Another Year Older!

  Here it is March of 2018. Just turned 71 and sometimes in the mornings I really feel 71. I don't want to be 71 old, I want to be 71 young. They say its all in your mind. I say that's a lot of BS. It's in my back, legs, fat stomach, and a dozen other bodily locations. I want to fish each day, but there is always something that tends to get in the way. Honey dos, appointments, shopping, clean up the shop, wash the truck,clean my reels, repair lures, the list never seems to never end and always gets longer.
  Well, next week is spring break and my son, Michael is coming down. We are going to fish! That is if this crazy weather will allow us to. The cold fronts just keep pounding us. Always seems like they come in just as the water temp is rising. Last week it spiked at around 73. We were hoping it would get up to 75 or better so we could wade without waders...not happening this week or next. Looks like another front on Monday!
   Speaking of fishing, I have been able to make a few trips. We've been wading our old faithful bar we call 58. Its located about a 1/4 mile off of the ICW, and has fairly deep water on all sides of it. The shallows warm up fairly quickly and the trout have been there in good numbers. They are really lacking in size. Plastics and Gulps are the key players, but if you are my brother-in-law, David Wood, you are committing an unforgivable sin, if you are not throwing a Zara Spook! We have been able to manage limits, but if we have a fish over 19" its a trophy.
    I fished last week with my bud, Dale K and his son, Warren. Warren is in the Navy and stationed in Spain. He had come to the states for a conference and took the liberty to come visit his family here in South Texas. We hit the bay early and headed to the East side hoping to find reds. No luck, we drifted for an hour or so without a strike, or even seeing any fish. Headed to Gas Well Flats and did manage to pick up a number of trout, two of which pushed the 20" mark. The forecast had been winds 9-12, but by 9am, they were kicking 20.
    Decided to go out for a short run this afternoon, although the winds were kickin' at around 20. I headed for the Mexiquito Flats. The water was very decent and I decided to start my drift on the Brownsville channel side of the bar. Lots of water in the bay. After about an hour of lots of casting and not a single strike, I moved to the pot hole area of the flats. I continued to throw a Zara Spook. Very quickly I hooked up from a good blowup and landed a 21". I continued to fish the Zara and continued to get numerous blowups. I lost three good fish at boatside, as my net had broken earlier. All told I had around 20 blowups and connected with 4 solid trout. Fished for about two hours. Not too bad percentages for the time period. The Spook was the critter lure today.

     I have added some new looks and safety items to my boat. I had been having people slip down when getting off of my front deck. No one got hurt, but I could see it coming. I did some investigating and settled on a product called Safe Floor. I found a local dealer and installer in Harlingen. Mike Jones owns the franchise and had two of his great installers come to my house and put down my new floor while my boat remained in the sling. How cool is that? It is a rubberized epoxy base done in almost any color yo desire. I chose a mixture of blues, white, and a little black. Beautiful floor and safe, also soft to walk on. Life time warranty on the floor.