Weekly Update Archive

Week Ending 10/07/04

We got up at 6:00 a.m. which is almost unheard of for me. We got our gear together and we headed out to pick up Meridith in Katy. We had the "new" party van again for this trip. We headed out for Bay City to my "old" friend Gary Kaiser's house.

I have been wanting to go to Matagorda Island for many years now and finally I had the chance! He has a 24 foot Boston Whaler which as most of you may know is a great fishing boat. I am not sure what time we hit the water, but we headed out through the inter coastal water way and headed across the bay, which at this point, was not too choppy. We ended up in Port O'Conner.

Directly across from the bait and tackle shop, there was the infamous island well known for snakes!! Well, Gary and I jumped out of the boat and left everyone else behind and hit the dunes. We went down the island about 200 yards then turned back across the island turning over every possible place a snake could hide. We beat cactus patches to no avail. Finally, when we reached the bay side and saw a pile of tin laying against the burm. I told Gary there would be snakes under it and sure enough, we came up with this female atrox. This snake hardly rattled at all the whole time we were bagging her up and when we released her, she did not rattle at all. She was a great subject for a photo op! We saw a skin of a coachwhip and that was it as far as snakes. I was mainly out there to have fun and we certainly did!

Caleb would catch his first fish ever even beating out his daddy for the grand prize. This is not hard to do. I have never claimed to be a fisherman. I was lucky to catch a little pin fish and this was only after the bastard stole my shrimp for the twelfth time!! Weston got into the spirit too and had fun helping his big brother.

The women took it easy enjoying the nice weather and sites out in the bay. Kim, sorry I was not there to help change the diapers. Thanks for helping Meridith. If I would have known you gals were having that much trouble, I would have gone farther down the island! HA!!! Just kidding! You both were real troopers and so inventive!

We would cruise to another location and try our fishing once again. I had the same results. My bait was stolen repeatedly and I only caught a small pin head or what ever the hell those pin thingees are called! Again, I am lucky to even catch a fish! The point is we all had fun.

We would hit the land one more time to photograph and release the female atrox. She had eaten a large meal and handled the ordeal quite nicely. Let me tell you this, if you ever go out to the islands out there, you better own stock in OFF, and any other kind of mosquito spray you can get your hands on. Garlic tablets would suffice too!! This is mosquito hell, people!!! I think I lost 2 pints of blood while I was out here. I felt like I was at the blood center, but I didn't get any t-shirt for my efforts. This really sucked!!! I was glad to get out of there.

We all had a great time at the restaurant at the docks after a really rough ride coming in from crossing the bay. Poor Kimmie has a bruise on her butt and mine ain't feeling too good either. The funniest part of it all is both kids crashed out hard on the way back. How could anyone sleep through this??? I forgot!!! They are my kids.

I had an awesome seafood dinner (soft shell crabs) and two long island ice teas, and was feeling no pain! It's o.k. I had me a designated driver!!!! Thanks for driving us home, Kimmie!! You're a sweet girl!!

Thanks for a really great day, Gary. We all had an awesome time! We need to hit the dunes again without anyone else so we can hit it hard and catch many snakes!!! This was a good reconnaissance trip for me!

Next on the list, we are going to East Texas to find and photograph some local wildlife. Stay tuned Wayne's World fans!! Happy herping!!!

Click on Photos to Enlarge

Caleb's First Fish...Wow!

Wayne's First Big Catch of the Day

Captain Gary with Wayne holding their catch

Kim having fun fishing, too!

Wayne's Second Big Catch of the Day

Leaving Matagorda Bay

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