The fence on the tennis court was put up last week and final touches will be completed this week. I started to write something about the five hour board meeting last Saturday, but then I decided I just can't do that without risking that I might write something that someone would take exception to. That picture of the fence is symbolic of how I feel in trying to continue this blog, kinda fenced in. I was encouraged not to write anything newsworthy to owners prior to their receiving the information through official news releases. I will have family at my condo from this weekend until the end of the summer. I want to enjoy these times and not have to worry about how to parse my words for this blog. Consequently, I am shutting down until August 1st. At that time I will announce any further plans for this blog. It's been a fun six years, but time to take a break.

Work began on Monday morning to put up the fence on the tennis court. I left for SA later in the day and the fence may be finished by now.

Wally's dog, Dawson, is not willing to get too close to the fence to meet George's(guest in 607) dog, Niki. Niki is a one year old rescue dog and is full of energy. She just wanted to play, but Dawson was just not up for that. Maybe Dawson thougth she was just to young for him.

These four purple martins seem glad to see the tennis court fence going back up. I think they take a break here to get away from the sparrows that are all over the martin house.

These two piles of gravel and sand are slowly disappearing as work continues on the foundation. The contractor feels that there are nine additional posts that need to be installed under the 100 building. The original building had spans that are just too long and the joists have bowed with the unbalanced load. This had been pointed out to me in the past and now is likely the time to take care of this. The original builder changed the foundation design after the 100 building was completed and all the other buildings have better load bearing designs.

I think we found the problem with lights on the cabana south of 308. There has been a problem for a while and this conduit was buried from the side of 308 to the cabana. The lights should work better now.

Keith spent the better part of his day installing new walk lights on the back of the 700 building. This has always been a dark area at night. With snakes known to be in the area I've always been extra careful when walking this route. This is the first night they have been on and they light up the area very well.

The Eurasian Collared doves that nested under the roof of the fish cleaning stand are back this year. We changed the netting, but they still found a way to build a nest there. I thought about them during the storm last evening. Pretty smart doves.

Last night's storm damage was considerable is some parts of Rockport, but all we got was this geyser. It appears the wind knocked over the trash cans at the boat wash area and they then broke the water line. I gave Keith the number for Tony, maintenance at Phase II, and he called him to come out to turn it off. I posted both pictures because I could not decide which was the best. Keith said it reminded him of some of the water displays in Vegas.

Steve Wright sent this fishing report from last week. Looks like some pretty nice fish. Cousin Chuck and I worked hard for some nice trout in Copano. Started on shell reef in Newcome that had a lot of short fish but couple of nice ones Chuck is holding. We then worked west beach and hung a couple and did the same in Turtle pen. Caught some nice reds in Newcome as well.Caught a few on croakers but most on plastic touts. TTF roach was a good color

Jellyfish were crowded into the marina on Sunday in numbers I had never seen. They have somewhat spread out this week. On Saturday morning I went with Scott and his family to the annual Nautical Flea Market at Rockport Harbor. We got there when it opened, but had to park at least a quarter of a mile away. There were a lot more vendors this year. We found some great deals. I even found two seat cushions for my boat for $5 each, actually Scott found them, but I bought them. We found some stainless hooks for $1 per package that we usually pay $7 for. When Scott left for home, he gave me two large mullet he had netted up. They were about 8 inches long and really too big to be fished live. I put on two of the new stainless hooks on the heaviest rod combination that I have and went to the crossbridge in the afternoon. I started to cut the mullet in half, but I looked in it's eyes and decided to just bait it whole. I had never used a mullet that large as live bait. I cast out at the first light and checked the drag and put the rod in a hole in the railing. I then saw some turkey vultures working the boat ramp and decided to see what had washed up. I decided to walk along the road and circle the mitigation site. I had walked about half way around when I heard what sounded like a small caliber gun shot. No one was around. I looked back at my rod to see the 20 pound line waving in the breeze. I checked it out and sure enough, the line was snapped. The sound I had heard was the line breaking from the strike of the large fish. What ever it was would not have been good table fare anyway. The next day a 25 inch red was caught there, but it didn't have my hooks in its mouth. I'm still looking.

Keith is working hard to try to have the tennis court ready to go by the summer. Here he cuts a spreader pipe and then places it between the line posts. Good progress is being made.

Fish continue to be plentiful. The guests in 302 brought this fine catch in today. They caught the trout at Long Reef and the reds and drum at Cedar Bayou. Kevin(402)caught a twenty inch trout. He brought his big Blue Wave here and is leaving it like the rest of us do. Ronnie(506) caught six keeper trout, mostly on top water lures. He said the biggest was 20 inches too.

The posts for the new tennis court fence went up on Friday. Here Larry Skelton and Keith use a Texas sized T post driver to pound this 18 foot post 8 feet into the ground. They had 8 of these to drive down. They said the driver cylinder was pretty heavy as they raised and dropped it repeatedly to drive down the post. They invited me to give it a try, but I declined.

After everyone left on Friday I thought I would see just how heavy it was. I tried to pick it up, but apparently there was a gravitational anomaly located at this spot and I couldn't get it up off the ground to see just how heavy it was. I guess I'll have to take their word for it.

South Texas fishing report Fishing report: April 12 By Ralph Winingham ROCKPORT On any given trip to this anglers’ playground, Pirates of the Bay guide Doug Stanford is quick to dip into his “arsenal” to help haul keeper speckled trout, redfish and black drum into his boat. Unlike the pirates of old who wielded cutlasses and cannons to pillage other ships for their treasures, Stanford uses his armory of various live baits to trick the sometimes-fickle saltwater trophies into latching on a hook. When he discovers the right tool at the right time, the fishing action can be fast and furious. “The live bait I use really depends on the day,” Stanford said. “Being able to find out what the fish want and then putting it out there for them is just part of the arsenal you need to have available.” A guide working the bays and channels near Rockport for the past seven years, Stanford has developed and fine-tuned several different methods of luring big redfish, trout or drum into taking live bait. This time of year, the trio of baits he normally keeps in his live well includes bait shrimp, pin perch and croakers. Later this month and into the summer, he adds piggy perch that he likes almost as much as croakers. One of the most popular live baits along the coast — with a well-earned reputation of producing good catches of big trout and reds — croakers started arriving in the area a little early this year. “The croakers are a little small now,” Stanford said during a recent early morning trip. “They are about 2 or 3 inches long and when they get a little bigger, they will be better bait. “Big trout really love big croakers,” he said, adding that large speckled trout also started arriving a little early this year. “With the warm winter and really high tides, the fish seem to be have been moving north along the coast a little sooner than normal,” Stanford said. Another twist to the fishing equation this spring has been an unusual number of big redfish giving anglers a tussle. “Last year we were catching a lot of 18- to 19-inch reds that we were tossing back (the slot limit for keeper redfish is 20-28 inches) and this year we are catching a lot of 29- to 30-inch oversized reds,” he said. Anglers can keep one oversized redfish by using the red drum tag on their saltwater fishing license. The go-to bait so far this year for Stanford has been a live shrimp threaded onto a 2/0 thin freshwater bass hook and free-lined with just a short leader and small split-shot to hold the bait on the bottom. “I know it sounds strange, but they seem to hit the threaded shrimp better than a live one,” he said. “You have got to be willing to try something different.” When putting pin perch into play, Stanford likes to cut the bait in half or just cut off its tail and fish on bottom with a little larger hook and heavier weight to hold the offering down where the big reds, black drum and other saltwater trophies are feeding. “That taste of blood really attracts them to the bait,” he said. “If you don’t get a hit in about 15 minutes, you need to change baits or move to a different spot.” If a croaker is to be the bait of choice, the noisy little relative of both speckled trout and redfish is hooked just above the anal opening with a 3/0 to 4/0 hook and is free-lined (no weight) down to where the hungry trophies are waiting. When schools of bigger croakers — from about 3-5 inches long — move into the area, using them for bait is almost a sure thing for hooking into a big trout or redfish. They are called croakers because of their ability to vibrate their swim bladders, a pocket full of air inside the fish that helps keep it afloat, causing a sound that can attract predator fish from quite a distance. “I like to call this guerrilla fishing because you have to be willing to try a lot of different things and go into a lot of places that might not look like they would be good spots,” Stanford said. His technique and arsenal of different baits proved to be quite successful on the trip that was part of Rockport’s 27th annual Spring Fling for outdoor writers. In just about three hours, Stanford helped his anglers bring a 29-inch and a 27-inch redfish caught on pin perch cut bait; and two 20-inch black drum plus a couple nice sheepshead caught on threaded shrimp into the boat. “Today wasn’t the day for using croakers for catching trout,” he said after the trip, “but you always have to be ready to try everything — that’s the way to put fish in the boat.”

Work continues on the foundation repair. This pictures shows how the old post is cut off after the hole is dug. This supplies some support for the block of concrete that will be placed on top. The hole is filled with concrete and a jack is left in place to support the building while the concrete cures. The block in the ground as well as the new concrete post contain rebar.

This old post shows the same thing we found in 1994. They rot from the inside out. It does not appear to be a result of termite damage, but a chemical process of rotting from lack of proper creosote treatment. We found 223 of these in 1995 and have not inspected the rest since then. I brought this to the board's attention so many times during the past years it became sort of a joke. Investors don't like to talk about foundation problems. These rotted from the inside can be identified by hitting them with a hammer and hearing a hollow sound, not real difficult to do. In 1995, during the lawsuit process, we drilled a hole in each post to find if the inside were rotted.

Dan Post had his crew from Arctic Express come by yesterday and insulated four more condos. It will be interesting to see what the difference will be when the summer heat arrives. The car in the picture belongs to Rita Mirabelli(203). It was good to visit with her again. She has had her place rented for the last six months.

Mel Biggs(207 and 603) is trying to sell his Bay Stealth bay boat in Houston. I'm sure he would make you a great deal if interested.