Towin the boat

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Waterbird at Decker

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Windy Decker lake

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Town lake

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Born on the Bayou

I went with pops to Cedar Bayou this weekend, via Goose Island State Park. Roughly the latlong is 28.071130 N, -96.84465 W. We took a boat from the ramp there across Copano Bay towards San Jose Island, taking a left at the ICC, up to Mesquite Bay, then into the bayou, almost all the way to the outflow into the gulf. We parked the boat, picked up some mullet with a throw-net, and wade-fished the surf on the gulf side for an hour or two. Pretty rough waves but otherwise very comfortable. We didn't get any bites, but there was plenty of seaweed getting caught on the lines and, thankfully, no stingray encounters. The actual bayou itself appeared to be somewhat plugged up with grass and debris. Human modifications on the flow regimes of our rivers in Texas appear to be affecting the natural passes through the texas barrier islands - important refuges and nurseries for fish and other animal species. Here's a relevant article from Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine.

We went back to the boat and drove back out to the mouth at Mesquite Bay to wade the oysterbay and throw artificials for a half hour as the sun went down. No fish caught there, either. Just as we were leaving, we spotted some porpoises circling some baitfish in the shallow water, slapping their tails and splashing around. We got back to the beach just after dark, and as we unloaded some overnight gear, the mosquitoes commenced their attack. We set up a tarp on the gulf-side beach in the stronger wind, set out some pads, and tried to catch some z's. Unfortunately, from time to time the wind died down and enough skeeters got through to start a blood bank; I'm covered with bites pretty much head to toe. Still, if I hadn't been woken up so many times by the shitty little bugs I might have missed the big family of peccaries that came through, squealing and snorting when we startled them. Apparently the resident coyote came by as well but I somehow managed to sleep through that.

Around five, the Off ran out and we booked it for the boat, driving out to the bay to idle around until the sun came up. The tide had gone out and several times we had to wade around in the darkness in order to find a deep enough channel to run the motor and get out. Back at the Mesquite Bay mouth we threw some more lures in the water trying one last time to catch a red or speck to no avail. The sun came up and created these two large blue beams in the sky and luckily they came out in my picture (below). There was noone else on the bay but the birds, including some ibis, herons, spoonbills, pelicans, frigates, and terns.

We headed back to Goose Island and drove back home, tired and empty handed but still happy with the experience. It's an awesome place and I hope to return with better luck fishing next time.

Me and c2 watched Animal Factory the other day. C2 was so-so about it, I thought it was great. It's a prison movie written by Eddie Bunker, directed by Steve Buscemi, starring Eddie Furlong, Willem Dafoe, Danny Trejo, Mickey Rourke, Tom Arnold, and Jake La Botz. There were also a couple of Wire actors in there too. Obviously being a prison tale it was stark and depressing, but pretty interesting overall with good acting and a suspenseful plot.

This bathroom stall foot tapping whathaveyou is kinda funny.

We played a round of discgolf again on saturday. I scored +7 and c2 got +11. Bad maybe but we're getting better.

You say they were pacing on a ferry? Never heard of such a thing. They probably just didn't know about the cardio gym on the second deck. They could have gotten much more beneficial exercise up there.

How Long? Walter E. Long!

We went to Decker Lake on Sunday (a.k.a. Walter E. Long Lake) for a little fishing action with the pops. It's supposed to be "excellent" for bass fishing and I've heard good things about the white bass there but we didn't run into much luck. First, we tried for some catfish early on with some cut up shrimp and bobbers in the power plant outlet; nothing doing. Then we moved around the main bend in the lake and checked out a little cove where shad were jumping, a good sign. We threw in a few spoons and floating lures with no response until my dad confirmed that the dark shape I had earlier witnessed chasing the little shad out of the water was a gar, and there were several of them about. To finish up, we started at one end of the dam and floated along throwing in some minnows. Finally c2 got a hit and pulled in a little bass, a little one but welcome company nevertheless. A few minutes later dad caught a freshwater drum. He croaked at us and we let him go. A couple of times on the water the sky opened up and dropped a downpour on us. Dad's little boat has a canopy on it so we were able to stand (or crouch) underneath and get some protection from the rain, but it was definitely the visual of the day to see the air thick with precipitation and the surface of the water turned into a layer of dancing spray.

This was a disgusting update on the abu ghraib b.s. It focuses on Taguba's account of the events but provides some believeable side sources, only a few of those anonymous. My favorite part is definitely the Top Gun-esque moment with Rummy and Taguba in the locker room. I can't help but envision Rummy head back, popping his gum in Taguba's face. "The plaque for the alternates is down in the ladies room." And I'd never heard of the terrible video they mention... all in all some lovely information, just great. Fuck! Of course those wonderful New Yorker cartoons definitely live up to their vacuous reputation. If comedy was beer they'd be piss warm chango.

I finished that last Vonnegut book I was talking about, Slapstick. There were plenty of amusing little ideas in the storyline but it ends really sloppily and nonsensically. It's a fairly unconventional story overall and just sort of comes apart after the main body is spent. Still, there's some great examples of his dry imagination buried throughout Slapstick, but the other two novels I discussed earlier were a little better.

I can't help but add one more Top Gun quote:

Slider: Goose, who's butt did you kiss to get in here anyway?

Goose: The list is long, but distinguished.

Slider: Yeah, well so is my Johnson.