PACK Padre Island National Sea Shore / Yarborough Annual Weekend Outing

PACK Padre Island National Sea Shore / Yarborough Annual Weekend Outing

This past weekend PACK traveled to Padre Island National Sea Shore / Yarborough for its 4x4 Annual Weekend Outing. Friday / Saturday morning the surf was like glass, blue green gin clear water to the beach, surf 1 foot. Sunday morning the wind picked up and the surf got ruff. Rafts of mullet were in the 1st and 2nd gut. The heck with Yarborough, we fished the surf looking for those large surfrunner trout. There were no trout to be found in the surf. It seemed like every cast was a skip jack or whiting. You would stand knee deep in the surf, cast into the first or second gut, a skip jack would hit your lure, jump, tail walk, throw your lure, and another skip jack would pick it up. There is no shortage of skip jacks in the PINS surf. Larry caught a very large Spanish mackerel, strung it, and it was like a dinner bell to the sharks. 3 sharks went for the stringer, one very large shark and two smaller. Larry saved his catch less a very large bite taken out of the Spanish mackerels backside. The tug of war with the sharks almost pulled him out of the Kayak. Besides skip jacks and whiting, a small shark was also included in the days catch. Friday upon arrival we drove over to reconnoiter Yarbrough. Vehicle 2 got stuck in the pass sand. A little sand digging, and adjustment to the tire air pressure, Chris was able to back out. He then took another run at the pass and made it without any problems. Eli fished Yarborough Saturday and was able to catch undersized reds and trout. No stringers were to be had from Yarborough. Sunday we broke camp and the crew gave Yarborough a go, not a fish was to be had. The weekend weather was great. One of the draw backs of camping on the beach is waking-up in the morning coated in a fine layer of sand dust. Saturday we had a group meal of hamburgers and cold blazing saddle beans. Beach driving Friday to our camp site was OK; two wheeled the whole way to Yarborough. Sunday the drive back was different, the sand had become a problem on the return trip. Cannot believe people who put up their camps in the middle of the obvious beach driving area / zone. Trying to go around these surf zone camps created 4x4 challenges. Yarborough Pass, the Park had just cleared plowed the Pass to make it drivable, however Mother Nature was reclaiming what was Hers. Saw wild life; deer were seen on the Yarborough side of the duns. Lots of rodent / varmint / coyote / deer tracks seen. Had coyote tracks in and around our camp Sunday morning, we obviously got a good look. All had a great time. Did I say it was hot?

Photos: http://packtx.org/Photos/...385-174/Default.aspx

Tight Lines

Ken J