Fish, Fish, Fish

Rockport, Texas
Since there are so many things to do while not working, I decided a couple of days ago to set an alarm clock again. Now I get up at 7 am so that I can get in more touristing. Today proved that that is a good idea, because I ran out of daylight way before I got finished with my things to do. WOW this not working is a lot of work. Once again I had to cull a large quantity of pics for the blog. The first order of business was to get a library card. Usually it involves a bunch of questions that involves where I live normally and all that other fixed dwelling stuff. Not this area. They love snowbirds since over 50% of their economy come in from folks like me. The very nice lady at the library counter immediately understood when I said Snowbird and took care of me in just a couple of minutes. A driver license and where I am parked was the limit of the requirements. She even gave me a quick tour of the library and pointed me to the books I wanted first. Talk about service. WOW. I am really liking this area even more. Tonight while fishing on a public pier, I talked to a wonderful Mexican lady from Chicago. She and her husband have been here 11 years and have no intention of ever leaving. The only thing she thought might be less than the best is all the traffic from the snowbirds. Why today I even had to wait for a car to cross the intersection before I crossed the road while walking. This is heavy traffic???? I love it. There is even three grocery stores in town.
A visit to the Chamber of Commerce yielded so much information I needed a bag to carry it all out, and I was being choosy. They even have a visitors check list of over 50, yes 50, things for a tourist to see or do in this little 8 mile by 3 mile section of Texas. I thought I was already loaded with too much to see and do, but now there is even more.
The nearly extinct whooping crane is sort of the mascot of the area. Right down in the main harbor area is a wonderful statue dedicated to the whooping crane. It is located right behind an artists building of some kind. I have not been in it yet. The statue is very large and well done.

Just north of the statue is a bulkhead along the waterfront. While watching some pelicans feeding, I noticed porpoises feeding in the deeper water.
Did you ever see a pelican come in for a water landing? They land very graceful like a rock. A huge splash and some flapping around then they are floating just fine. When they take off it is not much better, but once airborne they are very agile.

Adjacent to this area is a public pier that is concrete topped and has a handrail. It is very nice. So I start out to visit with any folks willing to talk. First thing this fellow comes walking back to his vehicle to put a nice speckled trout on ice. He said this was smaller than the one he caught a few minutes ago. He was through since he had all the fish to eat that he needed for awhile.

On down the pier was another fellow who was nice to visit with. While we were talking he pulled in a larger spec. This one measured a little over 20” when it calmed enough to be measured. He did not keep it because he too already had too much fish in the freezer at home. And this is the slow season????
One more fisherman came along who was using dead bait on the bottom. He was content because he was actually fishing for large blue crabs and had caught four already. He wanted two more to make a small crab gumbo for him and his wife. When they want crabs he comes down and catches them so the food is very fresh. In several years he has failed to get the crabs he wanted only twice and had to come back the next day. Keep in mind I was on that pier a total of 20 minutes. One neat thing about pier fishing is the very low cost. Even if you buy one of the special aluminum carts to carry you stuff, it is still cheap. The carts cost about $200 and last a few hundred years. I have not had my camera when I saw one in use, but I will eventually get a picture of one. About 5 pm I went over to the other pier in the beach park and caught three specs and many got away. By 6 pm I was in my truck leaving. Now this is a good way to have tooooo much fun. The worn out OFM.