Both groups, the “Beach Runners” and the “Jetty Campers” all met at the Malachite visitors center looking for the adventure PINS had to offer. The weather was cloudy and a reasonable temperature, we hoped the recent small weather change would have kicked of the bite of the predator fish, after getting the vehicles and equipment rigged out the groups headed out. We had about 10 anglers in the BR group headed down the beach hunting for active birds and signs of bait, the sand was firm providing perfect driving conditions. The sky cleared up as we got down to the 20 mm, everything was perfect except the fish were not cooperating. By the end of the day we made it all the way to the Port Mansfield jetties and back to roughly the 48-mile mark with only a few fish to hand.

Day 2 started off with cool air and beautiful water, some of the mullet and bait action looked promising as we made it down to the jetties with no major catches. The jetties had some limited action Lady Fish and Specks were brought to hand along with a few other species like Red Fish, Whiting, Baby Jacks, Hardheads and others. Most were small and under legal size. We set up camp just south of the turtle shack and prepared for the evening. I have to say one of my favorite parts of the PINS trip is the campfire. By the time we had got settled in we had picked up a few extra anglers that knew guys in the club and that had seen the trip on our website, and we ended up with around 16 anglers

Day 3 started off early with Puck going through camp warning of an approaching rainstorm. We got up and broke camp most were packed up by 7am. The storm never made it to shore but it gave us a nice light show and some good pictures. We spent the morning relaxing and trying to catch fish smaller lady fish were caught and one or two specks were brought to hand. We headed out at 9:30 stopped a couple of times on the way North, nothing notable was caught. We pulled off the sand almost exactly at 12:00.

Overall, we all wished the fishing had be better. We were however gifted with beautiful weather, good driving conditions, great campfires, new friends, no accidents, a gnat invasion Friday night that some would have described as biblical and stories that will be shared at campfires for years.

Photo credits go to the all the anglers who uploaded to the Evite link we had some talented photographers on the trip.