My son, Ryan, brought in these two and they went from the water to frying pan in less than two hours. We cooked them in coconut oil and they were great. The trout was 19 inches and the drum 18 inches.

 While we had the large bobcat here, we had them work on the beach property to repair the recent damage from the rains and high tides.

 We spent some time to strip the grass from the area next to 101.

Jerry worked today to lay the whole pallet of grass by himself. This evening's rain was just what we needed.

 The annual Lone Star Legacy fishing tournament was held this weekend. The weather gave them a break as we had the first day in some time with light winds and no rain until late this evening.

Interesting day. First we planned to replenish our beach sand. We had not hauled any in in two years. We have had lighter winds and no rain the last two days. DJ located the underground utilities so when the bobcat scraped the area next to 101 down, we would not cut anything.

We rented this big bobcat for a hard days works

The large dump trucks cut some real ruts getting in, but there was no other choice. When we have had extra plywood around we have laid a pathway. This year we had no extra plywood.

Looking north, the beach looks so much better.

Looking south, we covered the low area behind the 300  building that held standing water. Things were finished about 5pm.

By 7pm, the winds had picked up and the beach was again flooded. It's been an unusual spring.

Our new flags are looking good. The old ones were pretty tattered after only three months. There is a flag shop here in Rockport, but we bought these online from Dixie Flag Company in San Antonio. These are supposed to be of high quality, but in this environment, nothing lasts too long.

Tuesday we had two pallets of St. Augustine grass delivered from Sutherlands. Lina had gone to Sutherlands at 7am on Saturday to get a big discount on the grass in their Memorial Day sale. Jerry and DJ planted one pallet next to 108 where there was no St. Augustine at all. The other will go between the fence and 101.

 Last weekend's high tides and winds caused some interesting scenes. The plumes of water flooded the beach all the way across.

 The new bulkhead Jerry installed six weeks ago is already being passed by by the water and erosion. The erosion has moved another two feet west since I took this picture on Monday. The HEB shoreline has lost a lot of land.

 This area next to 101 was flooded by bay water, not rain. The water was flowing over the bulkhead back into the bay. We will be hauling in about 60 yards of sand tomorrow to replenish the sand on the beach.

 The plumes over the bulkhead here overwhelmed the spillway and caused the water to flow down the driveway and into the drain to the mitigation site below.

The plumes of water mixed with the high wind spattered my deck with baywater.

I don't know if fishing was better this weekend or if there were just so many hooks in the water, the fish had no chance. Here Matthew(606) shows a 33 inch red he caught yesterday on the HEB shoreline. Several keeper trout and flounder were pulled from the mitigation site. I counted 22 folks fishing from the bridge yesterday afternoon.
The tide and winds have been high and the water relentlessly pounds on the bulkhead with loud thuds. The HEB shoreline shows new erosion on a daily basis. Every boat parking space is full, but hardly anyone took the chance to brave the weather conditions this weekend. The weather did take out our cable TV and WiFi all day until early afternoon. That certainly got everyone's attention.

John's(202) boat tried to launch itself. I think the strong winds had a lot to do with this. Jerry and George teamed up to push it back into the space early on Tuesday morning.
This week the Copano Causeway opened for traffic. On Thursday, I saw 11 emergency vehicles, with sirens blaring, heading to the bridge. I guess I'll read about it in the Pilot.
Today's rain storm had tornadic winds. A tornado was reported in Copano. The shoppers at Walmart were sent to the back of the store, presumably to avoid any broken glass from the front windows and doors.
The TWC saga may finally have been resolved. They had purchased our account from Charter Cable, but we were never under a contract. They have agreed to add converter boxes and extended programming for an additional $8 per month starting this month, but starting in 2016 our basic services rate will increase by $3 per month per door. They will be scrambling their signal soon and all TVs will need a converter box or adapter. The converter boxes will be $12 each for those who want them. Work has already started in San Antonio to scramble all Time Warner broadcasts. It appears as if the only way for our owners to get their paid for converter box now is to go the store in Corpus.  This is my understanding of our agreement as of yesterday.  Dealing with TWC can an exercise in futility.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Travis(guest in 302) had landed a 26 inch trout. Here is the proof. The keeper red looks small by comparison. As I said then, he was wading the HEB shoreline.
I got a note for Marv and Rita that they left from their monthly stay a few days early. Marv had gone with a guide(Dave Posey) a few weeks ago and got his limit of trout. They tell me this may have been their last trip to see us. I know the drive from SA is getting harder for me and Marv will be 93 on June 10th, so I can only imagine how difficult the drive from Houston must be.
The on going saga with TWC continues to be an exercise in futility. Contrary to what I posted a few days ago, owners may not pick up a converter box just anywhere. Now they tell me they had misinformed me and only the Corpus outlet will be issuing converter boxes for us. They are still uncertain just how ordering one by mail would work.  One of our owners went to the Corpus store only to be told we are not in their system yet. He called me and I gave him the number for the corporate executive that I had talked to earlier. He called him and somehow they worked it out then and their and the box was issued.
However, connecting them can be problematic. Our old cable may not supply sufficient signal to power the digital boxes. In that case, the box will attempt to boot and then report a failure. Even then, we would not know if the problem was the box itself or the strength of our signal. If an owner has that problem, let Jerry know and he can replace the cable to isolate the issue.  TWC still insists that by this time next year all our TVs must have a box or a digital adapter since they will be scrambling the signal. They say they must scramble the signal to keep folks from tapping into their cable to steal signal. More likely the issue is they will make tons more money this way.
The Aransas Appraisal District has posted their appraised values for our property for 2015. There are about 10 condos that I see that are up to $30,000 higher valued than an identical condo in our complex. Unless owners just enjoy paying more in taxes, I sure would be protesting. The protest process is very informal, unlike major cities. If anyone needs any help with this, let me know. You may go online to www.aransascad.org to see where everyone is at. Choose property search, address as 2292 and street as Fulton. Our who complex will pop up. Any extraneous information supplied will convolute the process and prove more difficult to access.

 The guest in 302 shows the oversized red he pulled out of the mitigation site. He also waded the HEB shoreline and snagged a 26 inch trout.

Pat and Sibyl got their limit of trout and reds today. The big red was 30 inches.

I got good news for owners from Time Warner today. They have set up our account and finally owners may visit a Time Warner service center and pick up their converter box. I had to resort to social media to complain and our request was escalated and completed quickly after waiting five months for the process to play itself out. They even mentioned a rebate for those of us who purchased our converter boxes and have been paying our own rental costs.

The light winds this last weekend were just perfect to get into the Gulf for some offshore fishing. Steve Wright(702) sent me these photos of their success.

Good looking Ling and some fine eating.

 My boy Jordan with my cousins Bob and Chuck Ayers

This jack took a ribbon off the surface and took 25 minutes to pump up from 60 feet. I am glad A KID WAS DOING IT AND NOT ME. Pretty fish though