A Fun Week of Making a Kayak Trailer, Fishing, and Coober Pedy Opals

Its been too long since I last updated the blog. The reason I write it is so that Renita and I can keep track of what we have done since retirement, like a journal with pictures. One of my regrets is that I didn’t keep a journal before we headed out on the road.

The past week has been extremely busy. As the title suggests we have kept busy finishing some Coober Pedy Opals, modifying a utility trailer into a kayak carrier, and going fishing using our kayaks.

We purchased quite a bit of Coober Pedy Opals at the Houston Gem and Mineral Show. The pieces were slices that had already been attached to black backings that allowed the opal to show its color/fire. These were ready to finish, and I only had to add the protective cap to finish the triplets.

This saved me an inordinate amount of time as I normally have to prepare the black backing, epoxy the opal slice to the backing, and grind the opal to paper thickness. This takes a lot of time and time is the most valuable thing we all have. Now, all I had to do was to add a protective glass cover. The finished opal triplet not only highlights the colors but also magnifies the color.

Our next project entailed us going to a local store where we purchased a small utility trailer. After some modifications we now were able to easily load/unload our kayaks. You can see in the background, a picture of our Subaru Forester with the trailer attached.

Our first kayaking trip was to a place where we have had luck in previous years. Arriving we saw other kayaks and as we neared our favorite fishing area, we met a fisherman who had caught his limit of speckled trout. He held his stringer up showing his trout and a legal slot redfish, (redfish must be between 20-28 inches to keep).

We started fishing and the fish were not where we had expected. As our friend Dave says, “Fish swim”, meaning you usually have to find where they have moved. We tried another spot and caught trout, a small redfish, and sheepshead but the bite quickly stopped.

The water was calm, an unusual occurrence here on the Texas Coastal Bend, and so we moved and moved again. After lunch I moved back to our starting place and the fish were there! As fast as we threw out, we caught fish! Not all were keepers, but we did have a double of keeper size sheepshead.

Too soon it was time to go and so we paddled back to the car, loaded the kayaks and headed to our rv park where we have a fish cleaning station. As we hauled the bucket to the fish to the cleaning station we were quickly surrounded by white and brown pelicans, gulls flying over our heads, and snowy egrest. They all love fish handouts! All I can say is thank to my electric fillet knife the cleaning went quickly! As usual, Renita had caught her share of the fish and she aided me in the cleaning task.

We love fresh fish and on the rare occasion when we catch quite a few we use our vacuum sealer to keep the fish tasty. Its one of the best inventions!  Now we have several meals in the freezer! Should we fry them, saute them in a white cream and lemon sauce, or perhaps make them in the oven using a parmesan crust? Clear Skies