Report submitted by 'Oz'

PINS Winter Tiger Surf Report Padre Island National Seashore, TX  December 14th, 2003 Tweet

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I have been out to the beach 3 times since I been back... and 2 of the 3 times the weatherman has been way off! Anyhow, here you go.. short and sweet.

Got an email from Scott at the last minute wanting to know if I was busy and if I wanted to join him and Matt on an overnight trip down the beach. I agreed and met up with them as they were pulling out of the driveway. Hit the beach and sun was shining without a cloud in the sky with a variable wind close to 5mph if that. Well we get down the beach and water is looking great.

Run Baits out. I quickly hook up and land a Sandbar.

Scott gets a run and lands a 5'2" Blacktip.

By now it was dark, and surf was picking up big time and the wind was beginning to hollar. Sargassum was making its way in and knocking lines out. I caught 2 Reds between 25"-28" in the wadegut while fishing for whatever.As I am about to box the 2nd Red Scott yells "FISH ON!!"

Matt is hooked up on the 9/0 with a serious fish and is engaged in a stategic fight.. man vs. nature. We are bad about timing our shark battles but I would have to guess this one lasted 45min-hour. Matt gets the shark up as Scott (aka Da Leader Man) gets in the water with a fish we have yet to see. As we see the leader Scott grabs on and we see a dorsal.. then a tail. Quite large but still we don't know what it is.. a massive Bull maybe? A few seconds later we start bringing her up and all of us see those very destinctive markings on the shark and yell "TIGERRRRRRR!!"

Matt has just landed his first Tiger.. 8'6" Healthy Female.

We were all excited for we been searching for a Tiger on the hottest of Texas evenings.. but ended up landing one on a vigorously chilled night in December with 62 miles of National Seashore to ourselves.

Scott and I left a prime bait each out but got slammed by weed in the morning. Baits had been brought in, chewed.. gummed.. and macked apart. Having tagged a Mako, Tiger, 4 Sandbars and a couple Blacktips within the last week, this has been an incredible prelude to the winter. But nothing last forever and just a matter of time before the fishing shuts down for a couple months. For now, a great congrats to Matt on the release of a beautiful fish and hopes of many more to come!

See ya on the sand...
-Oz

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