November 3, 2016
A11
Island Moon
On the Rocks By Jay Gardner I can’t believe that by this time next week that we will have a new President of the United States. Well, or at least they will be counting votes and make accusations about rigging the polls. In any event, the world will likely be a much scarier place, and I’m not sure what to think about it all. At least the local elections will also be downrange, and I actually am looking forward to seeing how those shake out. Speaking of scared and surprised, I got fairly surprised the other night. It was kind of late, and I walked out to check the mail. The streetlight has burnt out recently, and it was really dark. I saw something moving around by my mailbox as I approached, and a startled coyote jumped up and ran off, as I did an about-
cognizant of your surroundings and try not to get surprised. I’m not really sure what’s going on with the tides lately, but it’s reminding me of last year. Last year’s fall bull tides lasted into December, and we seem to be on the same pace this year. And this is with a new moon, which typically causes good enough swings to pull some of the water down. This next full moon here in a couple of weeks should be really interesting. I keep waiting on the red mangrove seeds to show up on the beach. Actually, there’s not much of anything on the beach at this time, including a road to drive on. The tides continue to go to the base of the dunes at night, making planning trips down south kind of a silly idea. There were some pics on social media the other day showing a black chevy about to get swallowed by the sand south of Bob Haul. I’m sure it’s been pulled out by now. But back to the red mangrove seeds. They float out of the Rio Corona and Soto la Marina rivers down in Mexico, and then are brought up by the late fall southeast winds and currents to our beaches about this time of year. However, I haven’t seen any this year to speak of, which is kind of weird. The black mangroves are all starting to drop their tear-dropped seeds all over the place right now. Either one of these trees can be grown in your own yard in a bucket filled with dirt, then water from the hose. You don’t need salt water for these. I have a few from Florida that are living in my pond, but I was looking forward to getting some local representatives in there and letting them do the Pepsi-challenge to see who can grow bigger over a season. Yes, I’m still experimenting, which our buddy Dean Thomas is also doing out in Aransas Pass. The fishing out in the laguna is still hit or miss for most of us. We should be hearing stories of redfish schools in the hundreds, but it just hasn’t happened yet. One of these days, we’ll get a cold front and things will start to change. But then again, be careful what you wish for. This weekend is daylight savings time, and it will be dark before we get home from work. Don’t forget to set your clocks back on Saturday night. Hope I’m not late for jury duty first thing Monday morning. Next week is just FULL of civic duty, let me tell you.
face and quickly decided that I could wait until the next day to collect my bills anyway from the box. While coyotes are pretty much a part of our life here on the sandbar, I hadn’t had one sit there until I had gotten that close to it in recent memory. There have also been lots of stories about “day-walkers” that are brazenly wandering around the neighborhood (nothing really new, actually). Seems they come and go in cycles. The idea is, make sure you’re
I’ve had the pleasure to rekindle with a few folks lately. Shane Lafferty came down from middle Texas and we did some fishing and hanging out. Billy Bernsen also surprised us and jumped on the skiff for an evening drift. I’d also like to wish Christie Irps a happy belated birthday; hope you had/have a good one during your “birthday week.” Y’all drop me a line at tarponchaser@mail.com and I’ll see you loyal readers on the rocks.
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