Sargent July 28-29

We went fishing and we got ahold of one that put up one heck of a fight


One evening of hard fishing against heinous amounts of seaweed lead to the capture of one small puppy black drum. Crabs were present in large numbers as attested to by the chewed up baits on our seaweed laden lines. The seaweed in conjunction with a strong long shore current also made it impossible to take advantage of the surf board that Gino had brought. Despite the tribulations of fishing on this trip the camp's atmosphere remained jovial and we had a most enjoyable time watching a thunderstorm pass by us to the North as the Four of us battled the above whopper.
Since hardheads do not count. Brian was the champion fisherman with one Black drum

P.S.  I don't feel completely 100% today

I saw one of these on a pier in Corpus

notice the rod holders and the small table to chop up bait

I can still post

Padre Island National Seashore: Wed. July 14th

Fishing on the Padre Island Surf Slow
S.M. Hoffman, Ullman, J., and J.T. Martin
 
We drove approx.  30 minutes from Corpus onto North Padre Island.  The water was very calm and a color of green much more aesthetically pleasing than any shade seen in Matagorda, Sargent or Galveston. 
 
The Northernmost stretch of the beach is Texas Property with Bob Hall fishing pear open to the public.  We Fished the surf shortly south of the pier in the early P.M. hours.  Baitfish were sparse in the early afternoon but we were able to catch a small number of 3-to-6 inch croakers which we used as live bait on the long rods. 
 
We fished the baits in the second and third guts.  We were able to catch three sharks each one of 1.5 to 2 ft in length.  The first had a soft, suction mouth (Nurse Shark?) and the second and third had real teeth (black tip?) both types were definately not Bull sharks.  Appox. 4:00 we decided to visit the National Seashore.  When we pulled in the lines to go we found a surprise.  We had hooked a nice Speckled trout!
 
We threw a wide variety of artificial baits in the first three guts with no success.  Several colors of soft plastics with jig heads, Rat-L-Traps, and Topwater Spooks all failed to attract any bites.  While working artificials in the second gut Todd and I were surprised to see a Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle swim no more than 5 foot in front of us.  I was able to examine it very closely and I was highly impressed.  Even more so when I researched the Turtle on the web and found out that the Kemp's Ridley sea turtle is the most endangered sea turtle in the world.
 
We drove down the road and beach to the National seashore.   I was happy to support the conservation of our beaches by paying for a national park pass, Beach access was $10 for a one week pass.  Over the course of 20 miles of beach driving the water on the surf became more and more green.  We came across a Kodak moment when we found a truck sunk in the surf that had been there for quite some time.  At around the 20 mile mark we entered the portion of the beach known as Big Shell Beach.  I have heard that Thisis the place ine the Gulf of Mexico where the continental shelf of the ocean is closest to the shoreline. That combined with converging currents from the North and South can leave quite a bit of interanational drifting trash on the Beach.  43tons of debri were removed from Big Shell beach in March of 2004 as part of an annual volunteer effort I read about on the National Park Service's website.  As such the beach was very clear of unnatural clutter. 
The water in the surf at big shell beach become very dark blue right up to the sand.  Wade fishing revealed that the water temperature was indeed several degrees cooler than just north on the beach in the area of green water. 
Bait proved impossible to find at this time and the artificial lures continued to have no results.  We packed up and headed for home.  On the way back to civilization we found a new truck buried in the beach sand and thought it was a kodak moment.   
 
 

Offshore Fishing: Thursday July 15th

As a member of Academia I am following the protocol of smallest publishable unit.  I feel that the two days of fishing were significantly different to warrant two seperate reports.  
 
Line Tangling Miss-Adventures
Hoffman, S. M., J. Ullman, and J.T. Martin 
 
Despite our best efforts to reduce the number of people on the boat by choosing a mid-week trip the boat was quite full.  To make matters worse seas were exceptionally flat so nobody got seasick and forgot to fish. 
 
Snapper fishing was very slow over the course of the eight hour trip Pumpkin and I only caught two keeper (16+  inch) snappers each.  Sadly, everone did catch many 15.5inch snappers.  The deckhand that was measuring the fish insisted that they should be measured from the fork of the tail and not the tip.  That extra half an inch or so whould have really helped fill our icechest.  I was luck  enough to be posted next to somebody's wife who constantly tangled me up by not watching where she put her line. 
 
Fishing off the back of the boat was virtually non-existant, One barely legal King, was caught by someone we didn't know.  Some non-keeper Dorado and a small ling were also caught and released by others.
 
Call for Comments:
I fully expect the other contributing authors to elaborate on this story.

Fishing Cedar Lake / The Cut / Surf July 9-10

I left work a little early on Friday and headed to Sargent beach. When I got to the coast I found that it had been raining hard for most of the day but the skies were clearing. On the way down to the cut I found three drunks, in a 2wd truck, stuck in the mud. I pulled them out and continued down to cedar lakes. I didn't want to look back because I was pretty sure they would be stuck again.

The bay and the surf were completely muddy from the rain so I cancelled plan A (trout fishing) and plan B (flounder gigging). I talked to some surf fishermen who were packing up and they told me they had been catching bull reds and sharks all day. With daylight fading fast I caught some big mullet and set out two rods. My lines stayed out for about 45 minutes and then the tide changed and both of my lines were taken out by the seaweed. I packed up the rods and drove back to the cut to find another impossible fishing situation. Rafts of seaweed were being carried out of the cut at high speed.

I pulled out my lawn chair and waited for Wayne. I had a cigar and some Jameson whiskey for company. He showed up at midnight with Doug and set up lights and a generator. There was no sign of trout in the lights so we called it a night around 3am. Conditions did not improve overnight but the tide started going out while we were packing up. We decided to put out the long rods before completely giving up. Seaweed was not an issue on the outgoing tide and we were able to keep the lines out with very little work. We caught many large gafftop on cut bait and one 40" redfish. We fished until noon and called it a day.

July 14 and 15

Wednesday July 14th we leave C.S.

Wade/Surf fish that evening in Corpus Area

Thursday and go out on a line tangler for about half a day, return home Thursday evening

Who wants to go with Jeff and I

South Texas Bow Hunt

I shot this 10 pointer over Thanksgiving break. The Hunt!!!
As the sun started to set that chilly fall evening, I heard a sound in the distant brush. I then slowly lifted my binoculars scanning the brush and about 60 yards out this magnificent buck appeared. I sat quietly waiting for him to come the feeder. He proceeded towards me and stopped at about 30 yards. He had spotted another younger buck in the area. Afraid that I might loose him, I quickly drew my bow and released as I watched the arrow strike that sweet spot right behind the shoulder. He ran about 10 to 15 yards and feel over. set 

Windwood Ranch "Todd The Guide"

This past weekend I stated guiding hunts in South Texas on Windwood Ranch. I will begin to post some pictures of what my hunters kill. You can expect to see some monster Axis, Blackbuck, Fallow, & Whitetail Deer in future postings.

Axis Deer Taken on Windwood Ranch June 26, 2004.