Time to Adapt

Our worst fears are currently being realized. Sargassum has taken over the beaches along the entire Texas coast. From Sabine Pass to Boca Chica, this menacing plague is washing in and piling up, slamming us for the first time in several years.

While the widespread presence of sargassum is abundantly good for countless species of marine fish and crustaceans, anglers struggle mightily to cope with it. Brown clumps of this seaweed arrive on the Gulf currents, and strong spring winds and high tides push rafts of it onto the beaches. If winds are calm and waves small, people can well cope with moderate amounts of the stuff, using line maintenance. But here in Texas, smack in the middle of the Gulf's wind tunnel, even the most experienced surf anglers must adjust their methods dramatically to adapt to the situation, when the weed rolls in so thick.

Most of the debris circulating around in the Gulf eventually makes its way to our region and washes ashore in our Coastal Bend. This current episode is surprising many of our new surf anglers and sharkers, since we haven't seen things this bad in nearly a decade. If the situation persists like it has in some of the worst years in the past, many of these new anglers could grow sufficiently frustrated to sell their gear and stop fishing. Better educated and more experienced anglers will do everything they can to adapt their methods and experience some success as we ride out the storm.

The main way to best cope with such plentiful weed is to find the places with the lowest concentrations of the stuff. In late-April, during the initial peak of the sargassum hardship, I took a gamble and conducted a charter, knowing we had but a short window of opportunity in a limited area of possibly protected water to fish. Brothers Zach and Justin Pucci had planned this trip long ago and were committed to their travel arrangements. I appreciate their determination to get here, and wanted badly to see them bring some quality fish onto the sand.

Honestly, I really didn't know how things would go. On North Padre Island, near the historic Bob Hall Pier, the weed was piling up in epic proportions. I clung to my hopes that we could go far enough south to escape its wrath.

My two adventurous customers wanted to head down a day early and have me meet them the next morning. After about three hours of stressful driving through a bumpy mix of vegetation and sloppy soft spots on the beach, I finally made it to their camp. I had directed them to an area where I thought we'd have our best chance to avoid the heaviest concentration of sargassum, and they did a fairly good job of finding it. Upon arriving, I scouted the beach for a couple miles farther south and relocated our camp into some greener water, and my optimism began to rise.

The surf and current still rolled and showed weed, but the situation was far from terrible. Importantly, we were able use line maintenance and fish without the horrors of being weeded out every five minutes. After getting our gear set up we quickly deployed an array of baits. The high tides made the water pretty deep, even in the first gut. Action came quickly and we soon began catching upper-slot and oversized red drum.

Zach landed a surprising 41" bull red on a bait cast from the beach. Before long, blacktip sharks began to show up in the mix of fish we brought to hand. Justin, who had never fished the surf before, was shocked by the fact we could catch large blacktips on baits deployed so close to the beach.We wound up adding a stud pompano and a quality jack crevalle to the list of fish caught before the day wore into the late-afternoon hours.

I then made an effort to get some large baits out a bit deeper and the guys were rewarded. Our first bull shark to hit the sand was a solid seven-footer. Right before dark I managed to get new baits out and they held in the current and wind. Just after dark we beached another big blacktip.

A little later we hooked another obviously decent shark. Zach hopped up onto the rack to battle the predator with passion on the Ozmosis rod I personally designed for just such duty. After a fairly short fight he beached a large female bull shark. With the two brothers exhausted by the day's inspiring events, I told them to get some rest so we could start over early the next morning.                  

At dawn, I wondered if we'd be rewarded again. We had a three to four-hour hour window to fish before we wrapped things up. Unfortunately, the wind picked up from strong to bully strong. Nonetheless, we cast baits out and noticed birds working up and down the beach. In the turbulent, sandy-green water, we couldn't see much swimming around, but we knew fish were there.

After a while, a fish hammered one of our cast baits and took off, interestingly, on a small pompano leader with 3/0 hooks baited with Fish-bites . After a semi-lengthy battle, we met the culprit. Evidently, a hardhead ate our Fish-bite and got hooked, then a massive jack crevalle sucked down the catfish and tasted the hook. To see such a crazy scenario work out in our favor was exhilarating.

Though the morning's action was slower than the previous day's, the guys landed another stud jackfish and another blacktip shark. While we packed our things for the long drive off the beach, I felt a pleasant sense of satisfaction for the way the trip turned out. I'm convinced that in a majority of these kinds of situations, even with so much weed coming ashore, a few places still offer opportunities for soaking some baits and catching some quality fish. With NOAA data suggesting the sargassum will keep circulating in the Gulf for at least some time to come, it's up to us to adapt and make the best of the situation.