The Sights of the Natural World

The late afternoon heat was finally subsiding as a cooling breeze arrived from offshore and the sun sank lower on the western horizon. The crystal clear water that had been dead calm since daylight finally had some wave action and current movement and the water in front of me was alive with various species of marine predators and prey interacting in the movements of the oldest dance on planet earth; the dance of life and death on the sea.
The gut before me was 50 or more yards wide on both sides but directly at my location it necked down to a mere 40 feet across and ran at that width for 10 yards. This hour glass configuration is known to beach fishers as a squeeze. All of the bait moving through that entire 50 yards to either side of me was forced to move through that 40 foot wide squeeze and obviously that made it a very effective ambush spot for the predators. Ladyfish, Spanish mackerel and speckled trout were all present and actively feeding beneath diving gulls and terns but I had a problem.

Starting in mid-August each year the shoreline is inundated with this year's crop of hatching seabirds. The laughing gulls we see each day that are brown in
color are fledglings and they are totally without survival skills- and since the fish were topwater lure oriented, the youngsters can really be a problem. I'm used to it but I had this one particular individual who seemed absolutely determined to keep me from fishing at all. Three casts in a row I had a nice speck come up on a topwater plug but I was so busy attempting to keep the lure away from the juvenile gull the presentation didn't suit the trout.

The Creator put these birds there and thusly they have the right to be there. I do them no harm whatsoever under any circumstances but I was sure getting frustrated by this little jerk. I waited until I thought he had moved on and then made another cast at the trout. As the chartreuse and silver lure reached the location where the trout had been laying I stopped it dead still in the current for a moment and just as I did the gull dove out of no where to pick up the lure. But at the very same instant the gull had the lure in his beak, the trout hit it and the bird's beak full blast. I heard a loud "twank" and for a second the gull, the trout and the lure were all connected.

I thought for a second the trout was going to pull the gull down into the water but shortly thereafter it released both its captives. The gull was obviously terrified and immediately took off on a long pilgrimage and the interesting thing was that the others in the area vacated as well and left me in peace. The icing on the cake was that 2 casts later I landed the 4-pound trout and released it. What a hoot!

Perfect early morning sight casting day in the surf with gin clear water, no swells and mullet and whiting solid along the shoreline. Once the sun was high enough I began to see trout and reds within three feet of the land as we traveled the beach. A couple of the trout were 6 pounds. I replaced the topwater lure on my customer's tackle with a small paddle-tailed plastic and we continued along with the intention of casting to individual fish as we came up on them but the customer was having real problems presenting the lure to the fish. Then I realized he wasn't seeing them. Fearing the answer, I asked if the glasses he was wearing were Polaroids and he advised that they were not. Nick Meyer was down the beach that day and had a spare set of Polaroid glasses and loaned them to him and saved the day. There are relatively few days each year when the opportunity to sight-cast multiple game fish in the surf. To be lucky enough to be there on one of those days and then not have the necessary eye wear to take advantage of it is sad. Polaroid glasses are the most important piece of equipment that I own and use daily.

Late morning, clear, hot and still and no bite going on. Constantly searching for a fresh game plan to get rid of these midday August blues. Thousands of mullet circling around in the wade gut and some headed south. Then in the middle of the first gut I noticed a slow-moving school of fish going north. Nothing had been going north all day and the school appeared to be slightly reddish in color. I traveled on for several yards and then stopped and put the Suburban in reverse and backed up the beach ahead of the school. The customer asked what was wrong and I replied, "Oh, I was just trying to find out if I was really that stupid or not and the answer is I'm not. Let's go, those are redfish." They were and we landed five 8 to10 pound fish. An 8' Bull shark came across the bar and stopped that.

Next day fly-fishing. A huge thunderhead concealed the sun all morning and made sight-casting nigh impossible. Eleven o'clock and the sun began to break through for short periods. Same area I had seen the redfish school yesterday. Customer is sight-casting to a small red up close when I observe several hundred fish in a tightly-packed school coming straight in from offshore. At first I thought the school was made up of horse mullet but then realized they were hundreds of redfish packed as tightly as possible. And swimming around and around them in a tight circle was a 450 pound tiger shark. The shark herded them all the way up into 4' of water and then nailed one and it and the reds disappeared back into the deeper water of the gut. Within minutes we had found a smaller school slowly moving north in the first gut and we sight-cast six of them. The last two we caught on fly rods. A longtime surf fisher drove up and I asked if he had been enjoying the reds. HE HADN'T SEEN ANY and followed me as we ran back north to where the school was currently located. Once again an 8' bull shark brought the party to closure. Every redfish we caught during these two days had minor flesh wounds from sharks.

Two days ago we observed 14 bull and blacktipped sharks within casting distance of the shoreline and Tobin Stillwell of San Antonio caught and released one of easily 100 pounds. All you had to do was slowly drive along the shoreline until you saw one and cast a bait to it. But first one must see them.

The next 90 days in the surf zone will be filled with many spectacular sights. Ironically, most of the folks in the area will not see them. They will be thinking about all that stuff back in town or how much longer it will take for them to reach some pre-determined camp site and they are robbing themselves of the wondrous sights that are surrounding them. The successful predator hunts slowly and kills quickly. He is a part of the Natural World, not apart from it and he is keenly in tune with his surroundings.

I'll be SEEING you on the sand. Be Careful, Be Courteous, Be Kind.

Capt. Billy L. Sandifer