The Boys Go Fishing

From the Gulf Coast Boy, Doug Briscoe:

The phone rang. It was 'bout 11:30am. My friend Bobby from Matagorda was calling to say that the fish were almost jumping in the boat over in the 'diversion channel'. That piece of water is an extension of the Colorado River as it extends into West Matagorda Bay.

He said if we wanted to fish there, I would need to bring my boat down because it was about a 10 mile trip to get there. Or we could just go out in his pontoon boat and fish around the Matagorda jetties or in the river. I opted for the jetties...I really didn't want to have to drag my boat 60 miles for an afternoon fishing trip.

As I started getting my stuff together, I decided if the fish were in the diversion channel, then that's where we should be fishing. So I got the boat ready and lit out hell bound for Matagorda.

When I got there, the fishing trip had included a third guy. That's pushing the limit of comfortable fishing in my 17' boat, so we went with the pontoon boat.

Now, I've fished a lot from that old boat..it's got a ton of room and 3 or 4 guys are not a crowd.

But almost every trip has resulted in a disaster narrowly averted.
Bobby always brings his old white Lab, Firecracker, along with us. Firecracker mostly sleeps.

Well, we loaded all our rods and tackle and bait and set off..

We got about a mile down river and the motor just quits..dead..I had the foresight to add my spare battery to the equipment list...but it did no good. We drifted up on a muddy bank. Cell phones are pretty useful, at times. The 3rd guy, Jimmy called his lady friend to come get us.

"Honey, we need you to come pick us up...the motor went out..."

Bobby and I waded the mud and waited for the ride back to his house to get another boat to pull the old pontoon back.

Now, we had 2 options...either drive to a boat ramp and unload my boat...or use Bobby's small 14' jon boat with a 2hp motor to drag the pontoon boat back...

Believe it or not, we opted for the 2hp jon boat...ya' see, the tide and the wind were in our favor and all we needed was to get it off the mud bank and into the river...tide and wind would get us home with just a bit of steerage from the small boat.

We came along side the old pontoon and lashed the small boat to it.
Bobby gunned it and the 'little motor that could' was actually making progress dragging that 24' boat off the mud...all was going well...
About then, the entire engine came off of the jon boat transom and did a 360 loop into the river...

So there we were...2 boats tied together...one stuck on the mud with a dead motor...the other with a motor only connected to the boat by a fuel hose.

We retrieved the little motor by hauling in the gas line...

Cell phone time again....

"Uh, Honey, we need another ride..."

So Bobby and I waded ashore again. The ride came and we went to get my boat...

We drove to a nearby ramp to launch it. They charge $3.00 per launch..I asked Bobby if we needed to pay...He said, "Naw, I'm a local...the ramp fees are just for tourist."

I climbed into my boat and Bobby backed us down the ramp to launch it.

Soon as I had enough water I cranked the engine...I put it in reversed and backed off the trailer...or that was the plan...

I gunned it...no movement...then it hit me...

With about all of the local marina folk watching, I had to wave to Bobby to pull me back out of the water so I could take off my 2 transom boat straps tied to the trailer...

We did eventually get launched and I pulled the two boats back home...

We even went across the river and caught a few fish...and if you can do that after the afternoon we had, then you just know fishing is in your blood!

Gulf Coast Boy

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January 30--Happy birthday Dad!

How about Pop and his storytelling? I'd say that my love for the written word is based in no small part on Dad's way with a story.

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It's a great Saturday night around here. The kids are in bed, I've got an iced Americano from Starbucks, Kelli's practicing her GRE exam, and I've got a good Paul McCartney compilation playing in the study (aka my Fortress of Solitude).

It's been a pretty good weekend so far. THEBOY and I attended about an hour of the Lone Star Classic Judo tourney this morning. We caught some kata competition and some kids going at it.

I'd seen this slick-looking little yellow belt warming up before his match. I watched him push a smaller kid around, and I wasn't too pleased for sure. Perfect gi, perfect hair, bad attitude... at age eight he was already acting like one of the bad guys in Karate Kid.

So he happened to be in one of the matches we saw. He squared off against this white belt. For those of you who don't know, a white belt is what you start with. It's what I have. I didn't see too many white belts there today.

Anyway, this little thug kept busting out all his fanciest stuff against the white belt. And Whitey kept his head in the match, watched for opportunities. He kept managing to interrupt the little thug's throws and send him to the mat with foot sweeps and basic trips. And what do you know--Whitey won the match handily.

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Statistics was a beating, but not because the material was difficult; today we learned just how easy it is to sidetrack the professor and watch him do something meaningless for an hour. On the one hand, I'm glad it resulted in less homework. On the other, it only took 10 minutes for me to realize what he was doing (showing us formulas in an obscure spreadsheet program called Minitab) was pointless, so it became rather excruciating.

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We got THEBOY a new drum set today, an electronic one. Seemed sturdier than the type he busted earlier this year. He was thrilled, and it was only $15 at the Big Lots store. It makes some crazy sounds for sure. I think he's perfectly ready to tour with Yes and play "Owner of a Lonely Heart" for the encore.

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Let me just say, for the record, that the most consistently good drummers I hear are in banda and conjunto music. This is Mexican stuff, in case you didn't know. I was out a while ago and had the radio tuned to 94.1. On Saturday nights they bust out the liveliest banda stuff. You'd know it if you heard it: tuba instead of bass, lots of horns, accordion,a polka beat... honestly, it's a hoot. Conjunto is more like an electric band with a bass, but it also has an accordion and perhaps a bajo sexto (a guitar-like instrument with a lot of strings. Can't remember exactly how many). And they have the craziest syncopation sometimes, the toughest turnarounds, not to mention bizarre modulation (key changes).

And I know it's not that common for us crackers to pay much attention to music sung in a language most of us don't speak, but you know, you don't have to know much Spanish to get the gist of it. Here are some essential words/phrases to help you understand all the Spanish necessary to appreciate this music:

Corazon = heart
Alma = soul
Perdido = lost
Amor = love
Ella = she
Querida = dear
Gritando = crying
Flores = flowers
Besos = kisses
Morir = to die
Nada = no one
Cielo = heaven
Beber = to drink
Quitar = to leave (as in to leave a person)
Porque = why
Saltar en el rio y morir = to jump in the river and die

And so on and so forth. That'll pretty much get you through most banda or conjunto stuff, especially that's played on a Saturday night around these parts.

(I joke, but I really do respect what they're doing.)

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The nutria story is coming soon. It's just too long to tack onto the end of this.

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Have a good weekend.