Friends of Padre: Reports

Air Temp: 82 Water Temp: 86 Wind: 10 NE Waves: 3-4 ft Water Clarity: Mostly green north of the 37 with patches of dirty water.  South of the 37 is chocolate milk.  Dirty water was trying to clear on the falling tide. Weed:  North of the 25 there is a lot of new weed coming in.  Large mats can be seen seen outside the 3^rd bar. South of the 25 it’s spotty.  The NE winds over the last couple of days will continue to bring more in.  Until we get a steady SE wind it will be an issue, especially for soaking bait. Driving:  Over the last couple of days, the storms have pushed up the water.  It has deposited lots of debris on the beach along with the weed.  There is a road until about the 20, after that it disappears at the high tide line.  There is no road south of the 30.  With the heavy traffic on the beach this weekend it should improve once a road is formed.  It is 2 wheel drive due to the packed sand from all the rain.  That could change very quickly though. Birds: 4 Black Terns, 16 Marbled Godwit, 12 Curlew and the regular birds of summer. Did not see any bait the length of the beach.  Very few birds except where the weed was washing in.  3 Coyotes, 1 doe, and 1 buck. The Friends of Padre organization works hard to provide funding and assistance to Padre Island. If you wish to assist our efforts we would greatly appreciate your donations. Our sole mission is to preserve the natural beauty of the island and all it's resources. Please click the donate button below to contribute. You will be directed to a paypal page in order to process your payment.

Water 3’ seas Color: trout green. 18” visibility Driving: Mostly 2 wheel drive. No really soft sand. Fresh grass from end of pavement to the 40 mile. No new grass S of the 40. 3 large groups of Skipjacks and birds were observed North of the 25 offshore. No fish or activity observed South of 25 mile other than 2 slot reds caught on top waters. No bait in Southern surf. 5 camps on entire beach. 48 Marbled Godwits, 10 Long-billed Curlews,1 Magnificent Frigatebird, and 1 White-tailed Hawk were observed. A few Common and Forster’s Terns have returned and all typical Tern species are present. Observed first Ring-billed Gull of the season Note: These reports are made possible by your donations. Friends of Padre appreciates your support.  If you would like to help fund these reports please click on the link below

Air Temp: 85 Water Temp: 81 Wind: 5 E Waves: 1ft Water Clarity: Clear the length of the beach. Weed: New weed coming ashore from the 48-55. Driving: It's starting to get soft, even on the north end at high tide. The farther south you go the more 4x4 is needed. The beach is gone during high tide at the 58.5. Water goes to the dune on a normal high tide there. Birds: 16 Marbled Godwit, 6 Curlew, 5 Black Skimmers, 2 Whimbrel plus the normal birds of summer. Bait is present the length of the beach. Large schools of Dusky Anchovies are moving in, especially from the 25-45. Ladyfish and small Jack Crevalle are hammering the schools. Speckled Trout have shown back up after the cold water upwelling. They are not in big numbers but good in size. Slot reds can be caught on plastics in the first gut early in the morning. The crowds are already showing up on the beach for the long 4th of July weekend. Please remember to slow down around camps. Kids have no idea of their surroundings while on the beach and can pop out of nowhere. The weather looks great this weekend for spending it on the beach and doing a little fishing. Put your trash where it belongs. There are several abandoned camps with tents and trash left for others to pick up.

Air Temp: 72 Water Temp: 68 Winds: 15-20 SE Waves: 3-4 ft Water Clarity: Green Weed: 0-30mm has old weed at high tide line with little in surf. 30-60 new weed moving in with new and old at high tide line. Driving: 2 WD the length of the beach. Some soft areas forming at the 17 and in lower 20’s. A small Green Sea turtle was found by turtle patrol on my way south to the jetties at the 37. It was missing its front left flipper. I gave the turtle patrol a bucket with fresh Sargassum in the bottom to take the turtle to the shack at the 39. Amos came and picked it up. No update on if it made it. Driving north from the jetties I came across a large dead turtle washing in at the 57. It appeared to have been dead for some time. No visible injuries such as a shark bite. Notified turtle patrol heading north at the 52. There were very few birds on the beach outside of the regulars. Only exception was 60 American Avocet at the 46. Did see 2 Curlew over the 60 miles. No birds of prey.

On 10/17/2012 Jeff Wolda and I scouted Padre Island National Seashore No Black Terns they are gone 473 Cattle Egrets 1100 Pelicans 1 beautiful Tri-Color Heron 3 Peregrines 2 Reddish Egrets 1 Coot Flock of 400 DB Cormorants 2 Osprey 2 Little Blue Heron 6 Great Egrets 80 Pulverous Whistling Ducks 400 Dark and White Ibis Fishing was poor then reported exceptional on 17 Oct. and dropped off Buy Klonopin yesterday. We may or may not go pre-dawn this morning and will go Saturday morning (10/20). We’ve missed the Black Tern migration and this is not unusual. It is less common than getting them though. Jack crevalle and Red drum should start raising hell Saturday. Tides and driving remain high and tedious. After Saturday I think I’m going to the ranch for a few days. Best Regards, Billy

On Sunday 14 Oct., 2012 Mel Cooksey, Petra and Alan Ladd and I did a bird count on PINS due to a Friday report from David Newstead (Audubon Man) that there were very large numbers of black and common terns feeding on anchovies in at least the first 15 miles of PINS. Corpus Christi Outdoor writer, David Sikes, Jimmy Jackson, guide Jeff Wolda and Jimmy’s friend followed us.  Winds blew near 40 mph before we could go on Sunday and all the black terns and anchovies had moved offshore.  Seas were big and tides high.  At the 58 mile we found this 6 foot shark dead in a piece of gill netting and I reported it to all the Tramadol Hcl proper agencies.  See post update here.  Winds and seas subdued somewhat and we hoped for a better showing of afternoon birds but it was just too early.  We did observe 118 Common Terns, 32 Red Knots (of which 11 had tags and we were able to retrieve the numbers from using a scope) and passed this information to the proper authorities.  558 Sandwich Terns, 58 Long-billed Curlews, 9 Snowy Plover, 14 Piping Plover, 1 Wimbrel, 58 Long-billed Curlews, 9 Peregrine Falcons, 2 White tailed hawks (juveniles), 2 Northern Harriers, 2 Caracara and 2 Turkey Vultures were counted on the way out.  Tough trip any way you look at it and a long day.   Capt. Billy L. Sandifer