Another crazy summer is almost behind us. Saturday before last I was at Walmart while a guest decided to park in my marked parking space. When I got back Roger was in the act of having him move. The guest saw that I was waiting to take back my space and glared at me. The next day when I moved my car, the center cap fell off. It had been kicked during the night and the somewhat fragile plastic clips had all been broken. I'm sure it was kicked on purpose, but they likely didn't know just how fragile these vintage cars can be. I looked on ebay and for an OEM part it was $32. I got out the gorilla glue and so far so good. I hope I don't have to remove the wheel soon.
The lighter crowds we had prior to the 4th were nice, but after the fourth things were different. Our water bill had been under budget most of the year until July. In July our bill was over $5,000. This can only be explained by larger crowds per condo. Our security staff works hard to keep guests from over loading a condo. Guests do have a habit of passing around hang tags to sneak in more folks than they declare when they register. Adding license numbers to tags has helped, but I suspect some desk clerks are asking guests to write in their own tag numbers. Last Saturday Mingo counted 29 tags not filled in issued by one management company alone. Lina is working on this.
For the next three weeks, we have tweaked our WiFi system to see if we can improve the service. If so, there would be an additional cost, but it may be worth it. Hopefully, owners will notice a difference and let us know.
This morning Nick Baker installed two new Lennox 3.5 ton 16 SEER AC units in the 500 building for two owners who do not have a management company. For the complete change out, thermostat and all, he gets about $3,600. We have recommended him to owners in the past on our "who to call" list. This afternoon another company came out to change out a unit under management in the 200 building. I couldn't help but ask a few questions.
The installer said he gets $4,600 for a Rheem unit 3 ton and 14 SEER. For a Lennox, he gets $5,400. I believe he said he gives a 5 year warranty while Nick Baker gives a 10 year warranty. I don't believe I have ever seen Nick called out by any management company to service or change out a unit.

Gerald(303) and his son went out between showers this morning and got their limit in trout in about two hours. Scott and I spent five hours on the bay on Sunday and came up empty.

On Sunday Jerry walked across the channel to see if our markers are doing any good. Fortunately, they are working perfectly. In the three weeks this has been in place, he says we have worked out a trench about three feet wide and about a foot deeper than the rest of the channel depth.

 We had to remove the extra large Bougainvillea from behind 703. We just could not keep the thorny branches away from the sidewalk. Jerry will try to relocate it.

Above I captured a photo of this marsh morning glory blooming in the fence line with HEB. Below the hibiscus are still in full bloom around the back of the 700 building.

Scott sent this account of their offshore trip on Saturday.

We (Amy, Meg, Meredith, and I) left the condo around 8:40 am this pastSaturday and pulled the boat to Conn Brown.  Of course on our way we had to go to two different places to get a fishing license along with breakfast tacos and 100 lbs of ice.  It is not a good fishing trip until you have been delayed at least an hour with various errands.

 

Okay, so we finally make it to the ramp and get launched.  It was a beautiful morning.  Winds were light and the waves were low.  We broke the jetties about10:45 am.  We headed to our favorite state water snapper spot called the Big E.  That is E for Esai Luna.  Ray and I named it after him on a fishing trip last year when he landed all three of our limits.  He was a trooper. 

 

Back to today's trip, as we got close to the Big E we stopped at a small standpipe rig and dropped a live perch to see if anyone was at home.  As soon as it hit the bottom . . . tap, tap, tap, BAMM!  The rod doubled over and Meg started cranking.  She pulled up a nice 20" snapper.  This is big for state water.  We put it in the fish box and dropped down another live perch.  Within a few seconds of reaching the bottom . . . tap, tap, tap, BAMM.  Meg cranked up another one.  Things slowed after that so we continued on another half mile to the Big E rig.  Here we baited up two rods with live perch and Meg and Meredith both dropped lines down while I kept the boat in position up current of the rig.  Fishing was a little more challenging here with strong current, slower catching, and we had to cull through quite a few undersized snapper.  We also caught a few undersized Triggerfish and 2 keeper Strawberry Grouper.  After lots of dropping lines, fighting small snapper or pulling up empty hooks, we were all tired.  At this point we had 10 Snapper and 2 Grouper in the box and were ready to start heading home.

 

On our way in we stopped at a rig we call Sleepy Hollow.  We call it this because it is so terribly dilapidated.  It looks like something out of a horror movie.  Last time we stopped there I had a big Ling on and it spit the hook after a two minute fight.  As luck would have it while we dropped a few times looking for anything to bite, a school of Ling come up to our boat.  I quickly baited our pitch rod with a live perch. A precise toss put the live bait right in front of the school.  I could not see which fish took it but the line started going zipping.  I tightened the drag and started fighting the fish.  Within 20 seconds the fight was over.  The line went slack and I reeled in an empty hook.  It happened again at the same rig.  Frustrating but this is what keeps us coming back.

 

After that we called it a day.  We started our 1 hour run back to the jetties.  If your not already tired, that last run of the day will finish you off.  Between the afternoon sun and the pounding of the boat for an hour, we were all wiped out when we got to the ramp.  But it was a lot of fun.  Great memories for the whole family.

 

Unfortunately we did not get any good fish pics but I do have one of the Sleepy Hollow rig.

Scott did share a few of the snapper fillets with me and I took some to Alice Faye's today. Pretty good eating.

Mel Biggs sent me this information about their two condos. They are both very nice. There was an open house this afternoon for condo 206. They are asking $275k. Both condos 708 and 103 are now under contract and will be closing soon.

Larry,

Please publish this in your blog:

We are thinking of selling both our units.  Both have an excellent rental record and I can provide the P&L’s (over $8k net receipts for the pair last month).  All future bookings will convey to the new owners and both are in a good state of repair with updated furnishings.  There are limited opportunities for viewing over the next couple of weeks, if anyone is interested in purchasing please have them contact me at 281 346 218 or 281 979 5591.

Thanks,

Mel

This may look like a job for the heat of the day because there is some shade to be had. However, Jerry has to be careful of the critters that call this palm tree home, including snakes. We have tried to have a tree service come out to trim the trees as we have in the past, but most all services are fully employed doing lawns right now.

Lina has put together a collage of what fishing used to be like. Maybe someday we will see fishing like this again, but for now, fish are being really hard to find.

Lina and Jerry have been busy today. She holds the ladder and he does the climbing. This palm tree next to 709 has, for years, spread itself into the window screen of the bedroom there.

On Sunday we relocated this Bougainvillea from in front of 504 to a new location near our exit gate. It had grown so large we could not keep the branches with thorns from growing into the sidewalk and causing harm. My car yanked it our just fine.
I do want to welcome our newest owners Dennis and Debbie Litton who have purchased condo 607. Condo 708 is under contract to the Stavinoha family from Floresville. 206 was recently placed on the market for sale.
I had mentioned some time recently that it appeared that individual condos has smaller groups in them this year. I said the water bill would tell the tale. Sure enough for last month we were $400 under the water cost for the same time period last year and over $4,000 under for the first six months of this year.
Fishing  remains dismal. I have placed four lines out off the bulkhead the last few days and have not even a hardhead to show for it. Scott and friends worked hard in the Aransas Pass area last weekend and came back with nothing to show.

 We now have a newer cart for our use around here. Mike and I checked it out here when Lina arrived back from San Antonio with it. She rented the trailer and used her truck to haul it here. It is a 2009 model of an EZ Go Cart. We were able to get $500 for our old one.

I had a house full of grandkids this weekend (10). As these two were driving back about 10 miles south of Tivoli they came across this large alligator on the roadside. My daughter didn't know if it were roadkill or died of natural causes. Either way it was fresh dead and the kids will remember this for a while.

Although fishing on our long pier has been as slow as I've ever seen, some guests have asked about the maintenance of the lighting. The old metal halide lamps that were originally installed have about reached their expected life span in this environment. At this time I see five that are in need of replacement and about five more that are not properly aligned to illuminate the water fully. Some of those have rusted brackets and cannot be easily realigned.
Last year we installed three newer LED fixtures with a life expectancy of 30 years while operating with only about 20% of the current energy usage. They run about $700 plus installation. It was our plan to replace the older metal halide lamps with these as the older lamps failed. However, we can't do that alone. We share the maintenance and operational costs with Phase II. Their board wishes to wait until their annual owners' meeting in November to make a decision about what to do about the lighting. So until then we will just continue to use the lights that are still working and hope that fishing will pick up soon to make it worthwhile to even turn the lights on. I have yet to see a keeper trout come off the pier all summer long, but it remains a scenic 496 foot walk to the end.

I have recently noticed a large increase in the number and size of crabs in our area. We have seen very few in the last few years. Here is what Taryn's(guest in 505) trap looked like this weekend. I counted 15 + or - since they refused to hold still for counting. There were at least 9 keepers.

Scott sent this story about his weekend.

Went out Sat noonish with a qrt of shrimp.  It was me, Amy, Meg, Mert, and a friend of hers, Erin.  Picked up one keeper (17.5") at Mack.  Tried Jaybird with no luck.  North wind was a little odd as it was blowing like that all day but still hotter than blazes.  Wanted to find a good swimming spot for the girls so went to the little cove on NE side of Long reef.  Did not like that so we moved to other side for fishing.  No luck there.  Then tried to pull up along St Joe shoreline to one of the shell banks between Paul's Mott on Tommy Martin's but they were all covered with waders.  Went back to SW side of Long reef as the water was a very pretty green.  Anchored and Meredith, Erin, and I jumped out to swim. Water felt great after spending a few hours in that sun.  After that we tried a few no name submerged reefs that stretch between Mack and the ICW.  Picked up another keeper so we went home with two trout.  Gave them to a neighbor renter.  They were happy to add it to the batch they caught that morning wading.  Caught a lot of skip jacks . . . and some really big ones.  They are also referred to as the poor man's Tarpon.  The larger ones pull hard and run fast. 

 

Ran slow through the channel  both Sat and Sun and kept the motor almost all the way down.  Basically used it as a plow.  Sacrificed my blade and water pump to help clear the channel.  :-)

 

Went out by myself Sunday morning for what was supposed to be a quick trip to use up a dozen shrimp.  Temperature was terrific and there was enough wind to keep me moving but not too windy.  After a few minutes I caught a BIG slimy gafftop and fought him to the boat.  I grabbed a pair of needlenose pliers to roll the hook out of it's mouth.  While jiggling the hook to get him loose his pectoral barb went into my right index finger.  The pain was immediately excruciating.  Bled like crazy.  Pain was so bad I could not fish any more.  So headed in and took two ibuprofen when I got back.  Very painful!!!  I have not been stuck in probably 6 or 7 yrs by a gafftop or hardhead.  I just got a little too relaxed about handling them.  Amazingly no infection even though the hole closed up right away and could not clean it out.