Report submitted by 'Oz'

PINS November Blast Surf Report Padre Island National Seashore, TX November 17th-20th, 2008 Tweet

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At last, the weather window us fall fishermen always dream of have finally arrived. Just two days after the front our plans were to hit the beach for some toothies. I rolled down early Monday morning after hitting Stripes for O.J. and breakfast tacos. Upon hitting the beach, the water was absolutely flat with a slight NW breeze. It was bound to go off.

I reach the high banks by 8am, and begin to see signs of action. I get into the mid 20's and see the Jacks running the waves. Pelicans were trying to keep up with the schools but I approached a fairly wide area where they were concentrated for a mile or so. I get out and begin throwing Spoonr's, hooking up on probably the first 10 casts. I end up landing 4 Jacks and some grander Spanish those first couple hours. Things then died down a bit and I decided to just keep driving to see any action was present down south. The 30's and 40's were quite as so the 50's. I had some good baits so said the heck with it and drove to inspect the dredging process at the jetties. I finally get down there and see the shear amount of sand that had been relocated from the dredging process at Mansfield was amazing.

I took a couple pics and then drove back up the beach to look for a good sharking spot and also to wait for Curtis and Kip to join up. I kept driving and after a while found Curtis and Kip on the bar hammering some late season Skipjack and grander Spanish. We were also fortunate to cross paths and have Waverider join us. We welcomed him in our camp and really appeared he had a great time hanging out with us. Both Waverider and I stayed on the beach and ran/casted baits and Kip and Curtis jumped in the zodiacto try to chase down some Jacks etc.

Meanwhile, Kip and Curmit are hammering fish offshore under birds and Curtis gets a late season King as well on finger Mullet.

Back on the beach, we knock out some Skipjack, Spanish, Trout, and basically everything. The pinner Blacktips are as thick as ever.

It is getting late and we run a few baits out before dark. A couple hours later Curtis gets a slightly bigger Blacktip to to the beach.

Soon I get a larger fish on a cast bait into the wade gut which ends up being a large Red.

Around 11pm I get a shark to pick up a Jack bait out a few hundred yards. Due to the nature of the fight and other variables we already knew it was an average Bull. We get it to the beach and sure enough it was a Bull.

I think it was our first Bull of the trip.

We get a few big baits crunched overnight but no other hookups. The next morning it again was COLD... very COLD. But a light N wind and clear, calm water remained. It was bound to be another epic day. Curtis starts off the day right...

We spent the late morning/early afternoon fishing offshore and nailing fish while Curtis remained on the beach catching pups and pomps. Conditions were absolutely pristine, what I always wait for.. that 'one' epic week window in the late fall. We hammer some Rockstar fish and get back to the beach to run some baits out in the late afternoon. Not long and a bait Kip already had out is hit and he begins to bring her in...

Waverider gets an awesome action shot...

Kip gets the shark to the beach and onto the first bar... Curtis goes out to leader the fish and somewhere around that time the hook pulled at the leader before we could land it. From what we saw of the shark, it appearedto be a Bull in the 6-7' range. Tough loss but there are more around. We get our baits back out.. Kips on his truck, mine on my truck.

Just over an hour later I am fishing the wade gut and get a fatty 21" Trout. Soon after I get a run on the super-six way up current. The fish hit a half a Jack seemed to be a somewhat solid shark. I get strapped in and get reeling.

The shark swims in like a typical medium Bull and after a few minutes I get the shark to the wade gut. Curtis goes out to get the shark and this shark pulls the hook as well at the leader. Bummer. Curtis, you're no longer a leader-man! j/k.. ha Shark swims off and only thing that remains is the bait...

After the loss, I couldn't take it and rigged up another Jack and yakked the head-half out 300-400yds. Still had a couple other big baits out as well. About an hour or so later I get a fish that picked up the smallest of the baits, and get the shark to the beach. It ended up being a larger Blacktip.

After the release we keep baits out. We all crash late and around 3am have a wake up call on a Jackfish. Fish picks up the bait slow and runs out... good shark.. yeah!! After 5-10 minutes fish is still running slow then stops... NO!! It drops the bait. Damn. I leave it out until morning and then bring it in... no bait left from the head section of Jack. We bring in the rest of the baits and all big baits have been crunched by sharks, but strangely nothing hooked up.

It is now Wednesday morning and the weather is once again primo. We decide to stay on the beach and exclusively shark fish. Curtis starts off strong once again.

We begin knocking out more pups left and right.

In the mix Kip gets another Bull to the beach...

We bang out some various fish and get ready prepping large baits for the evening. I get a pair of Jack baits ready for deployment...

And once again, the pups become a pest.

The sun is setting soon and we now spend time getting out big baits out for the evening. I soon have mine out and ready for action...

Night falls and immediately Curtis gets a shark to hit is top secret rig...

Back at my truck I start getting some tasty slots...

The wade gut slaughter (and release) begins on the sharks. During the night we decided to cast baits from the beach in the wade gut about 3-4' deep. It pays off as we start hooking up...

On a walk between camps I see the tide is activating the Coquina Clams and randomly decided to take a quick picture. If you see these guys around, its a pretty sure bet that there may be Pompano or Drum in the area for are a prime food source for them.

Kip gets into the action as well with a Bull Shark that also manages to ride the first bar as he brings it in and it cuts off two of my lines... the nuisance is tagged and released to grow up and one day break off more terminal tackle for people.

We resume on the wade gut action with some more toothies...

and more...

and another...

Curtis strikes back with a wade-gut BullShark...

Shortly after Curtis gets about a 30lb Ray out of the gut. The tide was slowly going back out and the weed was coming in so we decided to crash. Lots of fun action in close and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next morning there were lots of fish hammering the finger Mullet. Many of theculprits were in fact Bluefish.

The other culprits are some slightly oversized Reds I was able to release...

Weather is still great but wind is slightly picking up I have to get back anyway. I am about to bring my baits in and then get a double Bullseye...

After the release I decide to pack it up. The cold front was on its way and wanted to make sure we were off the beach when it hit. Overall it was a very fun trip with multitudes of fish. While we didn't land any grander sharks, it was still fun punking out tons of Blacktips and Bulls. The Jacks onMonday were a blast and the Reds, Spanish, Pomps, and Trout only add to the fun. The weather was absolutely phenomenal and are days we dream of to have on our Texas beaches. Hopefully the next weather window we will see some similar action, and perhaps the first of the Sandbar arrivals. Thanks to the Rockstar crew and it was a pleasure to have Waverider join us. You have to love late fall fishing when the weather cooperates!

See ya on the Sand...
-Oz

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