Fishing the Padre Island National Seashore is one of the best fishing experiences one can have. It starts about 11 miles south of Corpus Christi. The pavement ends at South Beach, but the beach sand is hard and the driving is good for a few miles. There is a warning sign about 5 miles down the beach that restricts the beach from that point south to 4-wheel drive vehicles. You can drive another 50 miles until Padre Island runs out. There is a channel that separates it from South Padre Island.

About 18 miles south of the pavement is an area called Little Shell. The sand is replaced with shells, and you crunch as you drive. If you wanted to shell hunt, this is the place to go.

What the 4-wheel drive sign did not say was, that in addition to 4-wheel drive, you need plenty of ground clearance and some tread on your tires.

Our first trip to Little Shell was amazing. We picked up a boatload of shells, then decided to venture south. At 19 miles, the beach got softer and the ruts got deeper. When we passed someone in a Jeep, stuck up to her door handles, we decided to hang a U-turn and save ourselves some trouble.

The big gun PINS fishermen have trucks rigged to negotiate soft sand and deep ruts. We saw such a vehicle parked, and for sale, along Ocean Drive. It is a street that hugs the bay, and is home to old money. The attached image shows the vehicle parked in front of a nice place.
Check out this ride. You pull up to the surf and have a seat. Notice the frame between the seats for a cooler. You make room for the fish by drinking the beer. In spite of highway signs, which are everywhere, that read, "DWI- You Can't Afford It," there is some drinking and driving here. Every week in the local paper there is a list that, at first blush, appears to be the results list from the last PGA tournament. Upon closer examination, instead of:
David Duval………$23,000.00,
Etc., it is a list of slobs convicted of drunk driving. Those aren't winnings either. (Notice I passed on the opportunity for an obscure Notah Begay III reference.)

Gas just hit $1.47 here (3-6-00). I would imagine the price of a fill-up on this baby would cause you to get a second mortgage. The more I look at this truck, the more I want it. I could not justify the purchase of a vehicle, like this one, strictly as a fishing vehicle, so I am thinking about taking up deer hunting too.

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