Friends of Padre Beach Report 11/4/2016

Via Jeff Wolda

Air Temp: 81

Water Temp: 79

Wind: 5-15 NE

Waves: 3ft

Water:  Dirty on the north end clearing south of the 8.

Weed:  Small clumps of sargassum especially south.  Nothing to worry about

Driving:  Excellent at low tide.  No beach at high tide in places

Quick trip now that the water has dropped out a bit.  With low tide in the middle of the day I wanted to check things out.  Beach conditions are about as good as they get except for high tide.  The beach is a highway and hard packed after the high water event over the last week.  There are several places now along PINS that are not passable at even a normal high tide, at least for now.  One is at the 6, there are two separate places in the 30’s and one in the upper 50’s.  Plan your day according to the tide chart if you are headed south as there will be no road or beach in these spots to drive. 

If you’re into beach combing, now is the time to go!  The high water has pushed everything up to the edge of the vegetation and piled it up nice and neat for you.  I spoke with several groups today that were just beach combing and they had quite the haul. 

As far as the fishing goes, the north end was getting worked over pretty good by birds this morning. Bait was present the length of the beach with the north end having the most.   I stopped once and caught 2 reds and some skippies. 

Please remember to slow down when passing other camps on the beach!  With the driving this good there will be those that want to go 80 mph.  Have a ball, just don’t do it while driving by a camp.  Kids are brain dead on the beach (and some adults) and they should be, they’re kids.  It only takes a split second for one to step out from behind a truck.  

Birds seen:

Royal Tern

Least Tern

Caspian Tern

Caracara

Double Crested Cormorant

Brown Pelican

White Tailed Hawk

Blue Heron

Curlew

Black Bellied Plover

Ruddy Turnstone

Cattle Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Great White Heron