Corpusfishing.com

Towboat Trash · Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 3:22 pm Post subject: Isla De Malaguitas - JUNE 2013

Well,

My dear companion, Ole' Ralph used to always be talking something or other about having a "tiger by the tail," and "losing weight and turning mighty pale." Then he'd chuckle. I'd usually be right in the middle of a beach question for the wise old codger.

Anybody got a "tiger by the tail" besides me? And while the old rascal that wrote that song, Buck Owens, was talking about women, bars, bright lights, and country music, Ralph was talking about me and that "Island lying right over across the water." I think to myself that he just mighta had that old tiger caught once or twice himself. Wink

This June has beaten all recorded heat records for this area to my knowledge, and man, it just wasn't pretty.

Even Max has gotten all riled up, and I had to give him a box to tear up and play with while the winds blew on...

Attack!!!

But the first several weeks of the month would prove to be conducive to some fishing, so off I went.
But some FOOL decided he would "show" our community just exactly what he/she "thought" of keeping this place clean. By dumping trash bag after trash bag underneath this sign. Very cute.

So off to yet again, the ONLY place I know around here unscathed by the pointless abandonment of trash, well for the most part. Ez-Ups not included....

Padre.

Where apparently they were giving the trout away??

And man, did I have fun!

So much fun, that I "invented" a new bait, the "rectangle ray."

And did a little swimming up and down this uniquely beautiful gut, followed by a little wide open 23mph wade gut run-n-gunning!

And the tide continued to drop and the daylight continued to fade...

And the sun set.

And after an uneventful night of two blacktips and one bait picked up and dropped several times, it was a wrap. Lure fishing time it was!

This we do time and time again! In hopes for the next big FAT surf trout!!

Even IF, it never happens...

So, what do we do? Ride OUT into a new day!!!

Where the trout will hopefully be bigger and the lures that much more effective!

And the guts beautiful and unfished....

And the "walk" is completed time after time....as we fish our way up and down Island into gut after gut after pinch after suck out, after close out....

And some days, I just KNOW....I was allowed by the Almighty to experience and to see and learn and discover this wild, unruly, untamed Island....and it will forever and ever remain that way in my mind no matter what changes may come to her shores....

And even if the whole day proves completely fishless, the Island still blesses us with something unforeseen....

But at the end of the day, the only thing dominating the beach is anything but us! Moon shine on!!

Into a better day for fishing, even IF it means taking 'em over the bow, and bailing out the shipping seas with a 2.5 gallon blue BP bucket to avoid sinking...lol.... Laughing

Better have saltwater in your veins to mess with the El Codo Del Diablo! And no one EVER beats the sea...

But things can always be worse. Observe....my youngest brother's overnite sleephole in the woods of South Carolina during Army training....

Or....we could find ourselves in the shoes of ole' boy from New England! And heck, I'M FROM a fishing town...who names a freaking boat the PINWHEEL???

Recently, the advances of late online have allowed me to get back in touch and in contact with my old crew in Darien, Georgia. And yep, they're still busting those shrimp's behinds.....

Point being, THIS.....IS WHAT WE NAME A BOAT!!!!!! Twisted Evil

Because it's war....not from us....but from Mother Nature UNTO us! At 13 years old.....these were my heroes, men with boats named the "Gravedigger," the "WarHorse," the "Shrimp Dip." Every kid in school KNEW who was the baddest of the bad that past week at the "Graveyard," at the "Sound," at the sacred place we called "Cabretta." Is this not American? The land we stand sleep upon was BOUGHT by some ignorant and bowed-up pioneers following men who recognized the dangers of a government with too much power. And by God, Americans have NEVER... been afraid of too "much" work....the fishing industry is evidence! You want "work," you go ahead on out there if they'll let you..... on the back deck of a trawler.....and when 1,000 lbs gets dumped on the back deck you'll see about work!

THE WARHORSE.

THE GRAVEDIGGER.

And this is how the rest of the guys and I found a spot onboard each boat as were lucky enough...there was no "TSA," no "Homeland Security," no "TWIC" card.....there was only the Department of "Get your #%% to work."

I always knew one day I would have my own boat, and I would have my own liberty, my own freedom, and at that time....my own way away from the government that everybody talked about and I understood would take my hard earned money and give it to some folks that wouldn't work. So we jumped. Every. Last. Bit. Of. Us. Because we were the sons of Veterans, of Americans, Of Patriots...and there was NEVER a worry about what would happen to us...what has happened today? May our sons and daughters have just as many opportunities to jump into a future of their own choosing as we have...
There have been too many that have sacrificed all on foreign soil for those that come after us not to have that American right.

But the beach, its winds increased, and it's offshore windows fewer and fewer...

And Max got bored waiting for me to come back home...

So some bait got procurred...

And Snappper got caught, and dinner was served.

Until one morning, I woke up after a night of shark fishing to death. Death right underneath my tent cot.

Poor guy. Just didn't survive the migration this year....

And before I knew it, June was just about a wrap...

But nothing could be complete on old Padre without someone destroying SOMETHING evironmental...this one is on Green Hill.

Observe the most ridiculous destruction of park resources I have seen to date.

This hill is within the area of the largest Karankawa campsite this far south that has been documented. It's views are astounding, so some presidential-hopeful decided to dig a hole in its top, put a raft in it, and then drink beer in it with his buddies, leaving all the cans in the hole.

This hill has been documented as far back as the 1800's, during which the Senior Dunn's children survived a hurricane here by clinging to the back of this hill and burrowing down into it while the Island behind them flooded out. How do we honor this area today? We destroy it apparently. Evil or Very Mad

While lugging all the trash down the hill to the truck, yet another ignorant fool pulls up to my truck.....rips the undercarriage out from under his jeep right in front of me....throws it on the sand....and drives away.

I suppose that sometimes it's just time to throw in the towel! If we can't convince Anthony "Weiner" to maybe stop running for Governor of New York, I guess "jeep-boy" was probably a lost cause of another sort. To the house I went, saving the battle for another day.

You guys stay safe and may your fishing be nothing less than everything you hoped for and some you didn't. And heck, if ya got the room, take out just a little more than you brought in. Cool

And no sending innappropriate "sexts," we'll leave that one to old Weiner there.

Tight Lines.

-Colin
_________________
Protect Padre at all costs for future generations to use and enjoy and never forget our freedoms aren't free.

www.padreislandexpeditions.com