Corpusfishing.com

[Seabass]

After much going back and forth about going to PINS last weekend, I talked to Tyler who convinced me to finally take the "Juggernaut" to the beach. I was kind of skeered to go, with it being the inaugural trip in my 1988 Chevy Suburban. I got the truck in February. It has no a.c. or radio, but runs pretty good. Tyler called me out, saying that Billy doesn't have a.c. in his burb...so with that, I pressed southward.

The packing for my trip took all of about 15 minutes. Just the basics...some beer, samiches, water, rods, tackle box, and wading shoes... oh and a beach chair. Left behind were my rod holders (oops), bait bucket, cast net, sunblock, tent-cot, and a host of other goodies normally brought along. The drive down I-37 was a little hairy. I had left S.A. around midnite. The headlights on my truck aren't adjusted correctly...they pretty much point directly to the ground in front. Made for some cheek pinching fun when I got into one of those "tunnels" with concrete guard rails on both sides.

I finally made it to the beach and started the journey south. My "CHECK ENGINE" light came on briefly as I exited the blacktop, but that's the only time it came on. I breezed through the first stretch of PINS, testing out the 4x4 every now and then even though it wasnt needed. I was riding the low tide and the lower beach was like a highway. I wound up camping around the 35mm and set off to sleep around 0430 hrs. There was ALL kinds of room in the suburban to sleep in and put my stuff. Man, that thing is like a roving hotel.

I woke up 3 hours later and fished the little stretch of beach in front of me for a while with a Kastmaster spoon and then fishbites. Nothing was caught. I continued on and came upon working birds every now and then, however i could get nothing to bite underneath them. The water was greening up and little seaweed was to be found. I drove further south to the early 40's and found a nice wide expanse of wade gut. Nothing exceptionally great about the spot, but for some reason, I was urged to fish it. First cast there with Fishbites produced a nice whiting. Every cast after that etheir caught another nice whiting or a near miss.

After a while, I started seeing little splashes of finger mullet erupting from the edge of the bar. Thinking trout, I decided to go back to a lure. I tied on a white/red saltwater Rattletrap and kept it in motion for several minutes. As I was throwing one more cast, thinking it would be the last before switching lures, I felt a sudden thunk at the end of my line. The thunk turned into a heavy weight that started shaking its head and swimming away. I was thinking I finally had that big surf trout I'd been looking for. I got a glimpse of a beautiful silver side roll towards me as I walked backwards to the shore (didn't bring a net either). As the fish his the wash, I saw that it was not a trout, but instead a perfect specimen of a 22 inch surf redfish. Man, I was happy... that's the first redfish of the year for me. Just a couple of weeks ago, Sean Hoffman was giving me some redfish "charity meat" for a ceviche I wanted to make. Now I had my own :b.

After the redfish, I kind of chilled for a little bit. In the surf, I saw minnows eating at the small tentacles from a burrowing coquina. I also saw a pair of birds share a meal at the surfs' edge. One of them had picked up a minnow and brought it to its' mate, handing the minnow over without squabbling. In the afternoon, I fished a little more, pickup up another one or two whiting. I decided to head even further south to look for the Lone Star Charkers camp which was supposed to be near the Mansfield jetties. I made it easily down to the jetties. There were many camps set up, but I could not identify any of them being the LSC camp. I did met a pretty decent fella named "Rodney" who was camped just north of the jetties. He had caught a 4 ft shark earlier in the day.

I drove back north and when I got to the Big Shell area I noticed my engine temperature was very high.. in the red area. I had been behind a slow moving Ford for a while and perhaps my engine couldn't cool down enough at those low speeds. The truck was driven originally in Illinois, so perhaps I just need a cooler thermostat or something. I stopped my truck for a while and fished a little, waiting for it to cool down. I was just about out of rations, so I decided to stay at my buddy Osoman's house for the evening.

I drove out of PINS and got to the Osoman Resort and Cantina about 2100 hours. After a shower and a few adult beverages, I zonked out on the LazyBoy into a coma. After all, I had just gone two days with only 3 hours sleep. And all Saturday was in the sun. Whooooeeeeee.... tired doggie.

The trip back to S.A. the next day was hot, but otherwise uneventful. I just can't say enough about my new beach rig. I had never driven 4x4 before last weekend....I had only ridden as a passenger in other's vehicles. The burb did just fine and rode great. Gee, the ride is a whole lot better when you are the one holding the wheel, eh? And there is no comparison... you either have 4x4, or you don't. I was driving through some pretty soft stuff that I would have not dared even look at withg a 2x4. Happy times, at last... .and pics to come shortly...

Seabass

[Tyler]

Cool,
I didn't see you Sunday so that explains it. The 88's or at least mine say in the owner's manual it is a 195 degree thermostat. That sand was real soft in the high banks and if you were headed north lugging in 4h with no wind blowing through your radiator( wind coming straight behind you) that could he the reason for your getting hot. Nick says to put it 4Low and a lower gear to take care of that. Billy tells me to use D on the beach instead of overdrive D the first one on the column.
Glad you got a few fish.

[kweber]

get a 180 degree thermostat. also make sure fan clutch is in good condition. any speed under about 35mph need a good fan lock-up to pull enough air through the radiator. fan shroud also important. remove a/c condenser if not using a/c. clean radiator fins allow for max. air-flow thru radiator. inside of radiator shoud be clean and free of deposits. not gonna get any cooler on the beach in about 4 months. a good coolant system flush could'nt hurt. oh yeah, trans cooling is also in radiator if using auto. trans. Kurt.

[barnaclebill]

Nice report SeaBass, thanks for sharing..
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