Why We Enjoy the Texas Coastal Bend

There are so many beautiful places to spend our winter, and yet we return again and again to The Texas Coastal Bend. This year it’s been the warmest we have ever spent here but that not even the real reason as lots of places are warmer then Wyoming.

Our lifestyle, somewhat of an alternative one, lends us the chance to meet so many nice people and make friends from everywhere. I can’t imagine living in a stick built house, where I would hardly know most of my neighbors. So of course part of it is the friends we have made here but that not the whole reason.

I know the main reason is the water. Having spent most of my life living in the plains and the mountains, the sea has always called and so we choose to spend part of the year in its thrall. Fishing is a big part of it and the past week the fishing has been good at both the South Jetty and in St Charles Bay.

Pete and I had talked at happy hour about going to the South Jetty, at Port Aransas, and so we headed out early armed with live and dead shrimp. The sea was calm and so we headed out to the end and a place where I have caught bull redfish.

There were quite a few there already, and I lost a nice fish on the first cast, but it stayed there and took my second offering. It was a nice black drum and I strung it up with thoughts of fresh fish for dinner. Now if I could catch another Renita could also have fish as she does harp a bit when I catch just one and don’t share it with her, (just kidding of course, did I actually use the word harp).

The fishing was winter slow and it took awhile before I caught a nice sheephead. It’s a fish that most native Texans disdain, but it belongs to the porgy family and they all have a beautiful white flesh that tastes great and are highly prized here by many winter Texans.

No big reds hit our baits and in fact it was slow for the rest of the day, but dinner was assured and we headed back, walking carefully on the slick rocks. Later at happy hour our friend Dave, of Dave and Jane from Michigan, invited me to fish in his boat and of course I took him up on it.

The next morning we headed out into St Charles Bay, just planning on catching some mullet, for bait, and then looking for new fishing spots. The big schools of mullet had disappeared but the fish certainly hadn’t and we caught several small but fun reds and black drum at the first three spots.

Heading back into the bay we continued to fish new places, places I couldn’t reach with our canoe and the rat reds,( a term people use for undersize reds but still fun to catch), and black drum continued to be plentiful. We eventually found a spot that had so many fish that we caught two limits of black drum and a limit of reds. It was a nice day as we fished and watched ducks and whooping cranes.

The rest of the week has been spent getting ready for shows and classes and of course grinding and sawing rocks. The lapidary shop continues to be a place where we spend lots of our winter time but that’s another story for another entry. Clear skies