Cold Walks and Hot Kayak Fishing!

The week started cold and we had a brief snow storm which was really a few flakes of sleet. It was playing havoc on our exercise, but Renita suggested that we take a walk along the parkway that borders the local Walmart. It was a great idea!

We started along the cement pathway and before we got very far, I noticed a white-tailed buck walking directly towards us. The deer down south are much smaller then the ones up north, (smaller mammals do better in high heat and humidity as it’s all about getting rid of excess heat). The larger the animal the better it retains heat with less surface area per volume, so the deer up north are much larger.

The buck didn’t seem bothered by our nearness, but it did step off the trail and head down to a stream where it browsed on some bushes, took drink and then climbed the embankment. It paused and browsed a bit and then disappeared into the thick undergrowth.

A little further a great blue heron waded along, and a cattle egret looked for insects and small reptiles. Small little grey birds flushed from us and one stopped long enough for a quick identification, it was a tiny bird, a definite flycatcher but we couldn’t give it an exact name.

Returning to the path we walked a little further and two does stood up as the same great blue heron sat nearby, stoic on a dead tree branch. The deer didn’t like us bothering them and walked away with one flashing its white tail in warning. The heron also flushed flying and then landing across a small clearing.

The rain returned for another day but then the skies cleared, and it warmed up. The warmth and calm made us think of kayaking and I did a fishing trip just down the road launching at Copano Bay. I caught two nice fish, a sheep head and a redfish but I released them both as they were just a hair small. I do get a charge out of catching any size fish!

The next day Renita and I went to another nearby place and launched the kayaks. We were using live shrimp hoping to catch anything. Our first few casts were fruitless but then I caught a sheepshead near an old piling. The second cast also produced a fish and this one was legal, so it went into our fish net live well.

Paddling close to the pilings and we caught fish on every cast, really! Carefully measuring the fish, no easy feat in a kayak, (sheepshead have very large sharp spines and razor-sharp gill covers), we caught a lot of small fish but occasionally a nice one and the live well filled. Renita caught the largest fish of the day, a seventeen-inch sheepshead!

She also caught the last two keepers of the day. The fish basket/net was so heavy I couldn’t lift it into the back of her kayak and I had to paddle to a nearby oyster bar. Getting out of my kayak I was able to get the fish into the cargo area and it didn’t take long to reach the take-out spot.

It was only a few miles from our winter home and soon Renita and I were cleaning the fish. Most people here do not keep sheepshead, (the locals here prefer red fish and speckled trout. We also eat those fish but Renitas favorite and one of mine is fresh sheepshead, (If you have never caught one the fish are like crappies but on steroids and a twenty-two-inch fish will weigh about eight pounds).

It was the best day we have ever had in our kayaks and we really did have a bite on every cast. Back in the rv park, we shared our bounty with several friends and that night it was all you could eat fresh fish dinner! Clear skies