I bring the right guy to help me this weekend. Right after I returned Gabe pulls up and inspects the pile of fresh bait and decides to stick close and parks within about a half mile or so south of us making the walk from camps easy. I put half of the jack on my 12 and paddled it out at 1:00 and ran out five whole cow nose rays ranging from 200 to 450 yards. At 5:00 my nuke gets rocked and twenty five minutes later I land a thick foot 2 inch female bull shark.

I rebait the nuke with the monster pomp and run it out and wait. At about 7 Sam pulls up fresh out of work ready to start fishing. He immediately starts running baits out waiting for the evening bite after hearing the good news of my medium sized bull. About 8:30 my other nuke goes off like a champ and I think I have a serious fish this time. Thirty minutes later I beach one pissed off pec hooked 5 foot 8 inch bull that kept trying to bite my feet. I make a quick hike down to Gabe's camp to find that they also landed two bulls. At about 10 my 12 goes slack and i reel it in all the way to find it was broken off either by debris or spanish. The night was quiet until my big pomp got slapped at about 11 and came in bit in half. Brought in all rods at 1 to call it a night.

Woke up early Sat to nice conditions but a little more wind then I wanted. Immediately started loading the water with cow nose and by 830 in the morning we had eight whole cow nose and one southern spread across the 20. The day was very eventful watching many a vehicle get stuck, pulled out, break down etc. etc. Between Sam and I not one bait was hit until right before we got weeded out with the incoming tide at about 630 pm. One of Sam's Avets got hit quick and then dropped only to be reeled in to see a healthy radius bitten out of a cow nose. We brought in eight weeded out baits and started the pit thinking our fishing was over for the weekend.

Woke up early Sun to see crappy conditions and hung-over friends and decided to pack it up and watch people drive north until about 11 when we headed to the check in. Luckily for me my first bull held on to get me second place again this year bringing home a healthy check and a nice new rod courtesy of Henry R, nice work man. I thought I got real lucky last year placing two years in a row but I thought that doing it three years in a row was impossible but 6 foot 2 held on for me. We had a lot of fun and I would like to congratulate all the winners and most importantly the people who bust their asses to make this thing the success that it is today and the highlights of so many fisherman's year. Thank you sharkathon crew and all of the people who made donations and contributions to making this thing happen.

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- Brandon

On to Joeseph and Kari's Sharkathon Report...

I finished packing up the truck with everything we could possibly need for the weekend and headed out at noon to pick up my wife Kari, who is my favorite shark fishing partner. She checked in around 1pm and we headed south to let the hard but fun work begin. I was very familiar with the beach and driving conditions so I did not let the high banks stop us, knowing it would not last the entire way. A perfect spot almost made me wreck my truck when I slammed on the brakes and found home for the tournament in the upper 20’s. Kari and I quickly hopped out of the truck and prepared for war. She started setting up rod holders and rods, while I yaked out and tried to find fresh baits to avoid using the 12 hour old baits that were caught the night before.

I am a very firm believer in fresh baits. I return 20 minutes later with 3 skips and a camp that was waiting on us to get started. Tournament time was now about 3pm. I told Kari to get ready because I definitely knew what was about to go down and was very excited. My 20 minute bait adventure had me going when I had ling and several shark and many other fish swimming around my yak. Kari handed me her favorite rod and I deployed the first bait. I pull back up to the beach to yak another when the first rod gets nailed. Kari hooks up and I couldn’t take it since I know she can handle this on her own, so I run another bait in the middle of the first hookup. On the paddle back in I can see the dorsal fin on her shark about 200yards out. I am curious so paddle over for a look and almost fall out of my yak when I see this sexy large bull shark swimming in the wave. I speed paddle back to help her land this nice fish. Wow beautiful bull babe!!! We leader and take pics of this 6’6 bull and release. Dam what a pimp start. We try to celebrate but there is no way possible with another scream and up comes a 4ft finetooth. Wow its like 4pm and Kari is kickin ass a 6’6 bull and 4ft finetooth. And yes we have no baits out.

Kari starts bringing me rods for deployment and I quickly get out a five rod spread. Minutes later she hooks up on a small 4’3 blacktip. Fish is released and two more baits ran to make up for the one that had come back in with a fish. Night approaches, and a buddy and I yak out two baits with 6 fishing rods. Kari is already feeling the burn in her arms when sadly a giant suction monster decides to hit a 6/0. Wow I really felt bad for her. Haha that was not an easy one for her to get in. We thought it was a nice bull but 45 minutes later a 130-150lb ray comes in. Poor wife, she already has 2 blisters and skin hanging from her thumb. I told her “Babe you’re the one that wanted to fish this year, So hack it”. Stingray is released and the sun sets.

Uh oh, here it comes Babe. 6/0 screams, in comes a healthy 6’1 bull and released. 9/0 screams and in comes a 5’7 spinner, pics are taken and fished released. No breaks and another scream on sharkathon rod. In comes another spinner 5’6. Wow time for a beer haha. We celebrate and begin to wind down from all the nonstop action. Tournament time of midnight and list is 6’6 bull, 4ft finetooth, 4’3 blacktip, 130lb ray, 6’1 bull, 5’7 spinner and 5’6 spinner. Dam babe your beating my records. That’s not cool. I am super proud of her though, she is doing an unbelievable job and has not even missed a run.

Saturday did not have a lot of action for us, wind and weed started pickin up and we were already exhausted. I did not want her to get too confident so the work never stopped. We kept running baits every hour. Finally in the afternoon Kari hooks up on another very nice 6 ft bull. Great job Babe. Wow, she has to be in first place is starting to go through my head. I wanted her to win so bad, but I did not want to get overconfident and punk out. Nick drives by and sadly gives us the rumor of a 7 1/2ft bull. Dam. Oh well we say keep fishing.

Weed is driving us crazy and waves are continuing to flip me and I am getting very tired and sore from it. Last bait hooks up 6’1 spinner and we run from the weed. Tournament was pretty much over by this time. We headed north to eat, chill, and get through that nasty driving to ensure getting Kari’s catch on time Sunday morning. We stop around the 10 Saturday night and the next morning Kari uses her last minutes to try to hook up a nice Red, to no avail.

This had to have been the most enjoyable and awesome Big Shell trip ever for us. Babe I am so proud of you. You did an amazing job!!!!!!!!!! To the Sharkathon crew, You should already know that ya’ll by far put on the best tournament there is around here. Great job Guys, every year this gets better and better. I can’t wait for next year. I am already excited about it. I might have to fight with my wife this time to see who fishes it, or maybe we both will. Great job to everyone and We will C ya on the beach.

Now finally, Frenzy's Sharkathon Report...

We got to our spot about 3 pm. Started fishing and Dustin immediately starts catching Whiting. Wasn't long and he was hooked up with a nice stingray.

Shortly after that he catches this big Pompano.

Then he wants to start shark fishing so we get a casted bait out in the first gut. While we are waiting for some action Dustin brings in this 24 inch Bonnethead.

Around 4 pm the 4/0 starts singing.So we get Dustin in a harness and the fight is on.Not knowing exactly what it is,anticipation is setting in.Finally 20 minutes into the fight we see the shark.10 minutes later the 6' 1" Bull is sitting on the beach.

The shark was measured then released. Dustin was so excited he couldn't believe it.Congrats Dustin on your fine catch.You are HARDCORE.

- Dwade

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