Steve Wright(702) sent me this fishing report.

Cousin Chuck and I took the Kenner out trolling for kings last Friday and limited out. The ‘King Green’ water has pushed all the way into Shrimp channel. We hung the first king at the green Jetty buoy and caught fish constantly never getting more than about 7 miles offshore. The blue water is super close.

 I just had to visit the new Castaways today. It was the first day in their new building. I got there about 2:30 and there were maybe 60 cars in the lot that was about 75% full. The inside is spacious to say the least. The building is a whole block long. I'm used to just zipping in and out. This building will get your daily walk in for you. The stock was low since they did a clearance sale at the old building instead of moving things.

Last Thursday afternoon anyone here heard an explosion and came out of their condo to see how big the blast crater might be. I mean everyone came out and looked around. The shock wave reflected from all the condos and we all pointed in different directions in an effort to identify the source. The source was identified as this jetski trailer tire. They are supposed to be inflated to 90 psi and this one may have been a bit over that. It blew the tire to pieces and no one was near it when it happened. It was not even all that hot. I was standing outside next to Penny at the time and it certainly got her full attention, as well as mine. Of course, they say if you hear the blast, you might be OK.

Diane(guest in 304) shows us another red  she caught Saturday morning. Reds were pretty plentiful. At one point yesterday I saw 10 folks fishing from the road. They even brought out lawn chairs to wait for the reds. On a side note about Diane, she was a student at the high school that I was teaching at in 1964, She wasn't in my class, but we can recall many of the same people.

The first water in years began to flow through Cedar Bayou today. The project is right on time since they had to finish before the whooping cranes return which will be in about 10 days to two weeks.

Today was also the last day for the old Castaways location. They had everything marked down. VCR tapes were free. Everything on a hanger was fifty cents. Things were being moved out. They will be closed until Monday when they will reopen in their new building on Market Street. The new building is nearly as big as Walmart. I can't imagine how they will fill all that space. I'll have to go by on Monday to check it out. I'm sure there will be a crowd.

This morning there were three Time Warner vehicles here at the 300 building. They said their internet services for most of Live Oak Peninsula were out and it was traced back to a problem with the cable in our 300 building. They installed some sort of filter to keep the TV signal from bouncing back and causing interference with the wifi frequencies. It must have worked since they didn't return.

 The three non working lights on the tall post have been replaced. The alignment of the fixtures leaves a bit to be desired as the base is lit like daylight while not enough light is cast into the water. Older technology fixtures had to be aimed where you wanted the light. Newer ones have internal reflectors that direct the light away from the direction of the lamp. I was surprised when I read that this type of lamp is to be mounted with the face nearly vertical. It has something to do with the bulbs needing to be nearly vertical to extend their life.

The base of the light post has sand accretion near the wall like I have never seen before. The sand buildup here is nearly four feet in the last few months.  Presently, the tide is very high. I can only imagine what kind of beach we will have when the tide drops back to normal.

Jim and Deb(210) are having some new windows installed. At least the winds have been down.

The last section of fence has been added to prevent folks from walking around the end to go from the beach to the pier or vice versa. We couldn't put anything in the water without General Land Office approval, but this looks as if will work as good as anything. Maybe we need to add a sign that says, "electrified fence". That might keep some from trying to still climb around the end.

Ed(302) is practicing catching Montana trout instead of practicing medicine. He retired a few weeks ago. He plans to be here all winter and bring his boat all the way from Maine. I told him catching trout at Rockport is not all that easy at the moment.

It just wasn't his lucky day for this red. Kurt left his rod on the crossbridge and dangled the perch barely in the water to keep it alive while he did something else. You know what happens when we do that number. His rod jumped off the pier and into the water. He took another rod and hooked the line in the water with the red on it. When he reeled it in, the second hook snared the red as the first let go. That's his story and he's sticking to it.

The work on opening Cedar Bayou is scheduled to be completed this week.


Latest Update

 This old ship is destined to be a reef soon. It is being towed from Freeport to the Corpus Christi area.

Diane and Kurt(guests in 304) have found that indeed the reds are moving into the mitigation site area. Although they did catch two keepers behind the 300 building in the bay last week.

 Just over a year ago, Don(winter guest), gave me this clock with a background picture of our Live Oak Peninsula. The only problem was that the clock didn't work. I waited all this time to find a clock at Castaway's that I could take a clock motor out of. It had to cost only one dollar! Finally, I found one and replaced the old motor with one that works. I have placed the clock in the manager's office. Stop by and take a look. Pretty neat.

The high tides we experience at the vernal equinox have arrived. This time they have washed out a section behind the newer bulkhead adjacent to the HEB property. The washout has grown since I took this picture. This is not all bad. The water will recede in about two weeks and leave us a clean hole we can fill with stabilized sand and all will be well and next year it won't happen again, I hope.

Red fish have been coming back into the mitigation site. The crossbridge is full of folks this evening. I caught a keeper a few days ago, but it was pretty late at night. I laid it on the cutting board on the pier rail while I decided whether to keep it or not. The fish gave a big flip and over the side it went. The decision was made for me. The only problem was it broke the snap swivel on the fall and took my $1 stainless steel hook with it. This red will have a sore throat for a while.

Last Saturday there were 30 entries in a high school fishing tournament. Steve's(702) son, Kameron took first place honors with these good looking bass.

Jerry came out to start the cart yesterday and the battery was completely dead. We tried to charge it, but it was too far gone. Changing a battery on our cart is no easy task. It's a good thing Jerry can really handle a wrench.

Later in the day Jerry removed the structure that was attached to the post at the cabana to support our pay phone back in the day. We had secured it pretty well since we were concerned, at the time, that someone would cut the post and abscond with our phone and the quarters it contained.

Yesterday morning Allied Waste Management returned our trash containers they had erroneously taken away last week. I'm sure the guests in the 400 building are glad to get them back.

With only a modicum of help from a bystander, Jerry was able to erect this fishing light on a piece of lumber left over from the pier gate construction. He had mounted an identical fixture on the fishing pier the week before. The bulb is rated to last years and put out light equivalent to three of the high power LED lights we just installed on the fishing pier. The power consumption is only half of that of each of the Walmart fishing lamps that were already on the crossbridge. The new lamp on the fishing pier lights an area that looks to be at least an acre in size. It is very impressive. However, this lamp isn't yet doing so well. Either the ballast is weak or the bulb is defective. Now the problem is how is Jerry going to get up there to work on it. If I know Jerry, he will find a way even if it means putting a ladder in the water.

This morning about check out time I saw Jerry talking to some guests leaving two condos in the 400 building. My first thought was that they were expressing their feelings about not having any dumpsters near the building. I was wrong. I saw one of the guests taking a picture of the "for rent" sign in the window. Jerry came back to tell me the story. Presumably they were taking a picture to post on websites to express their displeasure with their weekend stay. They had asked Jerry on Saturday morning to come in to repair the toilet. He told them he did not do that, but they could call the rental office. They told Jerry they did call and were promised some help, but no one ever came over. What they were really unhappy about though was they they were told that all the two and three bedroom condos were rented and they would have to split into two one bedroom units. Of course, what they noticed was that we had very few rentals this weekend and many two and three bedroom units were vacant. They told Jerry they had been lied to and would take it from there. I can only surmise that because on Labor Day weekend those one bedroom condos were not rented, someone tried to generate some income for those owners.
I also noticed that the weekend renters in one of the 100 building condos were moved to the 200 building. I heard that they felt the first condo was not up to their standards. I had never heard that about that particular condo. Of course, all our condos are different and all our renters have different expectations.

This big drum in the mitigation site has become a daily fixture. Here Jim(guest in 407) tries to tease the drum into showing some interest in his topwater lure.
The drum was there this evening when I set out two poles with live perch. After an hour I had seen nothing happen and took a 5 minute stroll down to the fish cleaning station. Of course, when I came back my line was hung up under the crossbridge. It seems as if reds instinctively head for deeper water under the crossbridge when hooked.

 Time Warner came by yesterday to check on the new cabling that was installed two weeks ago. Our signal is still not all that great. At least, mine is not. They do vary from condo to condo.

D&C Fencing came by yesterday and assessed the installation job that had been done. They worked until dark thirty today to basically uninstall the gates and then put them in correctly. They did a lot of cutting and welding. It's hard to understand how a company can retain employees who do such shoddy work. I tried to think of another word for shoddy, but none come to mind that fit. "fit"  "gates" you get the idea. They should wrap it up tomorrow, but we will have to see the finished product. I had asked one of the employees about a price for a battery back up in case of a power failure. I said I wanted a price. That was about a month ago. Yesterday, the same employee said he remembered nothing about that. Yet I continue to talk to folks who tell me that D&C is a good company and highly respected. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Two years ago we built this bulkhead to stop the erosion toward our entrance road. By the time we built it, we had to build 10 feet more than we had assessed for. Now that 10 feet has been breeched and the water is coming around the end. We will need to build another 20 feet soon or face the possibility of losing land to the bay that we would not be allowed to recover. At the rate it is going, we may have a north shoreline in my lifetime.

I was working on my outside closet door Saturday afternoon when I noticed the crowd fishing along the bulkhead. I thought this was pretty unusual for an afternoon. They I realized that the word was out on the shark that Jerry caught the day before. However, for the entire Labor Day weekend I did not see or hear of anyone catching anything around here.

I posted a picture of this red earlier, but Mingo wasn't in the photo. He was alone that night and had no one to take the shot. This was his personal best for a red. When he got in that evening after he got off at 2am, he got his wife up to take this photo. Things we ask our wives to do! It was a pretty impressive fish. He didn't say if she complained.