PINS Surf

We spent saturday on the beach of Padre Island National Seashore. The wind was high, not quite as strong as our last group trip to PINS but strong. The current was also severe. But we didn't get skunked. Evan helped me land a hard head and miki caught her first ever fish without any help. She was super excited when the whiting took the dead shrimp and the 3/0 circle hook tied below a sliding weight (fish-finder rig).

Stripers from the surf

A colleague at work told me about a striped bass surf fishing clinic that an East Bay tackle shop was hosting. I’ve always wanted to catch one so I agreed to meet him out there. My buddy went to the tackle shop where they watched a video, ate barbecue and bought a lot of gear before driving to the beach. I decided to skip the clinic and meet them on the beach with whatever I had.

I found parking 3 blocks from the ocean. It was strange walking through the city in my fishing clothes and surf rod. It was 5pm when I hit the beach and there were a lot of people already surf fishing. There was one nice striper on the beach. My buddy gave me a large plug which I tried casting with my surf rod but my gear wasn’t matched for this type of fishing and I couldn’t cast the plug very far. I went back to the truck and grabbed my trout rod (a curado on a 6.5’ all star rod w/ 12lb mono). I tried the plug again but I wasn’t happy with the way it flew. It tumbled through the air and didn’t go very far. I switched to large kastmaster spoon w/ white bucktail. I could cast that pretty far but the rod was a little on the light side.

I walked down the beach 100 yards and found a distinct bowl. There was a steep slope to the beach and the waves were closing out right in front of me. I timed my casts so that I could walk forward and cast in between the sets. I wasn’t getting great distance but I felt like it should be deep enough. After 30 minutes of casting, my line came tight as I was about to pull the lure out of the white wash at the waters edge. I set the hook as a reflex but I thought I had snagged some kelp or seaweed. When I felt it pull back I looked down the beach to see whose line I had snagged. Nobody there… Then I felt the headshakes. Oh yeah! I kept the pressure on and the next wave pushed it so shallow that I could see its tail thrashing the foam. I kept the line tight and waited for more help from the surf. A couple more waves put him right at the waters edge but not high and dry. When I tried to drag it up the beach the line snapped. I went from walking backwards to a flat out sprint for the water. I pounced on the fish with both hands just as it was covered by another wave. I had to drop my rod to grab the fish. After that the reel turned ¼ revolutions and completely bound up from the sand.

The fork length was 26”. I am guessing it weighed between 6 - 8lbs. My buddy and one other person from the group also caught stripers. We left as it was getting dark but I think that some people were going to continue fishing that night with plugs.

They seem to be getting bigger

Monday evening gave up this nice 125# boy-pig. Ran out to do some checking and hunting with a co-worker and we picked up this fella off of the 2nd newest place. He didn’t go without a bit of a fight, co-worker gave him the business with Mrs. Maggie and it angered him quite a bit and I gave him a few doses of .41 medicine to slow down a charge and he proceeded to make a mess of my good work pants. The newest place gave up a couple of nutria but has yet to show an ample amount of piggy activity. However as the days get warmer I assume they will begin to get in there and take advantage of the ample water source. I believe this pushes the tally for the year beyond 50. Just in time too as we have hit the halfway point in the year, I believe this should be the halfway point for the annual tally book.

STEVE SHOT THE LITTLE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, he was also engulfed my a massive stink cloud but I’ll let him tell the story…Steve, Ive made the preamble, its all buttered up for you

I SHOT THE BIG FIVE!!!!!!!!!

With my 200mm.

We went to Kruger National Park last Sunday in South Africa. We got to see these plus hundreds of other animals. Apparently it is extremely rare to see all 5 in one day.

For those of you who don't know......

I'm in Africa again.........This time with guns.

I have a friend here who lined up a bit of hunting for us. First we tried for buffalo, but no success. I'll try again before coming home. The next weekend, we went to a different place and hunted small game (food animals only was the rule). We had a 22 hornet and carried a 375 H&H just in case we really need to put the coop-d-grace on something.

We got there late and my friend that is traveling with me shot a bushbuck with the Hornet just before dark. I was very impressed with the local trackers. We saw the critter from about 200 yds away, and we got out of the truck to get a closer shot. 2 trackers and Paul and me. Off we go tromping through the 6-8 ft tall grass and bush. The whole time I'm thinking to my self, "what the hell are we doing. There's no way we will ever find the bushbuck again much less sneak up on it. Well, after walking about 45 minutes in what seemed to me to be circles and zigzags in the completely wrong direction, we finally came to a rock that stood about 2 ft out of the ground. Keep in mind we haven't seen the bushbuck since leaving the truck. One of the trackers motions Paul to get up on the rock and look to the right. I'll be damned if Paul didn't get up there and make about a 75 yd shot on the critter. After crawling up on the rock myself, I found out that the bushbuck had been moving the whole time, and we were now about 500 yds from the truck. Like I said, I was impressed with the tracking.

Then...the spotlights came out.

We saw all kinds of critters: jackals, rabbits, wild cats, kudu, more bushbucks, and a lightning-fast porcupine. I'm not shittin, Paul shot at it twice and I think it just out ran the bullets. It literally ran faster than any deer or pig I ever saw.

We also saw a civet....

Apparently this is a tasty critter. I didn't get to eat any of it since the locals whisked it away as soon as we got to camp. When we saw it, it was about 75 yds, quartering away at a run. I tried to run a Hornet into it's goodies from behind, but only succeeded in making a fine gut shot. Then he turned and made a headlong dash at the truck, and I missed at about 30yds. Then he turned and was quartering to me and I put one in his foot at about 20. Then he turned broad side and ran across in front of me (my favorite off hand shot), and I put one through the heart. He was flopping and twisting all over the place, and the trackers were yelling at me in a language I didn’t understand, as I walked up to collect my prize. As I almost got there, I heard from the truck in a barely audible English “If not dead, he bite you”. It didn’t take long for me to put the fifth shot in it’s head. When hunting animals that you have never seen, much less heard of, I figured I should be safe instead of sorry. The last thing I wanted was to try and explain some hideous infection from an animal that at the time I didn’t have a clue what it was or how to explain it.

On the way back to camp, we saw a bushpig...

My friend (Mario) that organized the hunt is on the left. One of the trackers (Sheco) is on the right.

I was sitting on the side of the truck just chillin' since it was Paul's turn to shoot. The next thing I knew the truck was in front of me and I was standing there with a smoking 375 H&H in my hands. Apparently, I jumped out of the truck, and shot the pig on the run before the truck even stopped. Everyone was impressed. I told them that hunting pigs is something I know how to do, and it was just instinct when I saw the general body shape. My brain was saying “Follow the light….Follow the light…look for eyes…what’s that…PIG RUNNING!!!!” and then on simultaneous synapses...

“jump from truck”

“chamber a round”

“deep breath”

"raise the rifle”

“Ok you landed on the ground”

Then in one last firing of the electrons... “Squeeze the trigger”

There was only one, and it’s a 125lb female, but it’s got bigger tusks than any monster USA boar I have ever seen. I’m going to try and bring the head bone back if customs doesn’t steal it away from me.

Oh yeah, we drank beer.

Back in the Game

Where is Alan's pig? I dont see it anywhere.

Alan-4 Chris-0

We have landed a couple of new places to trap hogs. On our preliminary investigation of the property, we saw all kinds of goodies to shoot. Let's see...I shot a skunk, a dinner bunny, a coyote, and a 140lb hog. Chris shot....Well, come to think of it, that's all he did was shoot and shoot and shoot again. In the end, he just put a bunch of holes in the ground.

like shooting fish in a barrel

Except for the fish and the barrel, but there was some shooting

Otters

The Northern American river otter is found throughout North America(yellow region in Map), inhabiting inland waterways and coastal areas in Canada, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Atlantic states, and the Gulf of Mexico. River otters also currently inhabit coastal regions throughout the United States and Canada. In the United States, the otters are present in states bordering the Great Lakes, Atlantic Ocean, and the Gulf of Mexico. North American river otters also inhabit the forested regions of the Pacific coast in North America. The species is also present throughout Alaska, including the Aleutian Islands, and the north slope of the Brooks Range. However, urbanization and pollution instigated reductions in range area.[1] Otter populations are scarce or locally extinct throughout much of the eastern, central, and southern United States.[15] The river otters are now absent or rare in Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and West Virginia.