Scott sent this story about his fishing trip this weekend. When he talks about the rocking sensation in the evening after his trip, I know what he means. Hours later your body seems to be swaying and when you stand your feet seem to what to achieve a better stability. It's a strange sensation. Let's start it like this . . . WINDY!!!!! But, when you get together with friends once a year to go fishing, then you go fishing regardless of the weather and that is what we did. We left Kontiki at 7:15 Saturday morning and slow boated to the entrance of St. Charles, got in the protected water, then ran quickly to a few spots. Using live shrimp we picked up 5 black drum and a 27" red. We caught quite a few fish so the action was steady. The wind was insane. When we started that morning it was probably blowing 15 mph and it just kept rising from there. My bubble box batteries died after while and that was quickly followed by the death of the remaining shrimp. That was soon followed by the fishing success in that spot. I think the bite had actually already slowed by the time the shrimp died but regardless . . . we took this as a sign to move. However; before we left one of our spots a BIG gator swam by. He stopped about 50' from the boat. At first all we saw was his head. It looked big but then the size was confirmed when his tail popped up out of the water some 10" behind him. He would go back under and pop up 25' further down the shore line. Due to the high waves he had to riase his head up out of the water quite a ways so he could see over the waves. This gave us a good view. Beautiful and scary animal. From St Charles we ran to Jay Bird. We thought the shoreline would be protected but the high winds would not let it be. We got the crud beat out of us while drifting several lines across the reef. We picked up two trout there. We left and ran into Carlos in search of better water but no luck; still crazy amount of wind which means big waves and water that looks like chocolate milk. I don't think we even had a bite in Carlos. From there we ran back to Jay Bird on our way home. Nothing there but honestly we didn't have our heart in it by then. We were all tired of taking the beating from the wind and the rocking of the boat. The wind and waves were so constant all day that three of us were experiencing the rocking sensation most of the evening. This is something that you don't usually feel unless you have been offshore in the big waves. Despite the wind we had a great time, brought home 5 black drum, 1 red and 2 trout. We made some good memories and most importantly put our next trip on the calendar. Until next time, Scott.

Larry Skelton takes the opportunity to use the leaf blower to clean the curb debris while the only car along the walk is mine. This week was pretty slow as far a rentals go.

The wind has been so fierce even the pool furniture sometimes gets blown into the pool.

Work continues on the painting of the 500 building. The pressure washing takes off a lot of the old paint. Actually the paint is not all that old, but the paint job was marginal at best.

I'm not sure what causes this foaming effect, but it does appear it may have led to the demise of the pelican in the middle.

Larry Skelton did a great job today in cleaning up the area around the end of 101. He trimmed back the big oleander and cleaned out the planting area with the palm trees. This is not our property, but it will look better trimmed up and no one else would take care of it.

The painting started on the 500 building. All the deck furniture had to be moved off to the lawn to allow the power washing and painting to begin.

Keith has completed work on a new and improved information center. This will be very useful. He also rescued an old cabinet from a dumpster at HEB and remodeled it with materials he had on hand. It looks brand new now. He is using it for storage in the office. If you get a chance, stop by and check it out.

I think we found part of the problem with my television service. This splitter was blown apart and charred by the lightning strike. Richard, former maintenance worker at Kontiki and currently employed by Sandollar Security, worked trying to restore service, but there seems to be more problems than this splitter.

The best thing about this cooler is it's mine and it's in my boat. Sunday was a great day on the bay. The forecast was for good fishing from 2 to 4 pm. Two of my friends from high school and I left about noon. The winds were light from the northeast and predicted to change to southeast later in the afternoon. We stopped first at Scotch Tom Reef. We picked up four good sized keepers pretty quickly, but it slowed. We moved over to Half Moon Reef and the wind went slack. Every cast there produced a trout. We caught about 16, but only two keepers. It was fun. Then the wind turned from the southeast and the bite totally stopped. Two o'clock was supposed to be the best time, but that's when all the action stopped. It was good to see birds working again although we found only gafftop under the birds. It was like old times on Aransas Bay. All the trout were solid keepers. The painting crew was back at work today working on the 400 building. Other owners who came in this weekend also found they had televisions that were ruined by the storm. I'm still working with adjusters to get my loss covered.

I know this looks like my car, but fortunately it is not. This Aurora was involved in a collision just outside Houston. There are so few Auroras left on the road. They have sorta become a cult car and I guess that as fewer are left on the road, my two will increase in value. There is even a website just for Aurora owners to chat and show off their tricked out Auroras.

An unexpected use of the new swim platform developed yesterday. This boat anchored up to it and commenced to disembark to use it as a fishing platform. They were having a great time. They had tried to fish the bay, but the winds were pretty tough.

Dwight Wilfong has been helping Steve Wright remodel 702, but took a break to bring this catch off the flats.

James, monthly guest in 107, picked up this catch under the new light installed behind 308. Last night Edward, guest in 102, caught a 20 inch trout off the pier on live shrimp. Also last evening the game wardens were out in force on the pier. They caught more than a few without fishing licenses.

I mentioned a few days ago that we had a boat for sale. It's sold. Larry Rabe smiles broadly standing by his new boat. Looks like a pretty good deal to me. He's anxious to take it out for a spin.

Entrance Wound
Exit Wound

What are the odds? The top photo shows where the lightning strike entered my condo and the bottom photo appears to be where it left the building. The big storm on Monday was long and vicious. Pretty much everything inside my condo was affected in some way. All the televisions went out. My computer was fried. I took it to the shop today to see if it is repairable. I have this very ancient computer that is like sending an email with a telegraph key, slow and tedious.
I've been on the phone with insurance companies most of the day. The condo next door had three televisions zapped. Kevin Johnson worked for over an hour to restore my internet access, but this old computer can hardly handle it anyway. Kevin said he had other equipment affected in the area. Larry Rabe worked until nearly 5pm to get one new coaxial cable replaced. There are several scorched areas, but the heavy rain put out any potential fires.
All this pretty much gives me a perspective about the foundation repairs. Right now owners are debating about when to repair the foundation posts and install hurricane straps. Some feel we can just take a chance that we don't have a summer storm and delay the work until after the high rental season. The chances of a lightning strike like this are much lower than the chances of a summer storm. The foundation repairs are long overdue and we will be just rolling dice again if we wait another summer. I don't want to take that chance. In fact I think we should put up some lightning arrestors. I did have surge protectors, but they did no good with this size of strike.

Anyone who has any idea what they are doing are bringing keeper trout off the pier. The lawn care company came by today and the grass looks as green as ever. Three condos are in line for a facelift. Tom and Vicki are about finished with 501 and about to head back north. Steve is in the process of remodeling 702. Doris and Mike are planning their remodel of 608. The pool water is about as clean and clear as I've ever seen it. The pool pump is running smoothly. The lift station is pumping away. Things are looking good around here. Also, after one week of the baseball season, my Cardinals are in first place and have not played a home game yet.
Larry Rabe used his electrical skills to overhaul this electrical panel near 306 today. It was a rat's nest of wires and controls. As I remember we had an electrical company give us a bid of about $1,000 to do the same thing a couple of years ago.
Larry Skelton is painting the skirting like a man on a mission. It sure is good to have him back on the job. Larry also doubles as fill in security for us.

Keith drove to Houston today to pick up the new tennis court fence. He got back a little late due to some tire problems on the rented trailer. The new fence and net should be up soon.
I was asked to note also that an owner has a really nice boat parked out here that he wishes to sell. It is a 1999 Dargel, Suzuki 140hp (low hours), 19.6 ft. I would post a picture, but he has a cover on it. It is very clean. Let me know if anyone is interested.

Fishing has vastly improved the last week or so. I went out to Long Reef yesterday and picked up these two on a DOA. One was 19 inches and the other 17. Later that day I went to drift the breakwater at Goose Island. I used the Die Dapper that I pictured on January 25th this year. I boated my first 20+ inch trout in several years.
Later yesterday the guests in 605 fished the mitigation site and caught this stringer full on dead shrimp. It looked as if the largest trout was about 19 and biggest red about 26.

Maghsoud(407) sent me this note about his family fishing trip last Friday. The trout hit a piece of cut mullet.

Hello Larry,Happy Easter. Hope you are enjoying the great Spring weather we are having and catching some fish. We went out to mud Island and Allyn's Bight yesterday with guide Richard Coan and caught our fair share of trout and red. The day started early with a lot of action. We caught 10 keeper Trout on live shrimp in the first couple of hours of fishing. We ended up at Allyn's Bight at the end of the day and after sitting on the boat for a couple of hours with no action, we ended up catching a 28" Red on cut bait. Sarah landed the fish after about 10 minutes of fighting with the fish. Just as we were getting ready to leave, another big one hit. This one was a 28" Trout that Michael landed. All and all a good day on the water. It was good to have both our kids at the condo now that the remodel is almost done.

The Boattail Grackle that I've been writing about the last two years is back following me around and sounding the warning alert. It's hard to believe he remembers I picked up a baby martin in the summer of 2010. He been after me ever since.
The local real estate market continues to show some activity as we now have four condos on the market. Just three weeks ago, we had none. Of course, listings do not mean sales will necessarily follow.

Scott, Ray, and Paul started early Friday morning on their swimming platform project.(Notice also my boat is in the background and ready for the spring fishing season.)The kids waited patiently as the project neared completion.
The platform was paddled to the middle of the marina.
.The kids had a great time.
For the guys, it was Miller Time.

All the old tennis court fence has been taken down. Keith will pick up new fencing material and the new fence and net should start going up this week.

Fishing is looking up. Here Colson, Kelly and Johnny Blackwell's son, shows off his keeper trout that he caught off the crossbridge just after sunset yesterday. He was using a small perch he had caught in his throw net. A few minutes later another pole he had set out bent over and he tried to set the hook, but the fish escaped.
Easter is always a good time to see old friends as many return after the winter hiatus to allow winter guests to enjoy our complex. I did notice that even Chris and Karra Crowley are here for a few days. It should be a great weekend.
This may be a pile of lumber for now, but by the end of the weekend it will be much more. Several owners plan to build a swim platform in the marina, at their own expense. They plan to anchor it near the old gas well in the center to keep it away from boat traffic. I think it will get a lot of use as the marina has become a favorite swimming hole.
Also notice the three concrete chunks that are the leftover bottom portion of some of the removed tennis court posts. These will be recycled as anchors for the platform.

OK. What is this? When I brought it into the house the grandkids thought is was a toy for them. I either wasted $10 or will really like it. What you do is put one of the magnets on the trailer hitch and telescope the ball up. The other magnet goes on the car towing bar. Then all you have to do is back up until the balls touch and you should be lined up. I hope to try it out this weekend.
I had hoped to get to Rockport today, but I'll be delayed until later in the week. I'm dealing with dueling insurance companies. A towing company damaged my car, but says they don't want to pay for the whole repair since my car is old. Excuse me. What does that have to do with anything. USAA says if the towing company does not pay, they with pay it and subrogate the cost. I just want someone to fix it so I can get on the road.

Scott generously shared his weekend fishing results with blog readers.

Fished Saturday morning, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. All with DOA under a cork.
Saturday morning I had Meg and a friend of hers with me. We all had different DOA's so we would see who had the most luck. I had the DOA with red flecks in it. Never really had much luck with it before but it was the lure of the day, at least relative to how the other two performed. I missed netting an 18" fish at the boat and later landed a 16" fish. Boated a couple of school trout and then a gafftop that really fooled me. It was taking drag and shaking it's head. Thought I had a whopper of a trout . . . .then I saw the slime. At the end of that half day fishing the DOA with red flecks was by far the winner. The clear had a few bumps all day and the white with yellow tail did nothing.
Saturday afternoon fished by myself from 6:00 to dark. Brought home a 15" and 18" trout. The 18" trout was fat; not a fat belly but lots of meat. Side note: trying to net a keeper trout by yourself is a comical and frustrating adventure. Your talking to the fish coaxing them in, talking to the net about where it needs to be and talking to yourself about how to keep the rod up to bring the fish closer to the boat but not pull the fish up out of the water. I would like to see that on camera some time. It will make any veteran fisherman look like a disjointed rookie.
Fished Sunday morning for several hours by myself. Caught one 17" trout at Jaybird. Caught it on the 2nd cast and thought I was into them. Did not get another bite the rest of the trip. It was one of the prettiest mornings I have seen in a long time. I left the condo at 7:00 and needed my running lights. Started my day in Carlos Bay. Up against the shore the water was calm and full of activity. Mullet jumping everywhere. Several UFO's heading South to North along the shoreline. They were big enough to be pushing a wake. Very exciting! I threw half of my tackle box at them with nothing to show for it but a new layer of rust on all the hooks. That being said, it was a beautiful thing to see this morning. I do love mother nature and what she gives us.
Before we left Rockport Sunday afternoon I put 4 fresh trout in the freezer. Not bad for a weekend of fishing . . . especially when you consider the following quote:
"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." - Henry Davis Thoreau
This reminds me of another quote that is always appropriate when considering boating adventures: "Bad trips make good captains." - author unknown