Here is Randy's(308) report on the weekend weather and fishing. Thank you Randy.

If Rockport needed rain , they really got it. About 5:30 AM Saturday a mean storm came thru. Dumped a lot or rain and was terribly windy. Ron put yellow tape across the entrance to the south pier and closed it down. Sunday morning I counted 9 boards floating near the base of the pier on the west end. Sunday about noon another big rain hit ahead of the cool front. North pier fishing was pretty good despite the wind. People reported good catches Friday night so I tried it myself Saturday. As darkness took over my grandson and I started catching trout on speck rigs or worm puzzlers on the north pier. We caught a goodly number but only 2 keepers. Lost two good ones, one wiggled off the hook as I tried to bring him over the railing and the other I managed to get over the pier but he threw the hook and hit hard on the pier and the first bounce was back in the bay. It was fun, best action I have had off the pier in many years. Really don't fish the pier that much but will be more eager now.
My 3 year old grandson with help from his dad landed a 14' flounder Sunday morning, fishing near the BBQ pit area of the boat channel.
I cleaned the fish and found 2 small perch in his belly and could not possibly see how he had room for the piece of shrimp he went after.
Took home 3 keepers with the 2 trout and flounder. Better than I have done in my boat, which never saw the water again this weekend, due to weather.
Saw an interesting sight in back of the 200 building. An older gentleman was fishing old world style. He held in his hands a large thing that resembled a spool of thread except many times bigger.
It was tapered at the top end. He would swing a weight and a baited hook about 3 times over his head and then let it go. The line would come off the spool he held and he could get it out there
20 yards or so. He would then tight line, holding on to his line to feel for a bite. I did not stick around to see if he caught anything but if he did, he would have had to hand fight it in, wrapping his line back on to his spool as he fought the fish. Wonder what kind of drag system he had. He appeared to be Indian or Pakistani perhaps. Weird sight for this day and age.

Rockport had a pretty wet weekend. A total of 2.5 inches of rain fell and winds peaked at 35 mph this afternoon.
Marv got out on the bay three times last week. Saturday he booked guide, Dave Posey, and they landed a total of one trout. Thursday he went with Tim Redden and did better with a couple of reds and several trout. He went to Long Reef on Tuesday and fought the wind to pick up one trout between the two of them.
Rockport has decided to rebuild the giant crab that used to be located at the Rockport harbor. The new crab will again be about twelve feet across. The old crab had become a true icon for visitors to Rockport.
Oyster boat captains are making up for lost time. Their season was abruptly halted on March 8 due to contamination of waters. I first noticed them back on the bay about two weeks ago. Their season will end on Wednesday, the 30th.

Two more condos are now under contract. Pack(307) has found a buyer, David Wright, from Spokane. They will close early in May. Pack said the selling price was $267,900 and the buyer will assume the rest of the assessment. Cyrena and Kevin(501) have found a buyer, Don and Nell Clark from Bandera. The selling price was in the low 240s. They also plan to close in early May. The Aransas Appraisal District has mailed out the property appraisals for 2008. For the first time they have placed a higher value on the bayside condos than on the harbor side. To see a complete list go to http://www.aransascad.org/. Click on "address search". Put in 2292 for the address and Fulton for the street. Uncheck the box marked "exact". This should produce a complete list of all the property at 2292 Fulton Beach Road.
The winds kept Randy(308) in port this last weekend. I have a friend who went out to Long Reef this morning with live shrimp. He came back with two drum and one keeper trout. The guest in 210 picked up a keeper red and a nice trout off the bulkhead just before sundown today.
The last winter Texan, Joyce Humphreys, will leave on Thursday. She said she will be back in November.

April is always a windy month and so far that is the case with this April. Yesterday, I baited three poles with eel and set them out on the end of the pier. No one was fishing there because the waves were breaking and splashing over the decking. In fact, the end of the pier is cordoned off because it is breaking apart again. I left the poles about an hour. When I went back I had two big Gafftop and two large hardheads. It looked as if they had been swimming in circles for an hour. The lines were a tangled mess. I filleted the Gafftop and called it a day.
Remodeling activity is all around the place. Rob started this week on 401, 402, and 403. Work continues on 101, 303, 604, 508 and Ace Hatchett was working in 306. Gus(203) is having a construction friend live in his place for a few weeks while he remodels the place. Jim(210) is planning to remodel his upstairs bathrooms soon. The biggest problem is finding workers. Rob was short of construction help on Tuesday and had to recruit Ron and John.

We have had several days of north wind, but the fish don't seem to mind. Gus(203) said they caught seven last Saturday, five off the pier and two off the wall. Lyle(304) said he caught five off the pier on Saturday also. They were all keeper trout.
Today was supposed to be light winds so Marv, Ryan(son), Ryan's friend and myself left here about 4 p.m. The longer we were out the harder the wind seemed to blow. We ended up with three trout and four gafftop. The largest trout took a clear cocohoe minnow at the "pipe". The others were near Half Moon Reef and hit on Gulp. The rest of the week is forecast to have even more wind.

Chuck and Sandy(107) are in Maui.  They have a condo there also.

Chuck sent me this email below telling about their problems getting

to Maui. I thought it was a good story and he gave his permission 

for my posting this.  We have all heard about the airline industry

problems, but this does sound unreal.


We had tickets on Aloha Airlines for April 1. They went bankrupt on March 31
and were sending emails as late as March 29 advertising deals to Hawaii. I
spent several hours on the phone with United Airlines, an Aloha partner, who
advertised they were helping Aloha passengers with confirmed tickets. United
got us on a bad flight but at least we thought we had a ticket. I asked the
United agent about any extra cost and he said United would collect from
Aloha. When we were dropped at the Sacramento airport the next morning, we
learned we did have a confirmed flight but it would cost us $3000, United's
last minute fare price. This agent claimed the phone agent had given me
wrong info. I was so pissed I was lucky I didn't end up in jail. I have
always avoided United in the past but will do so more now. We ended up on a
standby Hawaiian airline flight one way to Maui and were able to get a
reasonably priced return reservation on US Airways. The other cheap airline
over here, ATA, went bankrupt two days later.
Chuck

The back side of the motel is now beginning to take shape. You can see here that the deck railings are being installed on the second floor units. The dark storm clouds in the background did not come our way. There has been very little rain this year so far. The tide though is at the highest point for the year to date.
As has been the case, fishing from the back deck seems to be the way to go. Thursday I picked up another 18 inch trout on an oversized perch. Later in the afternoon Marv and I went to Paul's Mott and caught two keeper trout and a 21 inch gafftop. All were caught on Gulp. One local writer claims the way to use Gulp is to put a four inch, new penny color, shrimp on a 5/0 circle hook. He says to put the hook through the nose as you would a small mullet. He says a fast reel appeals to reds and a slow retreive appeals to trout and flounder.
Work continues on the finger piers. Its a slow process. In the picture Robbie is using his pontoon boat as a work platform. The high tide doesn't make the job any easier.

Kinsel's crew worked some on Sunday, but not today. They have installed finger pier posts everywhere except behind the 600 building. Robbie launched his pontoon boat today and started work on the finger pier decking.
Sunday was as good as it gets for boating weather. Four of us spent 5 hours on the water, but found very few fish in a biting mood. Only Marv caught a keeper on a watermelon Gulp at the "pipe". Monday six of us tried again and in the morning the wind was extremely light. At Half Moon Reef we found the water saturated with bait fish. I don't know that I have ever seen that much bait activity. We spent a hour there and only boated one stingray. About 2 p.m. the wind kicked up to gusts in the mid-twenties and we tried Spaulding Reef and everything in between. I picked up one keeper trout under birds near Poverty Reef. We did get a few Gafftop. On Sunday my boat would not go above about 10 mph. I went to see Ben at The Boat Shop on Monday morning. He said they had seen a lot of water in the gas lately. He suggested that I drain the carburetors. Sure enough it worked just fine. However, when leaving Half Moon I realized the trim switch would not lower the motor. I didn't have a screwdriver on board to bleed the hydraulic system so we had to keep our speed to a minimum the rest of the day. I called Ronnie's Marine today and they have the relay for a mere $72. I plan to pick it up tomorrow.
The wind was up today so I put a rod out off the deck. About noon a 20 inch trout can by and took the perch bait. Marv netted it for me. I still feel the bay is in good shape for a big year of fishing. You just have to be at the right place at the right time.

Paul(security) had an interesting evening earlier this morning. About 1:00 a.m. an 18 year old young lady had a misunderstanding with a guest here and left at a high rate of speed. When she passed Paul on the entrance road, he turned on his flashing lights and pursued her. She failed to turn onto Fulton Beach Road and went straight across into the culvert and into the mesquite trees on Richy's property. Fortunately, she was not injured and Paul was able to get the car back on this side of the road.



Work continued today on removing the finger piers from the marina. It looks quite different with the piers gone.
















Work on the motel is progressing nicely.
They have almost finished the front and I guess will start the back soon.
These are the cushions that Pat(602) gave me out of his boat. They will provide more seating for fishing from my boat. We had planned to go out today, but the wind was more than forecast. Jay(206) went to Cedar Bayou and said they did not do well at all. The first day after a norther is seldom good for fishing. The wind should turn back from the Southeast tomorrow and maybe we can try then.
Jim and Debra(210) can in today and will stay until Thursday. Paul and Christine(205) also came in but will leave tomorrow.

The city of Rockport is having another festival this weekend. I never knew of any city with more festivals. This weekend it is the Herb Fest, whatever that is. It is being held in the high school.
Beginning next week the city of Fulton will begin work on North Fulton Beach Road. The project will cost $635,000 and cover the area from Hwy. 35 to Palmetto. The work is to be completed in two months and the road will be one lane most of the time.
Kinsel's crew has almost finished pulling out all the pilings in the marina. They will install the new pilings and Robbie will complete the work on the finger piers.
The cold front blew through here about 3:00 this afternoon. Jay(206) went to Long Reef this morning to beat the front. He came back with three nice trout. The largest was 20 inches. He used live shrimp.
I set two rods out off the back deck baited with perch. Later I planned to go to Walmart and went to check the rods before I left. I was taking the slack out of one when the other rod had a hit. I thought for sure it was a hardhead so I gave it a pull and placed it back in the holder so I could go back in and put on some shoes and a jacket. When I came back out the pole was bent over and some drag was going out. I thought at that point it may not be a hardhead. I went down the steps and to the wall and brought up this 26 inch red. Life is good.

Finally, a pretty positive fishing report. I caught two large keepers on the pier Monday night. They hit on a large white C-tail. Then on Wednesday morning I saw Pat(602) and he gave me two Rubbermaid coolers that he was replacing on his boat. Marv and I worked on taking the upholstered cushion seat from one and putting it on top of the cooler behind my console. The chest there requires an odd size to fit in the stainless steel frame. I had not been able to find one and when Scott(702) bought his '77 model boat it came with an old cooler that was the right size. I've been using that without a cushion. With a bit of modification we made it work and it looks and feels great. Then we tried to see what we could do with the really big extra cooler with a really nice cushion. The cooler must be four feet across. We put it between the lean post and the transom. It's almost as tall as the gunnels. Of course, we had to take the boat out to try out the new seating and cooler accommodations. The wind was a little strong, but we made it to Long Reef about 2:30 pm. We tried DOA, but had only the clear with pink tail. I then tried a Gulp in watermelon that was shaped like a bass assassin with a split tale. Meanwhile Marv caught about six small trout on the DOA. Then I boated a 17 and a 17 and a half inch trout on the Gulp. I gave Marv one and we each caught two more solid trout. Marv had the largest at 18and one half inches. Marv would have stayed longer, but I got really tired. He may have twenty years on me, but he never lets that get in the way of fishing. The Gulp lures must really have some scent on them too. We caught three Gafftop and I caught three really big hardheads on the Gulp. The water temperatures were as low as 77 and as high as 79. That is pretty warm for this time of year, in my opinion.
The peak wind gust today was measured at 54 mph. Tomorrow wind is forecast to peak at only about 45 mph. Saturday looks to be near ideal conditions. I hope the trout will still be there.

Today marked the end of most winter Texans' stay. As you can see in the picture, it's just my car and not much else. Joyce is still here in 202, but she will be in Las Vegas for the next two weeks. This is always how it is until June. I know several owners will come in this weekend to finally spend a weekend here. This will give a window of opportunity to do some of the needed repairs. Some of those started this morning.
I finally got a hold of Charter Cable and a repairman came by this morning. I had a bad cable connection and a weak signal. He said the weak signal on HBO was due to problem at the distribution point and he would go downtown and fix that and call me back to see if it is better. He said he will also fix the sound problem on channel 15 that comes from the same connection in downtown Rockport.
Yesterday I dropped by Johnson and Cate to pay my bill and told Beverly that the February financials made no sense to me. She looked at them and said,"I think I entered the data backwards." Actually, that probably won't help me because it always looks backwards to me. I don't know that she will send a corrected copy.
Ron filled the entry road potholes with gravel yesterday. That will help until the repairs are done. Ron is very thorough and he filled all that he could see as you can see in the picture.
Work also began on the finger piers. I noted earlier that Robbie had purchased a pontoon boat to do the work, but that proved difficult. Just launching the boat at the ramp is a problem. As others have done, they backed the trailer off the end of the ramp and that's no fun. The ramp belongs to Richy so I'm not sure how that will get fixed. The ramp end is washed out and you really have to be careful. Rob has hired Kinsel and Company to remove the old posts and sink new ones for our boat slips. He will then build thirty inch wide finger piers on the posts. Some of the posts being removed are very long, as much as 18 to 20 feet. Some of the posts were replaced when Moose did the


breakwater project and they will likely be reused. Rob has hired the barge by the day. They had been parking in our marina anyway. In the background of the picture you can see that the railings have not yet been put on the motel. They did start today on the front with the railings.
Some folks staying here now went with fishing guide Ryan Wagner on Monday. They took an airboat into the back bays and had their limit of reds before noon. They are going out with him again tomorrow. I caught two keeper trout on the pier last night.





Repair of the windows on 401 and 405 began today also. It looks like a termite relocation project. The wood behind the stucco is really rotted, as you can probably see.
My weekly stats showed five logons from California last week. I would guess that Justin is still there and is keeping up with what is happening here. That's a good thing. I also had two hits for Crowley Texas again. I have no idea who is in Crowley.