Padre Island National Seashore Report

7/23 Water was clearing over last weekend - Catches included Redfish, Whiting Blacktip and Bull Sharks. A few Blacktips were also reported left jawed and their carcasses rotting at someone's site down south. There is no excuse for that and the feds could use an example like that to prevent all of us from fishing so please report things like that to 1-800-Gamethief.

Water should be up to the dunes as Tropical Storm Bonnie moves closer to us so watch out for the tides.

In other news PINS put out this press release. Please go to the website and fill out that scoping form if you want your opinion to be heard.

(Corpus Christi, Texas) - The purpose of this project is to reduce current and potential future impacts of vehicle use on visitors, park employees, and wildlife resources on the beach in the park. The need for this action stems from concerns about increasing four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle use on the beach and the observed effects of that use on the safety of park visitors, park staff and volunteers, and wildlife, including sea turtles, birds, and mammals. Increasing trends in the number of 4WD vehicles on the beach, as well as the number of visitors and nesting sea turtles on the beach have been observed. Visitor/vehicle conflicts and accidents have been noted, and beach debris that presents a collision hazard is always present. Finally, several bird and sea turtle species that can be affected by beach vehicle use have been listed as endangered or threatened since the beach vehicle speed limit was first established, so that disturbance to these species is of greater concern. As a result, the park is preparing an Environmental Assessment (EA) to examine alternative methods for protecting visitors, staff, and wildlife on the beach, from accidents with passing vehicles.

The Beach Vehicle Environmental Assessment scoping brochure will be available to the general public on the National Park Service’s planning website: Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC), (http://parkplanning.nps.gov/) on Monday July 26, 2010 through August 25, 2010. The scoping phase will mark the first phase of this project. We encourage you to send us your thoughts and ideas by August 25, 2010.

Four alternative restoration actions are being evaluated:
• Alternative 1 would be no action.
• Alternative 2 would implement a seasonal 15 mph speed limit for the entire beach beginning at the occurrence of the first Kemp’s ridley turtle nest observed within the park or April 15—whichever is earlier—through the end of the Kemp’s ridley nesting season
• Alternative 3 would implement a 15 mph speed limit from March 1 through November 30 for the entire beach. Outside of these dates (i.e. from December 1 through February 28, the speed limit from MM 2.5 south to Mansfield Channel would be 25 mph.
• Alternative 4 would implement a 15 mph speed limit for the entire beach year-round. This alternative would protect all resources year-round by limiting the speed limit along the entire beach to 15 mph, which is also consistent with the speed limit on state beaches.

In order to arrive at any determination an Environmental Assessment must be prepared in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to provide the decision-making framework that analyzes a reasonable range of alternatives to meet project objectives; evaluates potential issues and impacts to Padre Island National Seashore resources, staff, wildlife and visitor safety. Your comments will be considered as we develop the Environmental Assessment. Please note that names and addresses of people who comment become part of the public record. We will make all submissions from organizations, businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or businesses available for public inspection in their entirety. If you wish us to withhold your name and/or address, you must state this at the beginning of your comment. We look forward to hearing from you.

Juan Rodriguez
Chief of Interpretation and Education
PO BOX 181300
Corpus Christi, TX 78480-1300
361-949-8068 (Work)
361-949-9951 (Fax)

7/15 Winds calming this weekend - High winds, weeds and water has slowed my reports. Early Sunday and Monday there were some sharks, blacktips and bulls caught and released south of the 50 but at last word from Captain Sandifer - the water is murky from the run off from the flooding of the Rio Grande all along the beach except for one patch near the 50. The current is kicking north at a strong pace and the fishing is poor with only hardheads to show from a trip on Tuesday. Driving and weed were not too bad.

7/1 Park to reopen - Superintendent Joe Escoto, announced that Padre Island National Seashore will re-opened to the public effective Friday, July 2, 2010. The Park has been closed since Wednesday, June 29, 2010, due to the possible threat of Hurricane Alex. With the re-opening, all park operations are considered back to normal. However, beach access may be limited and visitors are advised to use caution when driving on South Beach and to stay within posted speed limits. The flooding may have has rearranged the natural debris, such as logs, and may have created crossover channels.

PINS EVACUATING AND CLOSING FOR ALEX! - Superintendent Joe Escoto announced that Padre Island National Seashore is evacuating gulf beaches and will close the park as well as access roads to park beaches as of Tuesday, June 29, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. No overnight camping will be permitted as of today 6/28. Beach access will reopen once tides recede enough to allow for safe vehicular travel. The beach closure is due to the anticipated adverse tidal conditions which will be caused by Tropical storm Alex presently off the western cost of the Yucatan Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Malaquite Beach Campground, Visitor Center, and Bird Island Basin will also close Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 5:00 p.m. Please call the Visitor Center for more information at
(361) 949-8068.

6/24 Billy Sandifer Report 6/22 - We caught a 47 1/2" King on a kayaked bait yesterday but everything
> has been slow slow. Water is pretty. Lots of Menhaden and other bait
> fish. Just no predators.

The tides are lower in the afternoon and really low near 6pm on the waxing moon. There has been some cold water upwelling down south but that appears to be subsiding. Weed is pretty bad but fishable in many areas at least with short rods. Pompano, Whiting and Blacktips reported this week.

6/22 Father's Day Report from The_Bluff_Rat - On the beach around 7, lots of weed but when we stopped on the 18-19mm hardly any weeds at all, surf not bad and water pretty clear. later in the day mullet started showin up in pretty good numbers. started catchin big whiting for shark bait, caught a small bonnethead in the wade gut, FIDO caught a big stingray and some small blacktips. I finally caught my first REAL shark...not a monster but 5 foot. here are some pics of the day:

6/15 Jc has a report from this past weekend - We fished mostly at the 42 but fished several spots from there to the jetties on Sunday afternoon... water was cold and off color and full of hardhead... for some reason we couldn't catch a whiting to save our lives... one 4' blacktip on cut hardhead and one gafftop... driving excellent on low tides south of the 30 but coming back north on Monday evening the amount of fresh sargassum made for bumpy ride from the 30 north... water began looking very pretty from the 25mm north on Monday but the amount of fresh weed was unfishable

6/1 Driving is bad - Really bad on the north end due to holiday traffic, 4x4 advised even in the area between the pavement and the 4x4 Only Sign at the 5. Jacks, Spanish Macks and Ladyfish reported. Lots of sharks cruising around as well. Weed is fishable though Nickaway says weed patches up to 400 yards long were washing in around the 15.

5/27 Weather Looks Good- The sargassum is still coming in and long rod fishing is still difficult in many areas. Whiting, hardheads, Jacks, Redfish and a few Trout have been caught. Toss topwaters in the morning and evening for trout. Tides high close to 8am then dropping out the rest of the day. Have a safe Memorial Day Weekend and remember those who paid the ulitmate price for our freedom on Monday.

5/20 More turtles and Billy Sandifer's Report - More turtles reported the past few days with over 76 nests so far this year of Kemp's ridleys. 20 were found on Wednesday with 15 of them on PINS .45 out of 76 have been found at Padre Island National Park to date. Rocky Guerra of Roy's Bait and tackle saw one of those nests on Wednesday. He reported sargassum was tough for long rods but short rod fishing was totally doable up to the 17 mile mark. Billy Sandifer said the sargassum has been around the entire length of the seashore on his last two charters but they did catch redfish, jacks and and a few trout.

5/17 Better but water still high - The surf at the Seawall looked totally fishable yesterday but Nickaway at Breakawayusa.com says the driving was bad on PINS. The fishing wasn't bad as they picked up reds in the 30's and one 18.5 inch Whiting on Sunday 5/16. Report HERE

5/7 Winds, higher tides - Weather conditions over the weekend and early in the week had surfers excited but the water was off color and the tides were up. Things are looking better but high winds again might screw up what were improving conditions. East winds on Saturday will give way to higher gusty winds Monday through Wednesday. Expect lots of turtle nests. There were nine in one day last week. Here is a report by Uncle D who did a flyover the area on Wednesday. I was up Wednesday and was checking out the beach at 2,000' from Port M. to the north side of Baffin.
From P. M. to about the land cut area, 3 rows x 1-2', green H2O to the beach and there was a low road.
The rest of the way north, till I headed inland, only a high road but the water looked the same. But looked like more weed on the beach. Not so bad south.
Must have also seen at least 4 turtle patrols out and about.
Also The Y is looks like it's getting some road work done. That's where I like to go

4/28 Another Tiger for Oz! - In spite of Sargassum and less than favorable water, Eric "Oz" Ozolins made another epic catch details - HERE

Meanwhile Frankie Eicholz and friends had tough driving but good fishing this past weekend - My friend Willie and his son Jake came down from Dallas.We left my house in Port A at 6:30AM Saturday.The driving was about as bad as it gets.18-25 was really nasty.Stopped about 33 and started catching nice size whiting almost immediately.About 3:00PM started catching reds and drum.Bite ended about 6:30PM.The mosqutios were out for about 30 minutes.Woke up at daylight Sunday and it was on again.Not sure how many reds we released.We were to stay until Monday but didn't have room in our ice chest.18 reds 11 drum 40 whiting and 1 pomp.Can't beat fresh fish.

4/16 Water getting close to dunes - Nickaway said this morning that the water was close to the dunes - E winds etc. The sargassum report from North Packery was similar to Ziacatcher's yesterday, weed about three feet high in a band 30 feet wide.

4/10 Fishin with Lago and The Chief - My friend Jim Lago of 1360 KKTX and I have been mentioning the fact that when new Police Chief Troy Rigg's family came to town we needed to take them down the beach on the Padre Island National Seashore so we did after his show 4/9. Troy brought his wife Kara, and sons, David age 12 and Kaleb, age 7. Also along to help drive the crew in Mike Hummell's Big Red machine was Wally Walenta. We headed down to Big Shell to see what it was like. There was lots of sargassum coming in but it was still fishable in most areas. The water was clearing though not green yet. Around the 23 we found a turtle patroller examining the remains of a hawksbill turtle that had washed up. No sign of any obvious injuries to it.

We had fried chicken and beachcombed at the Green dune and then headed back north to let the boys fish since there was a lot more weed and the water was getting dirtier the further south we went.

The Whiting cooperated and David picked up this nice Bull on fishbites and shrimp.

At young David's suggestion we placed the bait in the wade gut and he caught his biggest fish to date - this 20.5 inch Black Drum. Kaleb and Wally were happy for him too!

All in all it was a great day and I think Troy will have two boys that will want him to take them fishing often. The driving was much improved since the cleanup though the sargassum is around in lots of areas but not near as bad as it could be.

4/1 Blacktips/ Bull Shark Reported late last week See Oz's Board - Weed is getting to be a major problem. Redfish and Whiting also reported. This weekend looks to be blow out with SE winds to 35 Friday then going North with a front Saturday. Sunday might be okay! Happy Easter

3/24 Fishing and Big Shell Cleanup Results - First check out this Extreme Coast report from Spoonman fishing 3/15 - 3/19

103 TONS of trash. Somewhere between 400-500 people. We're still trying to tie down that number. Manfield group got 5 miles. Near as I can tell we got 10 1/2 miles on this end. So, that's 15 1/2 miles. The most distance ever. Mr. David Ainsworth personally and his crew are by far the Most Valuable Players of the Year. That man has got to be one of the best tractor operators alive. We would have been in a bad way without their trailers, front end loaders, expertise and gung ho attitudes. Kip definately earned Section Leader of the year. We picked up trash on our knees when we could no longer bend over, we ran along side trash trailers loading them in heavy cold hard winds and rain. My God this was an awesome event and that is due totally to the wonderful people who worked harder than anyone would for daily wages to get it done. Some one post up a pic of Trey Savage's truck with that trailer and it'll give a better idea of some small problems overcome. Ha. You have always been my heroes but this year I stand in utter awe of you all and the good you have done. Hooorraaaa. Your Brother in the Sand, Billy

3/19 Big Shell Cleanup Saturday! - See you there for more info you can call me at 361 779 3044 Billy Sandifer reports Sargassum is increasing daily and pretty well is along the entire beach. Water is murky N and South and beautiful in the 30s and 40s. We are hammering the whiting but nothing else. Rained on us all day yesterday and was a miserable day. We've got an afternoon Norther Saturday. I think it will come in after the event but Sunday is going to be a high of 64 degrees and strong N winds. Still beats last year. When I get in tonite or in the morning I'll get everyone lined out. Wednesday they caught some good reds, black drum and whiting. Look for the Sargassum to increase as we hear it is bad offshore.

Here is a report from Robdog from this past weekend. The shark bite is heating up - OK posted up the report since some people could not get to the link. Maybe someone can fix the pic links. Not sure why they are not working.

Great weekend down PINS. Took my boys dowm ages 14 and 16. The bite is back 7 1/2 sharks, 2 pomps, plenty of whiting, a bull red and lots of rays. My son posted a report on TO so I am just gonna post the link. Hopefully it works.

By my son Fletcher:

My dad, brother, some friends and I headed out to PINS early Saturday morning. The conditions were perfect, the water was calm and clear and there was very little weed.

The morning started off kind of slow but the bite turned on around noon, we started catching whiting, sting rays, bonnet heads, and a couple of pompano. Now that we had caught bait we started running out the shark rods. The rods didn't get touched until sundown when my super four started screaming. As soon as I put pressure on the fish he swam at me and I lost him. About 30 minutes later my dad's 50 wide started bouncing so he handed it over to my little brother who landed this 5'5'' sandbar shark.

Later that night my six wide gets a run but comes off by the time I get on the rack. As I'm stepping off the rack I look over at my 80 wide and all of a sudden it starts bouncing and peeling line. I jumped up and start setting the hook and can feel it's a good fish. She didn't run much but was very sluggish and heavy. When I get her up close my dad is ready with the tail rope and ropes her quickly and pulls her ashore. It is a sandbar and taped out at 6'8'' I released her quickly and she swam off no problem. She hit a 10lb tail section of jack that I had paddled out about 500 yards.

There were a few other small sharks that night but no other quality fish caught. In the morning when I wake up I reel in one of my dad's reels that had been soaking all night. When I get it in this is all thats left.

Whatever ate it must have been big because the shark that was eaten had to have been at least three feet long. The only other fish caught Sunday was a 43'' bull red that Johnny caught. Overall it was a great trip in which I caught my personal best shark and my first sandbar shark.

3/10 Big Shell Cleanup Next Weekend - Make Plans to attend. We really need your help to clean our beach. This is the 15th Annual Event. We will have t-shirts, Smartshield Sunscreen, Fishbite Samples, Maps from Texmaps, and gloves from Trac Work while supplies last. Down island, HEB has donated snacks for the volunteers and Ainsworth Trucking is providing water for everyone. After we get done Daniel Dain's Corpus Christi Dominos Pizza will have pizza for us at the visitors center and Jay Gardner's CCA Corpus Christi Chapter will have Chili Cheese Dogs as well! For more info you can email me at tyler@corpusfishing.com or call at 361 779 3044.

Fishing has been slow but Redfish and Whiting have been caught recently. Look for Jack Crevelle to arrive soon. It all depends on the bait and where it will be. Some seasons if the bait remains far offshore we don't see a significant run of Jacks in the spring. Most years, however, we see a good amount of them running north along the beach. For now expect Oversized drum to be caught at Mansfield. Keep in mind it is Spring Break, though most of the spring breakers avoid PINS due to the charge to get in. Have fun and I will see you at the cleanup

2/25 PINS - No fishing report this week mainly due to the rain, wind and cold. There has been some news on the 2010 speed limit during turtle season. The Park proposes to shorten the 15mph period to end on July 5th. CAC rights folks contest that it is not needed and have posted the information here. As of this posting the PDF file had the date of the 15mph speed limit ending on June 5th which was incorrect. Don't forget the Big Shell Cleanup is set for Saturday March 20th. You can email me for more info at tyler@nospamcorpusfishing.com just take out the no spam in the address.

2/10 PINS - Nothing much to report due to last week's high tides and cold weather and rain. Driving was good over the weekend. Lots of dead hardheads and a few Stingrays. 2/06 Water was clearing and winter Texans reported some Whiting, Hardheads and one Pompano on fresh dead shrimp.

On a more disgusting note, Carolyn and Dennis George found three sharks 3 to 6 feet long that had been finned most likely by Panga Fishermen from Mexico near the 56 mile area Friday 2/05

1/29 Billy Sandifer reported on Monday - Tide way out murky green water, 19 Whiting 3 Stingrays, no grass

1/16 - No activity except for last Sunday's report from Nick Meyer of Breakawayusa.com. Nicky says he went down the 55, the water was dirty and cold with no fish reported. Driving was good. Expect good fishing for Reds, Black Drum and Whiting once the weather warms up and the winds settle.

12/20 - Oso Yakman filed this report Sysco Kid and I hit the sand around the 17MM. We caught several Texas size Whiting,1 Big Ugly,a keeper drum and a 38" Bullred. also took a nice pic of a buck on the dunes. We must have seen around 12 deer out there today. Saw Bluffer and Chaz on the way back in s.b.h.

Did some beach combing too.

10/13 RED TIDE REPORTED! - I just got a call from Captain Billy Sandifer from the Port Mansfield Jetty who says there is a massive fish kill on PINS due to the red tide. He said the dead fish kill is about twenty yards wide and goes from the blacktop to about the 44 mile area. The dead fish stop around the 52 but you can feel the effects of it down the jetty. He is wearing his gas mask and fishing his clients inside the jetty.

The odd thing he says is the species affected. Most he says are Skipjacks, Spanish Sardines, Finger Mullet, Hardheads and only about 5 Redfish in that 40 mile plus stretch. All of the Redfish were oversized and he did report a dead 25lb King Mackerel. He didn't see any Whiting but said those dead Hardheads are really going to be a problem.

10/5 Jebsays' report from 10/3 - Headed down PINS this morning with my dad despite the forecast proclaiming a 90% chance of rain. At around 9:30, we arrived at the 17 and set up shop. Fantastic driving conditions! No turtles with tire tracks on their shells but there was a coyote that was no longer wiley (doubtful it was hit by a vehicle... just dead on the beach).

The winds were light from the SE and the surf wasn't too rough. Water color and clarity were both fantastic.

Started out by baiting the longer rods with dead finger mullet and worked at catching some bait on dead shrimp. A mix of dead mullet and cut whiting went out to the back of the 1st gut and the front of the 2nd gut. About 10:30, in the midst of applying sunscreen the northernmost rod of the spread went off (isn't that about typical - a rod goes off when preoccupied?). In the 10-15 seconds it took to get to the rod and pull it out of the holder and apply some drag, it had stripped off quite a bit of line.

Drag applied and the fish got turned around. It felt like a ray - kind of like pulling in a tree stump and sticking to the bottom. About that time, the southernmost rod of our spread went off but didn't result in a hookup. Now with full attention back on dad and fighting his fish - only when it got it on the backside of the first bar did it make another run and shake it's head pretty good, letting us know it was a fish and not a ray.

We didn't take any measurements but guesstimating right around 40". It hit on cut whiting laying on the back of the 2nd bar.

Aside from the one king, it was slow most of the day. Had one another good hit on cut whiting but it cut the mono leader. Surf picked up throughout the day as did the wind - water clarity remained good though.

SURFCATS 10/9-11 Surf Cats of Texas event organizers did not obtain a Special Use Permit (SUP); therefore, tournament participants fishing within the boundaries of the National Seashore could be prosecuted if found to be fishing within park boundaries. Signs will be posted at beach access roads notifying tournament participants.

9/25 Sharkathon is this weekend! - Expect lots of people having fun during this three day not for profit Catch Photo and Release Tournament. Awards will be presented Sunday afternoon at Padre Balli Park near Bob Hall Pier. Guest speakers will include Art Morris of TPW talking Tarpon, A lady who used to work for Mote Laboratory regarding Sharks and Dr. Greg Stunz from TAMUCC .

(Corpus Christi, TX)-Superintendent Joe Escoto announced Padre Island National Seashore will not allow Surf Cats of Texas participants to utilize the National Seashore for the Surf Cats 25th Annual Big Shell Surf Fishing Classic on October 9-11, 2009.

Surf Cats of Texas event organizers did not obtain a Special Use Permit (SUP); therefore, tournament participants fishing within the boundaries of the National Seashore could be prosecuted if found to be fishing within park boundaries. Signs will be posted at beach access roads notifying tournament participants.

SUP’s are regulated by the National Park Service pursuant to authorities contained in 16 USC Sec.3a, 16 USC 1-4, and Director’s Order 53. For more information regarding the SUP program, please write to Padre Island National Seashore, ATTN: SUP Coordinator, P.O. Box 181300, Corpus Christi, TX 78480-1300 or call 361-949-9238, extension 33

Prior to the front a number of King Mackerel were caught both from the beach and beyond the breakers in Kayak. Stumped took his son fishing and filed this report from last Saturday

Took my son and some friends down the beach Saturday. Caught two of the biggest smacks I've ever seen and a couple of sharp nose. The first fish of the day was the highlight of the trip. 20 lb king caught in the first gut no more than 30 yards from shore. That was a first for me. We've caught several 200 to 300 yards from shore, but never one that close.

9/17 Don't Forget Sharkathon is next week so expect a mob scene - Fishing has been good with good weather and good driving conditions due to the rainfall. The mosquitos should be horrible so bring plenty of OFF. Catches have included another Tiger from Oz , pleny of slot and oversized reds, trout to 4.5lbs, Bluefish and Pompano. More bait has been noticed on the north end with huge numbers of finger mullet.

Here is a summary of the meeting between the National Park Service and the CAC organization

"Kelle and I left the house at the crack of noon and after a trip to the gas station, Roy's for a super combo license for Kelle, a new pass at the gate at PINS and we were on our way to meet Skipper and Karen.

I have never seen so many finger mullet at one time. They were everywhere from the wade gut and into the first gut. Sometimes there is just too much bait.

Karen caught a bunch of "roasting ear" Whiting. and Kelle caught this nice 27 inch red on finger mullet. "

8/30 Wade Gut Miracle Mj Fishes with Billy Sandifer and an Epic Rockstar report from Rob at South Padre -

Big Irv, his boy Ayden, Uncle Mikey and I got the opportunity to take a light surf tackle trip with Capt. Billy on Saturday 8-29-09. Met up with Capt. Billy in Flour Bluff and rocked down to the Mansfield Jetties. We were targeting trout but Capt. Billy was also hoping to spot some tarpon with all the anchovies around. We got to the jetties and loads of skipjack were busting the anchovies as we stepped out of the truck.

After losing some lures casting into this chaos, Capt Billy took us north about a mile and found a spot that had potential. Big Irv quickly hooked a small speck and Ayden helped him reel it in. Alright, this is a good sign, it's time to go to work and get some bigger ones for the frying pan. A quick photo before the release.

As we plugged along at about the 59. A big fish torpedoed Big Irv's SheDog and the little Daiwa spincaster started squeeling so loud I think it woke the coyotes up in the dunes. The fish went north and Irv just followed it trying to maintain an even strain.

As the fish tired and got closer, I couldn't believe what I saw, it was a Kingfish - a Big Kingfish! Capt Billy got a Boga grip on the fish and got a weight - 20 lbs. Definitely an extremely rare catch from the WADE GUT with an eight foot popping rod and small spincaster with braid backing, 10 lbs. mono topshot and 30 lbs. non-wire leader. I still can't believe he landed that fish on that tackle. Like Capt Billy said, "That's bragging rights - for a while."

We fished at different spots while heading north and ended up boxing 7 keeper trout - along with the king. This was a truly a great fishing trip as Capt Billy is not only a great guide, he's also great educator, naturalist, historian, and humorist. I know many on this board have fished with him. If you haven't, you need to book a trip. Nuff said.

Some other pics

Thanks again Capt. Billy - for doing what you do for fisherman and of course the environment!

Rock on EC!

See ya'll at Sharkathon.

Down south of the Mansfield Cut Rob filed this report - Crossing the causeway a little bit late but in time for a nice pic.

Today was another great day, but the coolest part about it was my wife finally got to see a few of the awesome sights the surf occaisonally offers but never seem to happen when she is with me. All photos were taken by her today. Nice job Kym!

Her first jumping Manta & she catches it with the camera. Awesome!

Skipjack feeding freenzy, time to get some bait.

Old fat guy with one of two 23 inch surf trout, both released.

We searched all day for some Tarpon but it looked like it wasn't going to happen today. We were both getting a little tired from the sun and thousands of casts and were about ready to go home when I asked if we could please head north a few miles for one more look around. She's a trooper and agreed so we tried one more nice looking spot. The Tarpon hit cut skipjack Tuesday so I had some out on a 4/0 while chunking big topwaters with a trout rod in hopes of bringing one to the surface, just to see if any were around. We had zero Tarpon sightings today. On about my fifth time to say last cast to myself the water explodes a little to my right. A huge Poon hit that 4/0 skipjack, spit the hook & sent the whole rig a good 20 feet in the air. I look back to Kym & yell Tarpon!!! and she runs for the camera. While my head was turned a small one nails my topwater. Very cool but I'm like... typical, this will last for maybe one jump or I'm gonna get spooled. Haven't got a clue how the next 15 minutes worked out so well but it did. Not a big Tarpon but a pretty nice one to land on a trout rod. Once in a lifetime deal for me I'm sure. Probably should go buy a Lotto ticket. Mucho thanks to my buddy Paul for giving me that magic lure for my 50th birthday!

Kym doin some nice photo work. You can see that magic green Rapala X-Wrap locked onto a nice fish.

Trout rod Tarpon and a happy old fat fart.

8/21- Here is the latest from CAC Citizens for Access and Conservation (CAC) has received a Situation Assessment Report prepared by CDR Associates, which was employed by the National Park Service to propose solutions to conflicts which have arisen as a result of objections by CAC and others to the management of the Padre Island National Seashore. The Report can be found at http://www.nickawaymedia.com/CAC/SITUATIONASSESSMENTREPORT_Final%201_%20_2_.pdf

The Report discusses issues that CAC and others have raised concerning management of the Park. It sets forth specific Recommendations on future meetings to be held and actions to be taken by the Park Superintendent and Park leadership with representatives from the regional office of the NPS, CAC and various other Park visitor and user groups to address Park issues. CAC desires that such Recommendations be followed. Securing current Park management’s interaction with users of the Park at least as cooperative as prior Park management pursued has been CAC’s primary goal.

CAC believes that through good-faith engagement and communication about controversial Park issues and by engaging in joint-problem solving, when appropriate, that a better understanding of the issues will result and that mutually satisfactory solutions can be reached. It is not communication, but the failure to do so which causes misunderstandings and dissatisfaction.

CAC appreciates the continued support it has received from its members. To assist CAC in better understanding and presenting the constructive opinions of its members concerning Park management issues to the Park, it will be enhancing its website to permit its members to express such opinions directly to CAC’s management and members. Join CAC at http://cacrights.org/join.html to participate in and to be kept informed of CAC’s actions on behalf of fishermen and other users of the Park.

Fishing Reports from this week on PINS - Captain Billy Sandifer says it is pretty slow on lures and driving is tough south of the 17 for more go HERE Cj8mule reported from 8/19 - 8/20 "The wife just deployed to Bagram Afghaninstan so went to PINS to keep the kids focused on something else. (Like we need an excuse to fish, ha ha)

Driving was tough at high tide and got stuck a few times around the low 20's on the high road. Well... not really stuck since I always take the right foot off before the frame hits. A little bit of water and a shovel and off we go.

We fished around the mid 20's wednesday. We caught some specks, gaftops, pup bonnet head, and whiting. Picked up after dark and headed to about 48mm.

Thursday produced a really nice fat 27" speck, some more gaftops and whiting. We were fishing with dead shrimp, lady fish cut bait, and finger mullet. We did have 1 pick up a shark rod that ran for about 15 yards and dropped (oh well, next time). Did catch a small blue fish and lots of lady fish.

The water clarity was fair, wind was howling as usual, but am exited that winter is on the way!

There was a fellow stuck bad at yarborough pass at the usual place on the top of the hill. (33's or 35's with speed would probably get you back there). Somewhere around the 20 a fellow was to his running boards and another between 5 and 10 next to the dunes. We need some rain!!"

8/14 - Water was clearing in most spots with the lighter winds. Skipjacks, Whiting, slot Reds and a few Trout reported. Driving is very tough at high tides due to the drought. The good news is the speed limit is back up to 25mph so please play by the rules and respect others fishing and camping on the beach by slowing down in front of camps and pedestrians.

8/3 Weekend Reports - Still Slow with murky water to the third bar in many areas. Most reports showed only a few whiting and a lot of hardheads on bait.

Here is a report from JayandCoyote from South of Bob Hall Pier - Went out Saturday evening with the family to let the little one play in the surf. Water looked the same as last week, mostly brown to murky brown with no weed and no bait. There was a little tar around. My wife and son both got some on their feet. I had one rod out with shrimp and fishbites. I only caught a few hardheads. Talked to a few people and there were only a few whiting and a bunch of hardheads being caught.
The city had a nice two lane road graded for the weekend.

Saturday evening sunset.

Sunday morning sunrise

Tried a spot just south of the bowl this morning. Caught a good size pompano and croaker on shrimp and fishbites. Had a few whiting and then a few hardheads so moved to spot a little further south close to PINS.

Caught a few whiting and had a chunk of cut whiting out on a long rod. Something picked it up and I heard the drag buzzing out. I felt something on the rod but when I put some pressure on it, it was gone. Below is what happened to my Gamakatsu 5/0 hook

7/21 Weekend Reports via the Message Board - Sandflea says 716 - 7/20 "Got to the beach around noon on Thursday water was slightly stained. Camped around the 7MM where there was a deep wade gut. Caught 4 trout on gold spoon in wade gut right at dark on incoming tide, they we 15",16", 20", & 22". Also caught around 10 bull whiting. Friday the water was chocolate all day and we woke up with 4' and 6' black tip sharks feeding right in front of us coming all the way up to 4" of water, they were basically all the way out at that point. One 14.75" trout in the morning, one 40lb ray around lunch, and bull whiting with 15" sharks off and on all day. Saturday water was mostly clear, sharks all day long as well as smaller whiting. Caught a 25lb jack around 9 am in 1st gut and another ray around 11am in the 1st gut. Had a smack cut off a spoon at sunset in the wade gut. Left Sunday morning with 4 trout and a gallon bag of whiting fillets. We also caught skip jacks the entire time on spoons and cut & live whiting."

Javelina Russ goes behind the breakers 7/19Well, after 2 1/2 years of bay fishing in a yak, and almost a year after telling Lupe I'd love to go try this with them, I FINALLY got out to PINS and went fishing BTB

Spent Sat. morning moving yaks from one storage unit to another then loaded my stuff for the drive down to the base camp.

Got the tent put up and went to bed, got up and paddled out after complete a A+ turtle heading out
Get out in time to see CastnBlast with a twin to this one, I think this was #3 or #4 for him

All got into Kingfish and Lupe got a couple of fat Triggerfish. Came back in for my SECOND turtle (Those Hobie Adventure's can go REALLLY fast when a wave pushes them Clock on my camera when these pics were taken was 10am <

All in all, Three Kings landed, two hook ups I'm kinda glad I didn't bring in, they meant bizness when they took off and it was a freaking blast!!!!

Thanks to castnblast, Late start and Lupe for putting up with me, we'll defiantly have to do it again

Hornytoadx3 posted this report Me and my oldest son down at the 9.5mm. I know they are not monsters but not to bad for some surf trout. And boy did they taste good with some cajun seasoning. Mine was 23'' and my boy got a 22 incher. Alot of whiting too. The surf was rough and the water was cloudy.

7/17 - From Billy Sandifer - Fishing report 07/16/2009

Whiting are thick and hungry. Scattered good sized Speckled trout and occasional slot redfish and skipjacks are being caught. A few sharks have been lost. Water has remained muddy in the middle stretch of the beach for some time now. North end is often muddy/murky in the morning and turns green on the afternoon falling tide. The surf is noticably cold in certain areas. There is very little weed. Driving is bad in the Big Shell and not real good South of there. It's fine for the first 17 miles. Going to be fishing nearshore shortly and we'll see what's up out there. Kingfish are reported in high numbers and some Tarpon are being seen.

Good Fishin' Capt. Billy

7/1 - Fourth Press Release from the Park - Corpus Christi, Texas)-Superintendent Joe Escoto announced there is a likelihood that large crowds will visit the National Seashore for the July 4th weekend, beginning Friday, July 3 and ending on Sunday, July 5, 2009. Fireworks are never allowed in the park. Park Rangers will enforce the burn ban, as there is a high fire danger due to the drought conditions. Therefore, no campfires, candles, or tiki torches are allowed. Charcoal or propane grills can be used for grilling food, but not to maintain a campfire. Parking and traffic rules and regulations will also be enforced throughout the National Seashore. Visitors traveling to Bird Island Basin Boat Ramp should anticipate the parking lot filling to capacity. Please plan for other boat launching ramp options. Vehicles without trailers are asked to park at the Malaquite Visitor Center. In the event that the Bird Island Basin parking lot becomes full, visitors may utilize the Malaquite Visitor Center as overflow parking. Park staff will update and notify the Entrance Station immediately if the Bird Island Basin boat ramp fills to capacity.

There is a seasonal speed limit of 15 miles per hour, starting at mile marker 5 to Mansfield Channel until July 31, 2009. Beach driving conditions on Gulf Beaches may be poor. Visitors planning to travel on the beach must do so with extreme caution, and are strongly encouraged to do so in a four-wheel drive vehicle in order to avoid getting stuck in the sand.

Additionally, the Park staff is anticipating the potential for sea turtles to nest during the Fourth of July weekend. Visitors should notify a Park Ranger or Turtle Patroller and call 361-949-8173, extension 226 if they detect a nesting sea turtle.

6/30 Report Via Billy Sandifer - Fishing report 06/30/2009

Schools of Bonita and Kingfish are in good supply nearshore. Cold, murky water has been impacting the mid section of the beach with beautiful green water on both ends. A 7 1/2' Scalloped Hammerhead and an 8' Bull shark were caught and released by beach anglers on Sat., the 27th. of June and we had a fish we couldn't stop on a Daiwa 50 HSV Sealine reel baited with a small live whiting but shark fishing has been slow other than that except for large numbers of small Bonnethead and baby Atlantic Sharpnosed sharks. Some Tarpon are being seen in the surf. Whiting and hardheads are plentiful and trout have been off and on. Some reds were caught on 30 June along with good trout catches to 6 1/2 pounds.

I simply don't know what's up with the Skipjacks. We should have thousands in the surf but have only been encountering a few smaller ones occasionally. Driving conditions have been deteriorating daily along the entire beach but especially in the Big Shell. The droubt is a big part of this problem. The sand becomes dry and powdery. It will be a nightmare by the holiday weekend. P_L_E_A_S_E remember that the beach belongs to everyone and be considerate and please do not block off the entire beach front with your camp. This has been happpening regularly and daily lately.

NPS has sent out a no camp fire/no fireworks e-mail and it says they will be rigidly enforcing it the entire length of the beach. You can barbacue but can't have Tiki Torches, Candles or use briquets for a camp fire. The island is horribly dry and in all honest are simply doing their job as protectors of the island and the creatures that live there. As much as I hate to say it I'll be suprised if there isn't a large fire down island due to people using fireworks in violation of the law this weekend. It's yours; take care of it. Imagine all the creatures that are helpless and killed by these wildfires that they simply can't outrun. Large crowds kill the bite; plain and simple. Been that way all my life. Turtle nesting season continues so watch out for turtles as well as your fellow man and his children. Have a ball anyway and I expect some exceptional fishing once the holiday is over.

Happy 4th. of July. Capt. Billy

Reports 6/25 - 6/28 from Seanu21 - WOW! Beautiful weather, almost no wave action, clear water and 3 days of 7 guys hanging on the beach. I always knew all those good deeds would pay off. Had a group of 7 hit the beach about 10pm Thursday night and after a few mishaps (one of the trucks was having 4x4 issues on the way down) we got to the PM jetty about 3am Fri morning. Same truck got stuck about 200 yds from the jetty so we decided it would stay like that until dawn so we could crash. Woke up to a beautiful Friday morning and I walked down to the water to see just how clear it was. Immediately found a whole sand-dollar and remarked to the guys that it was my lucky trip, I could feel it (never caught a shark over 3 ft and have been trying hard). Friday found me and my buddy spearfishing the Mansfield jetty surf and channel sides. Lots of Sheepshead and Snapper, saw a few Snook, schools of rat Reds, tons of saucer plate sized rays, turtles, and misc other things. We dove for about 2 hours and I ended up with a 21 inch Flounder(off a rock, not the sand), 16 inch Sheepshead and several Mangrove Snapper. My buddy got several Sheepshead, several Mangroves and what he thought to be a DogTooth Snapper but from the looks of things on Google its not. Please id, I'll mark the pic below. If its illegal, pretend you never saw. Done diving we went back to camp and put the fish on ice and snacked on bbq'd Brats.Caught some nice whiting and I got a guitar fish on my bait rod so we started running shark rods mid afternoon. Not much action until about an hour or two before sun-down and my buddies 9/0 with the Guitar fish got picked up but it dropped it. We reeled it in and it had chew marks all over it from a small shark but it did not commit to a bite. We put the Guitar on a 4/0 and put a fresh Whiting on his 9/0 and I put a whole Whiting on my 9/0 and we ran them out. Mine was out even with the end of the jetty and his was about 200 yds past that. They sat for just a short while and his got hit and the fish committed to the bite. After a short fight, we had a 5'8" shark on the beach, the biggest I've seen in person to date. It was labeled a Bull in the excitement but now it looks like a Blacktip to me, can anyone confirm?

We re-bait with half a Whiting and run his 9/0 back out just before dark and then we sit and wait. While having a cold one and bs'ing around the camp fire about our luck that day, the second time I've heard the awesome sound of a clicker screaming happened. We dropped everything we were holding and ran to the rod which just happened to be my 9/0 screaming. My friend was there first so he grabbed it up and set the hook and then handed the rod to me when I got there. After about 30 minutes of cheering and drag pulling and all around big smiles just cause I got the chance, I had a fat Bull(this one looks like a Bull to me) on the sand! My first shark over 3 ft ever, on my home-made weight and leader. It went 6'6" and was successfully released after many many many pictures.

A little of this:

A little of that:

Gets a whole lotta:

And the release (the guys with the cameras were scared to walk into the water with us to get good pics)

The rest of the night was zip so we called it and hit the sack about 4am. Got up at 7 to some birds working right offshore and another guy and I hit it with the kayaks and got a couple of Smacks for our trouble. They were kinda small but legal and good eating so the went in the cooler. The first is the pic that also has the fish I need id on:

Water wasn't as clear on Saturday as it was on Friday but we went spearing again that afternoon and got a few more Snapper and Sheepshead. Also speared 7 rays to use as bait. Back to camp for lunch and rigged up the rays. Saturday night we threw everything out there but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. Back to bed around 4am and up at 7 Sunday morning to pack and head off the beach and back to town. Even with only two sharks caught it was an AWESOME trip cause I finally got my first. Lots of fun hanging with 7 friends on the beach and memories for a lifetime. Here a few more random pics from the weekend for your viewing pleasure. Thanks for letting me share and I'm definitely more hooked than I already was. And a side note, 4 of the 7 guys had never been to PINS before, one guy was his second trip and me and my other friend are there fairly regularly so it was kinda nice for us to be their guide to adventure and give them an awesome fishing experience on their first trip. They already wanna go back.

Me in a school of baitfish while spear fishing.

Buddy lying in wait.

A hungry turtle snacking

And the guitar fish

6/19 Catch of the Day - "Square Grouper" - B. J. Brooks and Steven Naylor of Round Rock
with a bale of marijuana found at the 6 mile mark 16th June 2009 . Billy has the best report HERE Constant wind is hurting the fishing.

6/8 Great Fishing Prior to the Wind - The best run of weather in quite a while resulting in excellent catches the past ten days. Winds came up on Sunday but prior to that, Spanish Mackerel, Fat Surf Trout, Big Whiting, Jack Crevalle, Redfish and Sharks were caught. The Trout were taken on Topwaters, spoons and live bait. Jacks were caught on anything that moved and some things that didn't like a Fishbite Fishin Strip.

Billy Sandifer has a nice report to go along with this fat trout

FishFireandSheDigs reported this trip from Thursday which was typical. Well, we wanted the grandsons to catch sharks but we got only 2 small ones and one good run. Here's pics of Dillon with a trout. He caught a 18" and a 20" and a 18" smack. Then Danny with a 25" smack and me with a 37" jack. Also saw a magnificent frigate and Dennis kept an eye on a coyote that laid down and jumped up when a wave touched him. Never seen one do that before. Also, the game wardens stopped by Thursday as I mentioned in another post. It was a very interesting day, to say the least.

5/25 PINS Weekend - Nick Meyer reported scattered Jacks and big Whiting over the weekend. Driving was better on Sunday. Gonefishing reported on Monday's results - "My father and I fished PINS yesterday about a mile past the 4wd sign. Driving was actually really good as the rains had packed the sand down really good. Traffic going in was minimal, but the tourists poured in the entire time we were fishing. We had to run the gauntlet of tourists on the way out.

I had a bag of cut-bait Jack Crevalle, and some leftover shrimp. The cut-bait didn't really attract anything, but we were catching whiting after whiting on shrimp and/or shrimp bites. In total we ended up with about a dozen good-sized whiting. We also caught and released a few bonnet head shark. Most of the activity seemed to be in the second gut. Weeds were heavy and I really could only leave a line out a minute or two before it became too weed-laden, but the whiting were usually quick to strike. The rip current was strong in the morning, but started to diminish somewhat by around noon. Water clarity was excellent. This is the clearest I've seen it all year. "

-Michael

2010 Big Shell Cleanup Results