The results are in. Blake(308) and I fished from 10 pm until 2am. He did most of the throwing while I changed lures and removed the fish, but I gave him short breaks. Overall we caught just over 40 trout with only one keeper. I attribute this to using rather small lures. The 15 lures pictured were all tandem rigs. Only the Mirror lure M4 was a single. References to position are from top to bottom.
First place by a large margin was the small sassy shad(numbers 1,2 and 12). Second was a surprise. The Storm(number 14) often caught two at a time. It has a reflective material inside and that seemed to help. Third place went to the clear with flecks cocohoe(number 7). This one would have done better, but the fourth fish bit one of the tails off and then it didn't work so well. The Mirror lure caught fish, but the treble hooks were difficult to dislodge and I felt we were injuring too many fish with that bait.
The Worm Puzzler(number 9), the clear Beetle(number 11) and the Trout Killer(number 13) did not catch a fish. I have used the Trout Killer before with good success. This one was a double white and I had never used that combination.
The wind decreased at 12:30 and the conditions were very nice after that.
In summary, I would say the smaller lures with glitter and glitz or a lot of wiggle seemed to do the best. When the trout are plentiful they try to grab a bait before another trout does and any kind of darting motion of small bait makes them instinctively strike. The reflective baits probably caught their eye better than just the swimming baits.
The success of lures is highly dependent on the type of prey fish the predators are feeding on at the time. Right now it seems to be glass minnows. When shrimp become more abundant, the lure choices may have to be realigned.

Since trout have been so plentiful off the pier at night, I decided to conduct an unscientific experiment. I purchased this collection for $27 at Tackle Town. Tonight we will find out "What Trout Really Want"! I know they will all catch trout, but which will do the best. I'l let you know.

Does this mean the "off" season has arrived or did I miss a hurricane warning forecast?

This is a generic photo of a flounder gigging light. A friend showed me one on Sunday evening and we had a lot of fun with it. I have already ordered mine. They are only available from New Zealand. This single light is $70 U.S. dollars. The battery fits in the light and is half the size of a double A battery and lasts for two hours. It lights the water up like daylight. I have never seen a product like this. I would love to have the U.S. franchise. I could sell a bundle of these at a boat show. I was really impressed. The website link is https://www.safeshop.co.nz/vshop/fishing/index.php?&item=view&page=2&prod_id=1187. Mine should be here in less than ten days. I purchased the two light model.
Fishing from the pier continues to be very good. I am having a problem getting use to catching and releasing keeper trout, but you can only eat so many. I have to give Chris credit for having the vision of a "super pier" and to Rob for finding the lights. I tried to find good lights with no success, but Rob found these in Victoria. Now that they are adjusted, they light up a larger area and the trout are everywhere, not just in the lighted circle. I can foresee a problem this summer when the word gets out and people who don't belong here start trying to use the pier. Pop tells me that even now he has seen people from HEB walk down the fence line on their side and go onto the pier.
I talked to a fellow on the pier yesterday who goes way back with Kontiki. He said he was bidding against Harry Dennis and Richy to buy these from the RTC back in the mid-nineties. He said his bid was higher, but they got the condos anyway. He can even remember going out on the Bay Princess ship that was docked at our marina.
The water well is fixed now and the boat washing area is operational again. The sprinkler system needs to be reprogrammed. The grass in the quadrangle is turning brown. Edward tells me they are going to install electrical timers on the lines that carry water behind the 400, 500, and 600 buildings. That would be a big improvement over having to turn them on and off manually.

Fishing this weekend was pretty fair. I saw some good trout being pulled in, all off the new pier. This pier could be really good this summer. Some of the light fixtures had settled into orientations that were too directly down into the water. A mechanically talented Phase II owner adjusted the lights this evening. He said they are getting close to being too corroded on the threads to be adjusted. They are working great now, except for the one fixture that has never worked. As luck would have it, while he was working further out on the pier his wife had to rebate his line at the second light. When he got back to this pole, within seconds he had a hit on his dead shrimp. We speculated how big the hardhead would be, but would you believe it was a 17 inch trout! I guess that was his thank you.
Last evening Ross(206) had a friend, Aaron Freese, come out to give him some tips on flounder gigging. They walked down the HEB shoreline about 200 yards and came back with four really nice flounder. I have never personally gigged a flounder, but tonight I'm charging up my largest spotlight! They got most of the flounder in ankle deep water. Aaron knows what he is doing and I listened well as he explained to Ross how gigging is done. I did learn a few things.
I saw Frances and Maxey Mayo(original owners of 102 and later owners of 705) this weekend. We relived old memories of Kontiki. Frances said they sold their house in Key Allegro to the Carters(202) not because they had the best offer, but because other buyers wanted to tear the house down and rebuild. The house will take some work, it will look great when it is remodeled. It's the last house on Bayshore, the big white one.
The wet spring has produced some strange effects on the buildings. The photo above shows how mildew will grow in the shade under the decks. Where sunlight comes though the separations, there is no mildew.
The bottom photo shows algae growing on the window of 301. This window is mostly in the shade and retains enough moisture to grow the algae, or it could be the guests keep the temperature so cool that condensation forms on the outside.

This is Fiesta week in San Antonio and has provided a number of guests for Kontiki.
Fishing has slowed, but Pete(711) caught three keeper trout last evening. He did stay on the pier from midnight to 3:00 am. He caught them at the fist two lights on white cocaho tandem rigs.
Kitty and Lou(302) left today to go back to Arizona. We had dinner yesterday at China A. We all enjoyed a great meal.
Dave and Hanne(307) left today also to go back to Washington. Tony will begin the remodel on their condo on Monday. With that remodel, every condo in the 200,300, and 400 building will have been renovated.

J.R. has finished installing the posts in the marina. These are the ones nearest to the sidewalk. This will allow boats to be tied down more efficiently. They should have been built this way to begin with, but boat owners had no luck convincing the board to do it this way. J. R. used more substantial posts than Rob had proposed using. I hope it was for the same price. These were assessed for earlier in the year. Next J.R. will move the tie down cleats nearer to the end of the finger piers. This will be a minimal cost and allow for a more secure tie down for boats.

It may be difficult to tell from this photo, but the accretion of shell on the HEB beach is the greatest I have ever seen. The water line is now 60 feet from the line established just last fall. I believe the closed oystering season has allowed the oyster crop to deposit shell on the beach rather than be taken to market. There could have been a die off of oysters that has allowed the shell to build up. Either way there is a lot more shell beach than I can recall.
Aransas Glass was busy here today. They worked on sliding glass doors on 103, 304, and 504.
Aransas Appraisal District has posted their 2010 values for Kontiki Condominiums. It appears the values have dropped about $30,000 per unit. It is interesting to see that owners who protested last year's values have been pegged above identical units this year. Don't mess with the appraisal office! I'm sure those owners have a good case this year, if they protest in time. Usually the appraisal office will adjust values with just a phone call, if all parties agree.

Dave and Hanne's(307)grandson, Josh, got in on the drum action off the back wall. He was pretty happy.
The wildflowers that I pictured have been identified. Rodger Noack(602) tells me they are known as Texas Wine Cups. He sent a picture from the internet and that is exactly how they look.

This converted service station is the office of our HOA insurance agent, even though there is no signage indicating this service. The board has asked for owners to volunteer to seek bids from other agencies prior to the annual renewal. We had for many years used the Glass, Sorensen, and McDavid agency in downtown Rockport. I believe most area HOAs still have their coverage with GSM.
The drum and trout are still being cooperative. Pete(710) caught a 20 inch trout off the pier this weekend. Several people caught drum from the pier as well as off the back bulkhead. Scott(504) and friends spent most of Saturday in their boat and fished the Aransas Pass area with no luck at all.
A couple of weeks ago the bird watching tour boat, Skimmer, booked a tour from our marina. About ten cars were parked along our entrance road. It looked strange for that big boat to come through our channel. Fortunately, the tide had returned and was just a bit about mean tide. I had my doubts that they could navigate the channel. The Skimmer did not return until almost midnight. It must have been some kind of private charter.

I took this picture at the Stripes convenience store at Key Allegro. The dove was vocalizing his availability when this staring showed up. Either the dove was vocalizing off key or the starling was hearing impaired. There birds are usually very territorial and would not be perched so close together.
These wildflowers at the corner of Eleventh and Broadway appear to be buttercups, but I have never seen a buttercup this color.

The owner directories are on their way to owners. Johnson and Cate put the final touches on the work that Angela(108) did. They also included the minutes for the February 20th board meeting that Scott sent in. Nick Johnson is doing a good job taking care of our finances and records.
The appliance rebate that I mentioned in a previous post was a bust for me. I tried to get online and to reach them by phone yesterday to no avail. Today's newspaper says I wasn't the only one and was critical of the way the rebate application process was conducted.
This blog had an unusual number of hits last week. 122 individuals logged on during the week. Normally between 80 and 90 log on. Maybe the winter Texans were arriving home and accessing the blog through their home computers.
I had not noticed that a bait stand at Fulton Harbor has closed. This was the bait stand featured on youtube as "Lucy at Fulton Harbor". The owners have two daughters in college and two shrimp boats named "Lucy". The daughter, Lucy, worked at the bait stand and always wore pink boots. I am told the parents divorced recently and sold the business and the boats.

Blake Schulte(308) shows a 25 inch drum he caught last evening. The drum catching continues to be phenomenal. I've never seen anything like it. There is very little fishing to it. Just throw in the bait and hold on. Last evening we had a crowd behind our condo and everyone got into the action. The drum seem to be congregated right behind the 200 building. Gus(203) came by on Monday evening on his way to Robstown for the weekly auto auction. I told him to try a little fishing here and turned on my outside flood lights. He and his nephew caught their limit in about an hour. All the drum were 17 inches or larger. Gus said this is the best fishing he has ever experienced.
Even the trout fishing has been the best I've seen in a long time. The guests in 404 and 303 each caught four large trout off the pier Tuesday evening. One used a DOA and the other used a shrimp tail lure.
I've had a fish meal every day for the past week.
At one point the seagulls were chasing bait while we were catching drum and this unfortunate gull wrapped my line around his wing. I was able to get it untangled and it flew far far away when I released him. Notice how nice the water looks. The wind finally gave us a break.

Edward helped me put our Purple Martin houses back up a couple of weeks ago. Here you can see two martins with their heads out of the nest boxes and one perched on the porch. The smaller bird is a pesky sparrow that competes for nesting area. There appear to be five active martin nests in this house.

Kevin and Cyrena(501) put this sign in their window when they were here last. I hope they can find a buyer, but I really hate to see them sell.
Kevin threw out some of his old fishing equipment when they were cleaning up. Dick(guest in 505) and I took most of it out of the dumpster. A new rod tip cost me $4 at Tackle Town and I've been using it this week. I needed a rod with more backbone in it to handle these big drum.

Last weekend someone put several deck chairs out by the dumpster. Yesterday I got tired of looking at them and tossed them in the dumpster. As I did I noticed that the legs had a flat spot on the bottom and it could be used to anchor them down. I took them back out of the dumpster and carried two out to the pier. I put screws in the legs to them down. Today these guests are already enjoying them. They won't last long, but they have some life left in them.
Rob said at the board meeting on Feb. 20th that he would put benches out on the end as part of his pier building project. In the meantime these will do quite well.

Work began today on the remodel of condo 503. It had been partially done, but did not sell. When this is completed Tony and the crew will begin work on 601. This will complete the remodel project on all the condos owned by the Crowley family. This will leave only 17 condos that are not updated.

By my count we had sixteen condo owners here this weekend enjoying the Easter weekend. For those who wanted to get in on the black drum fishing, most all were successful. Here Jim Vater(401) and sons Zach(standing) and Troy display their Saturday evening catch off the pier. They brought in eight on Friday evening.
Paul Westburg(505) caught this 28 inch drum while wading during the day just off the HEB beach.

The drum continue to be just everywhere. Most are over 20 inches, as this one is. The small c-tail lures work best for me. The quarter in the picture shows just how small they are. The trouble is the drum jump on it before the trout find it. There are some good trout out there. I caught two keepers on Wednesday. Last evening I even caught a mullet on this rig. Sometimes mullet are snagged, but this one had the lure in its mouth. I had not done that in years. Even fishing with lures for drum is unusual in itself. I believe there are so many out there and they are just very hungry.
I did see the first shrimper in a long time on Monday. However, he didn't stay long and has not been back.
Royce came back to work on my termite problem on Wednesday. He said the reason we have not seen much of him is that last summer Justin changed the contract for pest control service to be only every quarter rather than monthly. Royce comes out to inspect for termites on an annual basis.