Well, I know I'm about a week late on this report and the conditions have definitely changed after seeing some pictures of the surf this past weekend.

I wasn't 100% sure I was going to be able to make it down to Padre Island this year due to being sick. After countless hours preparing and thousands of dollars spent, I was willing to try anything to start feeling well. I ended back to the doctors office the same day we were scheduled to leave but I ended up staying in town to try and get another day of sleep and let the meds kick in. Not feeling 100%, I decided to head out the following morning only to drive into the cold front that brought us all that rain and cooler temps. I ended up getting checked in but couldn't find my team so I decided to sleep in the truck and find them the next morning at take off. Woke up the next morning and found my team of guys but I was about 300 anglers behind them at take off so it took me some time to catch up to them. Surf was up as well as the tides which didn't leave us much room to drive on the beach and had to drive through the middle of peoples camps due to the tide being so high. Took us about 3 hour drive to get to the "Promise Land" and started setting up camp and getting all our gear out.








First thing first, get bait. Luckily the surf was loaded with mullet and had plenty within a few minutes of throwing the cast net. Next up we decided to get our redfish gear out since the surf was so crazy (6-8' surf) and within minutes, I hooked up with a slot redfish. Pretty good feeling when we hadn't been fishing for 10 minutes. Needless to say, that was short lived until that night when we landed a few in the upper 30 inch range. Later that night/ early early morning my buddy Jason wakes us up telling us we were hooked up with one of the shark rods. After taking measurements, pics and tagging the shark we were pretty jacked up on adrenaline. Still not feeling great, I ended up getting a little more shuteye and getting read for the next day. I ended up borrowing a buddies Ocean Kayak Frenzy to run some shark baits the next morning and boy those waves sure seemed bigger when i was in the water. Almost made it out past the third sandbar but had a huge wave bust on me and flipped me over backwards. I ended up with a 24/0 circle hook that hooked my life jacket and was dragging about a 5-6 pound weight. Needless to say, I didn't get back on the kayak but had to float back in. Got to shore and ended up having to doctor up a cut on my hand. That was some pretty crazy surf! Took about an hour for me to get the nerve back to try and paddle out some baits but ended getting all my shark baits dropped. Took a little bit but learned how to crash through the waves going out but the fun part was surfing the waves in the kayak back in.







Wanted to congratulate my buddy Jason for taking third place this year with this shark. Until next year!

Solid shark. Love that PINS set up. Grew up going out there and learning how to shark hunt with Billy Sandifer. Can't imagine all the treasures that can be found out there after that last storm!!

Hey, I saw youbguys out there! Next time i'll stop by and say hi, congrats on the catch man!

It was my first time out there, definitely spending more time out there next summer.

for sure, stop by and say hello next time you see us.

Thank you for taking the time to write this up.

Nice writeup! Congrats to your buddy and a nice shark

Why do they have sharkathon at the worst possible time of the year? It seems it always super high tide with coastal flooding and all the vehicles have to drive on the edges of the dunes

Good question, noticed the following weekend was almost flat!

Thanks. Sharkathon is always one of the highlights of my year. I enjoyed getting to know Robbie and I am looking forward to fishing with him again. Already getting ready for next year. It is always an adventure that is for sure.