The light posts have been installed on the new pier. Rob worked all day Thursday, mostly by himself, to put the posts up. They are 30 feet apart and every other one will have a fishing light on it. The other posts will have walk lights lighting the pier walkway.
Two of us went out in my boat today. We caught several small reds, but only one keeper. When we got back someone had absconded with my perch trap. They are about $50and with so many kids here, I'm not surprised. It's too bad our security camera system does not work well enough to see something like that.
Chris and Karra are scheduled to arrive here this weekend.
The weekend crowds have been some of the most numerous that I have ever seen. Either that or people are just bringing more cars and boats, but parking has been pretty packed. I think Justin has been doing more advertising than ever before and this has brought in a lot of renters. There should be some happy owners who rent.
My electrical bill was over $300 this month. I called my provider, YEP, and they said that my 12 month plan cost me $47 more this month than if I were on a month to month. Natural gas prices are way down and this has lowered rates. It would cost me $100 to break my contract. That may not be too bad an idea. I could probably recover the $100 in two months.

The last post showed Colette and Steve's catch from Saturday. Here is the Sunday catch from Sailboat Pass. The larger trout was 23 inches.

My friends, Steve and Colette Walls continue to find the reds in Sailboat Pass. They went to South Bay on Saturday, but there were no reds there. They had their limit in no time in Sailboat Pass however. Sunday, they didn't waste any time and went straight to Sailboat Pass. They got their limit in just over an hour on cut perch and then just caught and released for fun.

Some of my friends went south of Marker 37 and made this haul of fine fish. The fish seem to be concentrated in this area even though the salinity level is above that of Aransas Bay. Aransas and Copano are producing nothing that I have heard of.

Some of my San Antonio friends went into the Gulf and brought back this haul. They had to go pretty far out and the engines were really thirsty when they returned.

Here is how Scott's(702) gulf trip went this Saturday.

Went offshore yesterday. Had three buddies with me. We put in at Conn Brown around 6:45. The ramp was busy. We headed southeast out of the jetties in some significant chop. It was a rough ride for a while but we persevered. Our first stop was a shrimp boat that was culling it's catch (approx 15 miles out). We pulled up behind it and dropped lines using cigar minnows. We had a quick hook up and pulled up a shark. That would turn out to be the word of the day. We turned it loose and kept fishing in the area. We were in search of ling or amberjack. After three more sharks we switched from drop fishing to trolling. We trolled three baits at one time: artificial diving lure, large perch and a ribbonfish. Before too long the rod with the perch bent over. Turned out to be another shark. Although they are fun to fight it was not our intended target. We moved to another shrimp boat in hopes of different results. After several minutes at the second shrimp boat we caught another shark. Something of note; all the while catching shark we had something hitting our 6 oz. slider egg weights. It would give a quick tug on the line then you reel up an empty line; no weight, no swivel, no leader, no hook and no bait. I think we lost 6 weights and rigs yesterday. I can only guess it is more sharks and they are hitting the weights because they look like a shiny bait fish. If this occurs again I plan to drop a diamond jig down on a 140lb steel leader. I will put a piece of bait on the hook as an incentive. Hope this will save some tackle.

After releasing the sixth shark of the day we reeled in our lines and sat for a second to contemplate our next move. We had drifted approximately 100 yards from the shrimp boat when one of my buddies noticed a fish swimming up to the boat. Ling and not one but a school of 15+. Most were too small to keep but several looked big enough. Like the Keystone Cops we were scrambling around the boat to get the right bait in the water. We tried cut cigar minnows and a small piece of ribbonfish; both unsuccessful. We then tried a small perch and caught one but it was too small. We then tried another perch and had the biggest of the school on the hook for all of two seconds until it broke the mono leader. This gulf fishing is tough!

We wanted to be at the dock by 1:30 so we headed toward the jetties and stopped to troll at two anchored ships. We caught a keeper King but no one was interested in the meat so we let him go. We then caught another shark. That was enough for the day.

We had another great trip fishing. Everyone returned home safely. I have an empty fish box but I am learning a lot. I am paying my dues.

Today's Rockport Pilot has an interesting article about Cedar Bayou. Click on the link to the right of this post and you will find the article is the first one listed for Pilot news.

This porpoise followed a skipjack catch up to our boat the last time we fished the surf. It just hung around the side of the boat and waited for a handout. Since it's against federal law to feed the wild porpoises, I won't say what happened next. He did stay around for quite a while.
Saturday, Bradley Phair(former owner of 208) called to tell me about his trip with guide Tim Redden. They trailered from Aransas Pass across the ferry and down to marker 37, south of Corpus. They then motored the boat about 20 miles south. I guess Tim knew where the fish were. They caught 27 trout, 1 red, and 1 flounder. The two largest trout were 27 and 26 inches. They were all caught on croaker.
I noted last week that unit 704 had new owners. I'm sure they purchased title insurance, but 704 has had an interesting history of owners. Lila Foster of Victoria owned it in the late 1980's. She lost it during the big savings and loan debacle and Southwest Savings held title. Reportedly, they used the unit as a VIP getaway and did not release the title when they were taken over by the Resolution Trust Corporation. For over two years there was no known owner and our HOA set up shop to use the unit for an onsite rental office and residence. We amended our declaration to allow a business to be located on the property. This allowed the rental operations to be conducted by a local realtor. Our HOA paid the property taxes and planned to use the Texas Homestead Act to eventually take ownership. Somehow, and the stories vary, one of our HOA board members found a way to assume ownership in his own name. I was told that the monies that the HOA had paid in taxes were repaid by the new owner. No details were ever disclosed to Phase I owners. I'm sure the latest sale triggered a title search and everything was found to be in order.

Welcome to our newest owners. Jay and Carmen Lambrecht of San Antonio have completed the purchase of unit 704.
Four of my friends fished in a tournament today and fished from dawn to dusk to catch a small shark and one red. They did have a lot of fun catching Spanish Mackerel. They tried South Bay for reds, but the reds were not there today.
I talked to Fay Grubbs today at the Texas Parks and Wildlife marine lab in Rockport. She talked to me about the recent gill net surveys and, as we all know, the news is not good. She said we are about as low on keeper trout as we were in the mid eighties after the big freeze.
Lowe's, in Aransas Pass,is having a clearance on light fixtures. The same one I paid $100 for last year is now on sale for half that. It is a nice chandelier fixture with small sailboats. At last count the had four left.

Randy(308) sent this article from the Caller Times written by David Sikes. It appeared in last Sunday's edition.

ARANSAS PASS — shuffling an afternoon path along the eastern bank of the Lydia Ann Channel, Gordon Taylor announced it was time to switch sides.

The tide was falling, the sun was setting and Taylor’s inner redfish alarm had sounded, signaling it was time to motor across the Lydia Ann toward the old lighthouse.

This has become a summer tradition for Taylor and me. This day Jay Gutierrez had joined us. And during all those years I’ve wondered who the heck was this Lydia Ann.

So this past week I knocked on the door of veteran columnist Murphy Givens, the purveyor of all things historic at the Caller-Times. Of course, he knew who she was off the top of his head.

Lydia Ann Wells was the wife of James Babbitt Wells, a prominent resident of a village called Aransas on St. Joseph’s Island, which is what this barrier island was called before its owners (either oilman Sid Richardson or the Bass family) convinced the Texas Legislature to change the name of their private getaway to San Jose.

James Babbitt Wells was a privateer or mercenary during the Texas Revolution and commanded the Texas Navy yards at Galveston. In Aransas village, Wells was a cattle rancher who owned a schooner.

Apparently his wife was a remarkably learned woman of stature and influence. She bore a son who became a powerful political boss in Brownsville during the late-1800s. That man would be Jim Wells for whom the county is named.

Perhaps more interesting than the scholarly Mrs. Wells is where my conversation with Givens led. The townsite of Aransas on St. Joseph’s Island originally was settled by pirate Jean Lafitte, who built a fort on the bay side of the island near the pass that divided St. Joe and Mustang islands.

Today that site would appear on maps about a mile from the jettied Aransas Pass at Port Aransas, nearly opposite the Lydia Ann lighthouse. According to Givens’ research, this is because the pass migrated southward at a rate of about 210 to 260 feet a year until workers stabilized it with the installation of jetties in the 1880s.

Apparently when the lighthouse was erected in 1856-57, it was in line with the elusive pass that separated the two islands. This allowed incoming ship captains to align with its beacon to locate the pass. The lighthouse today, along with the site of Aransas village, is well north of today’s pass.

Taylor pointed the bow of his boat somewhere north of the lighthouse and anchored on the outside of a bar that parallels the shore there. During a falling tide it’s important not to anchor your boat west of this sandbar, which actually is a mud bar topped with dense seagrass. Otherwise if the tide drops low enough while you’re fishing you might have trouble escaping into open water. And whatever you do, don’t anchor on top of the mud bar during a falling tide.

This advice might seem like so much common sense, but we watched a TowBOAT rescue some folks in a skiff that had been stranded by a falling tide on the opposite side of the channel. And later we spotted another boater struggling to cross the west-side bar because he had misjudged the tide.

The time was about 5:30 p.m. when Gutierrez, Taylor and I abandoned the boat and began a methodical northbound stroll. Taylor had been there the previous afternoon and discovered lower-slot redfish feeding on top of the bar.

From previous experiences my urge was to walk through a belly-deep gut toward the lighthouse shore, casting a soft plastic along the way.

But instead I fell in line and tossed a topwater plug along the bar’s western slope. I think Gutierrez, who was throwing a fire tiger soft plastic, enjoyed the first and nearly immediate hookup. Or maybe it was Taylor with his trademark Treuse Goose Bass Assassin paddletail. Anyway the point is my Spook Jr. was not receiving equal attention. I haven’t found a decent and consistent topwater bite this year.

Eventually I hooked a small redfish out of perseverance. By then, Gutierrez and Taylor had three nice redfish between them.

So I switched to a small paddletail and swapped sides of the bar with Gutierrez.

Taylor maintained his middle position and quickly each of them had caught another redfish. But then so did I.

We continued a slow wade up the bar, three abreast. Doubles were common. Small fish were not.

These were mid- to upper-slot reds with barely a foot of swimming space above the seagrass roots. Often we could see their bronze backs against the dark vegetation. We witnessed plenty of surface sloshing during the fights.

Eventually I succumbed to the lighthouse shoreline. And I continued to catch fish in the gut and along the shallows. After catching and releasing about a 21-inch redfish against the shore, Taylor beckoned.

“I’m surrounded by a school of big fish,” he yelled, straining against a powerful pull at the end of his line. Gutierrez, who was closer, joined him. I was at least 100 yards away and already had three fish on my stringer. I was playing catch-and-release at this point.

I took my time on the way back, watching the antics my fellow anglers in that soft evening glow. When I approached Gutierrez, he was bringing another fish to hand. Taylor had turned toward the boat.

It was about 7 p.m. and each of us had landed a half-dozen or more redfish in addition to the limits on our stringers.

They say the brilliant Lydia Ann was fluent in many languages. Today she spoke only redfish. But she spoke it prolifically and with remarkable authority.

My friends, Colette and Steve Walls, have been telling me about all the redfish in South Bay. This photo is from last Sunday. They fished from noon until 2pm to catch these. The previous weekend there were five of them and they got their limit in about the same time. I need to find a way to get my boat into South Bay. The reds are in about four feet of water, but getting to that spot requires going through some 12 inch water that I don't do so well. This last trip they used perch for bait. There was a lull in the bite and they doubled up with two perch per hook and the bite was back on. I've heard of this technique, but never tried it.

The new pier is nearing completion. The photo shows how it looked on Sunday. It will likely be finished in the next two weeks.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, a closing is scheduled for the sale of unit 704. This will be the first of the twenty six units being marketed in Phase I.

Scott told me he would get some fish pictures this weekend!

Saturday, July 11th - Left Conn Brown around 11:00 am headed for the Gulf. Last Friday, July 3rd, the end of the jetties was loaded with blue water and as many as 30boats catching Kings everywhere you looked. This Saturday the water was dirty green and I cannot remember seeing fewer boats in and around the jetties. As we entered the Gulf the wind was light and the waves were around 3' and 6 seconds apart. We headed for the first ship anchored about six miles out. We spent the next 4 hours drifting and trolling around six different ships as far as ten miles from the jetties. There was probably a total of 20 boats jumping from one ship to another looking for Kings. We never saw anyone with a hook-up. At our last ship we finally had a little activity. Amy spotted a ling swimming behind the boat by the engine. I scrambled to grab a light rod. I put on a gold spoon and could not entice him to bite. Then switched to a circle hook and put on a piece of ribbon fish. He jumped on it and the quick fight was on. Meredith brought him to the boat and Meg netted him. The minimum legal length is 37". I am not sure he even made 27" but it was a great fight since we had been skunked up to this point. We successfully turned him loose to be caught another day. We were about to call it a day when another reel started singing. Meg grabbed it and reeled in a small King. Again, due to the scarcity of action this was a huge success.

Shortly after the King we headed for home. Meg captained us all the way to the jetties. This was fairly uneventful until we reached the inside of the jetties near the Lydia Anne intersection. We were stopped by one the FOUR game warden boats working the channel. I have never seen such a strong presence. With four of them working the area they were able to stop every boat that passed through. When stopped I proudly showed them the certificate the Coast Guard gave me two weeks ago when they boarded us. It was supposed to demonstrate that we had successfully passed a very thorough inspection by the Coast Guard. The game warden did not seem to care. He looked confused when I showed it to him. They wanted to see life jackets, throw cushion, fish (of which we had none) and registration. We obliged and were on our way. Another beautiful day on the water. What a great place to be!

The shoreguard on the breakwater continues to unravel. The best that I can gather is that the posts in the picture will be removed and consolidated at a point just at the right in the photo. There is just no long term fix for this problem. I'm now seeing more shoreguard coming apart on the north side of the breakwater.
Another owner is now publishing a blog. Jim Jacobus(208) and wife, Christie, have started posting on their website. The link is at the top of this blog. Click on "Kontiki Dream" and go to the top of their home page and click on "blog". Jim will likely have more good information on fishing than I do. The rain teased us on Tuesday. My friend, Vernon Pruski, took his family to Mesquite Bay despite the showers and managed to bring back eleven keeper trout. The winds were light on Tuesday and Rob managed to place the posts for the base of fishing area of the new pier.

Randy(308) and his nephew, Tim Kocian, went with Scott and I to test the waters on Friday.

We intended to go fishing the surf for trout. When we got to the mouth of the jetties, there were boats everywhere. Some can be seen here. There were about forty in all and most were fighting Kingfish. There were bass boats, flounder boats, pontoon boats, john boats, and even the Island Queen party boat. We had only two heavy reels, but gave it a try. Right away we hooked into a large one. We got it to the boat, but had no way to get it on board. Scott put on some gloves and tried to lift it by the steel leader. The fish was about 45 inches long and the leader broke. We hooked another, but it gave us the slip after a short battle.

The clear green water was all the way up into the Lydia Ann channel. We tried there and caught one of the reds. We then went to Sailboat Pass and picked up another. They were 25 and 26 inches long. Three other times we had strong hookups, but the lines snapped.
There are still open houses being held to try to sell some of these condos. There is one today from 12 to 4 in 306. None have been sold yet. I understand that the strategy will be changed to try to market only five at a time.
The lights on the pier work well, just no fish to attract with them. There will be some green lights installed on the new pier. We have done that before and it was a total waste of money. I guess we can always waste a little more.
The fireworks display was less than last year, but still entertaining.
The parking area was as full as usual for the fourth of July. There were about five unused spaces.

New and powerful lights went up on the Phase I pier today. I'm anxious to see how they look tonight. These are eighteen feet in the air.

Here Rob and Scott work to change out the fixture on the first "L" on the Phase I pier. This lamp has not worked in over two months. I believe they are going to replace some of the other lamps that are not working.
The Purple Martins have been noisy today. Some of their young are leaving the nest today and the whole colony gets excited. Mine in San Antonio have already migrated for the winter and none are left. I had about twenty pair of birds this year.

Fishing report from Randy(308).

A friend of mine and I went out with guide Terry Coufal Tuesday.
I have fished several times with Terry (TC Charters) and he really works hard for his clients.
I knew it was going to be a grind it out kind of day as it was a white fish day on the charts due to poor tidal movement.
Terry has had to abandon the Rockport area do to very slow fishing conditions.
We launched at Billings Bait in Corpus and fished the upper Laguna Madre.
We threw croaker and really worked hard at it.
Probably caught about 40 trout but only 11 were keeper size.
I have not done all that much croaker fishing in my time but now feel I have the hang of how to do it.
Terry says the bays around Rockport just continue to be very slow as the salinity level is killing the fishing.
A big rain is needed in the worst way to get things moving again.
His profit margin is being compromised with having to trailer down to Corpus and the long boat runs are also on the fuel bill.
But, finding fish for his clients is his main goal, so Terry is willing to make the extra effort.

These trucks from the AEP came out Tuesday to replace the conduit beside the power pole. The conduit has been rusted for years. One of the workers had a surprise. He said he was discreetly relieving himself between the trucks and the HEB brush when he noticed our security camera attached to the pole was aimed right at him. You never know where those cameras are looking these days.

The summer solstice high tides did a number on the HEB beach. The tides are normal now and it looks like about twenty feet of beach are missing. It's now called "walking in the brush" rather than "walking on the beach". Had we not built our seawall in 1985 the water line would now be nearing our swimming pool.
Yesterday a guest fished the HEB point in the morning and came back with three keeper trout. A guest in 208 said he worked Long Reef pretty hard yesterday and caught only two keepers. He was working on his engine getting ready for today. He did say he turned 91 in February and it was hard to stay out more than four hours or he would have picked up more trout.
The new pier in now at about 472 feet and work on it continues. Today, I understand, they will work on the Phase I pier lights. There are 17 lights and only 9 are working at this time and some of those are only 150 watt reflector lights. The most frequent complaint that I hear is about the boat tie up situation. The new finger piers don't allow four point tie up and unless a boater has side bumpers, a boat cannot be secured. This was pointed out during construction to no avail. At this point another post is needed near the sidewalk between the finger piers to improved the situation. Some boaters have put their boats back on the trailer over night because they cannot secure them in the water.
I visited with Betty Brooks(502) yesterday. She is back and seems to be doing well.