Thank you to all that attended our meeting Tuesday night with KC Williams at the Pit Room. We had ~40 people attend to enjoy some good BBQ, fellowship, and hear about fishing Padre Island National Seashore.
Note: There were a few challenges that we are working to address before our next meeting at the Pit Room. Audio Visual (know what we need to do now), noise (there was a boys baseball team in the room with us which is highly unusual), and seeing if we can get a microphone so can hear the speaker.
A few notes from KC’s presentation
Driving the beach: When driving on the beach need to read the sand – hard pack and soft sand (soft sand like sugar cookies). Keep momentum when in soft sand. Good to have a shovel, tire plug kit, and tire inflator in case stuck or a flat. If do have a flat find some driftwood to put jack on so doesn’t sink in sand. Beware of debris on beach that can cause flats.
Read the water. Look for calm water between the beach and the first sandbar. This indicates deeper water where bait and predator fish can be. See picture – does not require wading out to sand bars – can stand on dry beach or minimal amount in water.
Other: Cell phone reception is poor on the beach, but can get better reception on the top of the dunes. Surfline is a good app to find beach conditions – look for short waves with time between swells (8 seconds swell time helps to keep cleaner water and better to fish vs. 5 seconds which can be rougher).
Gear: 6 wt can be fun for smaller fish – heavier for larger fish. Floating line will be impacted more by the waves – may want a sinking tip to get flies deeper. Steel leader if get into toothy fish. Maintain your reels – rinse with clean water each day.
Some of favorite flies. Top water – Sipper Fly, Gurgler (besides normal colors purple and tan can be good), poppers. Subsurface – Clousers (with weight – baitfish colors and don’t forget all white), Kreelex (gold and silver – think spoons), baitfish flies like redfish crack, shrimp patterns, etc. Ladyfish tend to be higher in the water, so let fly sink to get to more desired fish. Tip: Tubes that M&M minis come in make great fly box to carry in pockets (and they don’t crush longer flies). Pictures of some of KC’s favorite flies below.
