Corpusfishing.com

[Crmsn]

Buenos Nachos! Its been a few months ( possibly longer ) since I have had a good chance to do an actual report. Most my absence has been due to rolling my old truck, buying a new one, working, and finally fishing. Now lets not get it twisted.. I have been fishing pins. While the bait has been few and thin down the seashore surf, I have been having great luck with sharks in the 6ft class range.




Conditions for Wednesday were looking ideal, all that was missing was water clarity. We had 1-2 waves, just enough breeze to keep us cool, and little to no seaweed. I made a quick trip to Yarborough to pick up some bait before I traversed the beach in search of a good spot. Quickly pick up some perch and mullet by net, skipjack by spoon and a medium sized sheepshead. Tight on time, and with a late start to begin with I left the pass around 8am and headed down the 20s. Driving was bumpy at high tide and a highway during low. I picked what I thought was a great spot, had a pinch in the wade gut, and a flat break after the second. We quickly unloaded the surf rods, in desperation that we would miss the morning bite and the most prime bait I have in my arsenal is a live sheepshead.


Im about 4 rods deep in the second, and I'm in the great debate on sending my only fresh shark bait out and decide to save it for night just in case my trip is a bust. I start sending out my last surf rod when I look over to see my sx completely bowed over stripping line. I do that crazy stupid jumping run through the gut everyone does when they see their rod go off trying to get to my avet. By the time I reach my reel, I'm already 2/3rds down the spool and the fish wont stopped peeling line. I finally turn the fish and begin a long 25 minute tug of war. When I finally pull the fish over that last sandbar, I was excited to see a prime shark bait on the end of my hook.



My buddy shows up right after I land the ray, and we start going to work for some more fresh shark bait. I throw a sabiki rig out in the surf with a few chunks of shrimp on it and within seconds.... BOOM! FIVE HARD HEADS!!! I was pissed, annoyed, flustered etc. I have never had good luck when hard heads were around. I waited 30 minutes to tell myself its do or die, we only have one day. Walk out to the second sandbar to try again. BOOM! Another full house of hardheads. This time they were all wrapped up around one of my shark lines. As I try to save the sabiki rig by removing them one at a time the waves hit the one on the very bottom straight into my thigh. Instantly knew what happened. The side barb went all the way in. Of course! Just my flipping luck, I get stuck by a hard head that is currently in my leg squirming for dear life.



Luckily my woman has first aid kits everywhere so she made quick work of it after my buddy ripped the barb out of my leg. I take an hour and half break from fishing after the fish caught me as the pain in my leg was becoming excruciating. The rest of the day we didn't turn a click. When 7 came around I decided to re-run all the shark baits before it was too dark. I put more of a variety out, horse mullet, ray chunks, and finally the sheepshead I saved.




Around 10-11 the tide began to switch and and a few straggling clumps of seaweed made its way to the 9/0 and 50w. No biggie, just clean and tighten. By 12, the weed had wiped out all the surf reels. The 9/0 and 50w looked like it was down the beach. The decision was easy at that point, pack up and go home. We literally ran about 1/4 mile down the beach trying to fix the angle of the line before bringing it in. Right when we got to where the line was straight out, we started to crank down until it wouldnt let us crank it anymore. After a few short minutes, my 9/0 starts a slow but consistant pull. Its pulling out line, and not giving me a chance to even begin. I look at my buddys 50w, and its doing the same thing, just not as bad. It took about 5-10minutes for it to stop pulling line from the reel before I could even get an opportunity to reel in. After about another 15 min of fighting the fish back and forth, I get it in. A healthy, pissed off, but long waited for lemon. Was hoping for a monster but I will never turn down a new catch. taped out at 78in and caught on whole uncut (dead) sheepshead.





Five minutes after I landed my shark, my buddy pulls in a 5fter blacktip that ate the whole top third of the ray I caught. Needless to say he was pissed. Sticking it out in one of the worst fishing days ended up paying off in the end. Its hard to break habit and move when you know you should, but when time is an issue, all you can do is camp.
Tight lines, see you on the sand next time

[gulftrout]

Sounds like you'll stayed with it til' the "Bitter End" and it paid off. Sounded like work and every once in a while work is OK. Nice story and thanks for the report!

[BamaRed54]

How far down did you go?
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[FIDO]

My hat's off to you sir! Thanks for the report.

Very nice fish. I've never caught a lemon. I find it very inspiring you stuck it out despite an injury that would have sent 99% of fisherman to the house. You're obviously the PINS-worthy type who does what it takes to win. Fishing Sharkathon this year???

Anyway, good job! Your buddy looks like one of the Avett Brothers.
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Fish hard. You never know when you'll make you last trip south.

[Tyler]

Nice Lemon! And thanks for the report!
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[hickroots07]

Nice catch. Thanks for the report!
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Great captains, the stuff of legend, are made not by what they have caught, but by what they have given back.

[Crmsn]

We drove to roughly to the 21. I really wanted to take off back to corpus but I couldn't justify catching nothing on my day off.