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.
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.
posted by steven-hoffman | 4:33 PM
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