As I was heading to the boat ramp this morning, this big truck was coming down the road to deliver the materials for the corner bulkhead we will be building soon. It was already a busy morning with the pest control folks working inside, the termite folks working outside, pool service being done, electricians working on the cabana, carpenters working on inside repairs in three condos, and Jerry trying to cleanup after the weekend while keeping all things on track after JR left.
It was a good day for boating too. Ed, Marv, and I went out at eleven and came back at four. Trout were scattered, but steady with small ones. We ended up with a 16, 17, and 18 inch trout from Long Reef. Ed and Marv used live shrimp and accounted for the 17 inch trout. My DOA took care of the 16 and 18. We took the trout to Moon Dog and had some grilled and some fried. Pretty fresh fish and quite good.
I also heard some good news today about Cedar Bayou. The Texas House in bill 1025 has found $7,000,000 to get the work done. Now the Senate needs to approve and the the governor sign.

	SECTION 32.  PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT: CEDAR BAYOU
	RESTORATION. In addition to amounts previously appropriated for
	the state fiscal biennium ending August 31, 2013, the amount of
	$7,000,000 is appropriated out of general revenue dedicated account
	number 9, Game, Fish, and Water Safety, to the Parks and Wildlife
	Department for Strategy A.2.3, Coastal Fisheries Management, as
	listed in Chapter 1355 (H.B. 1), Acts of the 82nd Legislature,
	Regular Session, 2011 (the General Appropriations Act), for the
	two-year period beginning on the effective date of this Act, for the
	purpose of the Cedar Bayou Restoration Project in Aransas County

 The new cabana is moving right along. The electricians came out this morning to install the wiring so the area under the roof can be built out. Notice the hurricane strapping and blocking on the roof trusses to meet windstorm certification standards.

This 38 inch redfish was caught at the end of the pier on Monday, 4/29/2013, around 4:30 pm.  Justin Poteet and his family are from Temple, TX and are staying in #210 (bayside).  Justin used “an artificial shrimp”.  The fish was tagged and probably became supper.

Norman Frank

I caught these at the end of the pier on Monday, 4/29/2013 using live shrimp.  I ended up with four big topsails, and they ended up as supper tonight.

Norman Frank

Owner #219 (harbor side)

 The new cabana continues to go up quickly. This is going to be a very popular place.

 Work began today on the new cabana.

The materials were delivered Saturday morning for the new cabana. Work should begin on Monday.
The picture below is of a truck I saw at the Dairy Queen in Kenedy. I thought it was interesting that if you look closely at the fourth rod from the left, you will see he was using a Mansfield Mauler and a clear DOA shrimp. Those are pretty heavy duty rods for trout, but it is amusing to see the widespread use of the DOA lures. They are about all I ever use.
I did see a keeper red caught in the mitigation site on Saturday morning. Maybe fishing will be improving soon.

This was the view this morning looking out the window of 302. These barn swallows are ready to begin spring nest building, but winter just won't give it up. The insects they feed on don't fly in this weather and the birds just try to keep warm and conserve energy until the weather warms. A record low temperature is expected for tomorrow morning.
The materials for the new cabana are scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.
This week I had some good eating going on. On Monday David(205) invited me to Moon Dog for a grouper dinner. It doesn't get much better than that. Wednesday, I tried the new Christi's that moved into the old Back Forty building. I tried the Mahi Mahi and that was really good too.  Thursday, Dave and Hanne(307) invited me to the Chart Room at Key Allegro. There I had the shrimp scampi. They did a great job. Today I visited Alice Faye's to have their chicken fried ribeye. It's there house specialty and they do know how to do a good job with it. At least when the fishing is poor here, the eatin' is always good. Thank you David, Dave, and Hanne.

Deborah(210) sent this update on Jim and his trip to Guatamala.

As some of you know Jim is on a mission trip with our Pastor , three members
from Immanuel and three members from a Lutheran church in Eureka,Missouri.
They are in Guatamala for a week helping build/finish a home. Jim has no
cell service there but he did get this blogspot to me so we can keep up with the trip.

Marv Kreuter caught the largest trout of the day. This 18 incher took his live shrimp at Half Moon Reef. There are a couple of reasons Marv out catches me. One, he has me by 20 years and experience counts and two, he just fishes every minute we are out and does not take breaks.

The heron nest structure at Long Reef is in disrepair, but the herons make the best of it and are nesting all over it. Click on the image to enlarge it and the herons are more easily seen.

Edward Schiebel made an unusual catch at Scotch Tom Reef. This Spanish Mackrel hit his live shrimp this morning. Last evening Edward caught an almost 20 inch trout in the mitigation site.

Yesterday's high tide and high winds combined to produce plumes of water up and over the bulkhead. Fortunately, the modifications in drainage that were made in recent years prevented any serious sand erosion. Prior to these changes, the beach would always seriously erode and require more sand to fill it back up.
Also yesterday, "dig test" folks came out and marked the underground utility locations to allow work to begin on building the new bulkhead.

The slab for the new cabana was laid today.

On Friday we received our notice to proceed from the Corps of Engineers in Corpus. We will be constructing a bulkhead here to prevent further erosion. On the far right in the picture the wood lathe that marks the northeast corner of our property can be seen. We will build twelve feet south from that lathe and 28 feet west to the fence line on the left. Someone recently dumped some large concrete blocks on our property that will have to be moved in order to construct the bulkhead.

JR is not hiding in the tree. A plastic grocery bag had become entangled in the top branches of the tree. Jerry tried to get it down with the long handled dip net we use in the pool, but couldn't reach it. Without hesitation JR jumped up into the tree and got it down. Not bad for a grandpa and we wouldn't expect him to do something like this, but he goes above and beyond the call of duty for us on a regular basis.
Notice also the Purple Martin houses are now up. JR and Jerry put them up on Wednesday and the first martins arrived on Friday.

JR was here until 6:30 one evening two weeks ago replacing this broken sprinkler head. Two years ago a guest in 209 called a wrecker for a tow. The wrecker drove up on the grass and broke the sprinkler head. It was hard to place the blame other than the wrecker driver. At one point I was told Tony would repair it, but it has leaked water down the road every time this sprinkler zone came on. JR was given a long list of "to do" items when he came on board. This was just about the last item left. He has really gotten a lot of things done in a short amount of time.

This Sago Palm suffered the ignominious fate last fall of having all its fronds removed. I thought it was a goner, but the top photo shows how it sprang to life two weeks ago and the bottom photo shows how it looks now. These things are one tough plant.

This Dock Express barge has been used to work on our breakwater this week. They have been replacing hardware that had worked itself loose and fallen into the water as well as adding some hardware to reinforce the areas that continue to show weakness and failure. The breakwater has shown itself to be an ongoing maintenance issue since it was built.

It's starting to look like spring around here, finally.  This Bird of Paradise is in bloom in front of 703. Even the snakes have gone back into hiding until next April Fools Day.

The extremely dry weather has affected more than the fishing. Large rattlesnakes continue to come out of the HEB property. This one on Saturday was eight feet long.  Two others were found near the pool last week. Summer guests might have to be issued snake leggings. Maybe some rain will come our way before the summer arrives. After all it is only April 1st.