Diving and fishing (Update)

[rattlesnake68]

Well I'm going to make the drive one more time this year. My sister is excited to scuba dive the helipad. We will be down on North Padre from Saturday to Monday. I'm hopeful the water clarity is as good as it was on our last trip. Bob Hall pier rigs Saturday evening, helipad Sunday for scuba diving and fishing, then the Mayan Princess rigs Monday morning if we still have any energy left. Lol. We will be on the Hobie TI again. Here is a little highlight video of our last trip. Just a highlight, and the whole video will come out later on my channel. https://youtu.be/xy8KXSF6vKQ?si=ex4xlYztB6HuPx3k
If the address doesn't work you can find it titled, "Padre Island Fishing Highlight". A little silly, but it's funny.

[titanic2]

Link didn’t work for me, first few that show up on YouTube is spearfishing videos. Is that the one?

[rattlesnake68]

No that's not it. The thumbnail is of a sunrise with the helipad in the picture. Video is my sister, daughter and I on a Hobie Tandem Island with some snorkeling and fishing.

[rattlesnake68]

Well, my sister and I started out at the Bob Hall rigs. Man was that a long haul out there. It was a beautiful kayak/sail day, but the fish were not going to work with us AT ALL. Second day we went to the helipad with fishing gear and scuba gear. The water doesn't look anything like it did a month ago with only six foot visibility. Again, we fished hard with cut baits, divers, crankbaits, jigging, kingfish rigs loaded with ribbon fish. Cyndi caught a blue runner and two undersized red snapper, me.... I hooked what felt like a Volkswagen bug. Took me forever to get this big Jack in. 42.5 inches from tip of lip to tip of tail. The small Spanish were everywhere with birds over them, but we didn't have anything onboard that looked like an anchovy, so we were out of luck. After all that, we decided to dawn the scuba gear and drop down near the rig after anchoring the Hobie TI. My sister dropped at the rig and I followed the anchor rope down to make certain the anchor had set well into the sandy bottom. Within seconds I was greeted by Spades, then a school of Look Down fish came by. Lots of undersized snapper, a couple of trigger fish, and schools of blue runners and menhaden swam by regularly. Later in the dive, near the surface, two undersized cobia came by to check me out. I also had some nice schools of Jacks that would make an appearance about every 15 minutes. Close against the rig there were lots of colorful reef fish. Second day, like the first, we were back at the truck around 5:30pm. Both evenings we treated ourselves to the Padre Island Burger Company. Well worth a stop if your in the area. Third day we went to the Mayan Princess rigs. Ran into a gentleman on a big Hobie rigged out with huge fish locator screens. He hadn't done any good and that spelt bad news for us. Continued out to the largest of the rigs and fished all around it without getting a bite. Fishing guide was out there and they never landed a fish that I saw. I had went and purchased several lures that looked like anchovies, but today there were no birds to chase. We didn't catch a fish until we were 50 yards from the truck. Both reels bent backward and we both landed lady fish. We were trying a new lure that looked like an anchovy and the Lady Fish couldn't resist it. Just wish that were good eating as they wouldn't leave those lures alone. Got back to the truck to discover that I had received a warning ticket for parking in a roadway. Thought I was doing right by parking parallel to the dunes and 12 inches from the rise in the dunes. Guess not. We were on the road by 1:00 with a long drive back to Oklahoma. Narrowly missed massive carnage in Fort Worth. Several cars shot by us swerving through heavy but fast moving traffic. Three minutes later the traffic was nearly stopped. Cars smashed beyond recognition for a hundred yards or so and half the size they were when they past us. human torso laying on the asphalt and emergency vehicles just arriving on the scene. It was pretty horrific to say the least. Last I heard, three dead and three in critical condition. On the drive back up through Texas we saw a lot of drivers with zero regard for their lives or anyone else. Luckily, my sister and I made it home without issue and I'm glad to be back on my acreage where it's nice and quiet.

[rattlesnake68]

A few more pics.

[Prof. Salt]

Glad you got down here and back home safely. The worst thing about not living close is that you have to take the risk and hope conditions are good. You had great weather but the fish just weren't cooperating, which is frustrating us all right now. Thanks for the description of what's hanging around below the helipad!

[rattlesnake68]

Thanks Glenn. My sister tagged me on Facebook with some underwater footage that she took. You will probably be able to view it. When my YouTube video comes out, I'll have a lot of footage of the very bottom and all the fish living there from top to bottom.

[GregO722]

I'm two for two in missing out on the opportunities to join you this year. I did have good intentions though. Last weekend when you were out, I was in Corpus picking up a new to me TI. It was a bit of a basket case, and not ready to venture out yet, otherwise I would have been there with you. I was floating the new TI around noon on Saturday, at the Packery launch. Then drove right past the "burger company" that you mentioned...looking for a lunch spot. Thanks for that tip, that place is now on the list. Keep posting when you are planning to BTB in Corpus, I'll try and meet up with you.

[rattlesnake68]

I'll be back no doubt, but it may be next year. Probably around mid June if I can get a decent weather window for three days.