It looks like Fall has finally settled in. Cooler nights, cooler water and higher tides have made things a lot more comfortable for everyone. The crowds at the boat launch parking lots are beginning to thin out. Trout fishing is certainly improving.

The back bays are getting much better for trout and reds. I haven’t been finding many big trout yet but the numbers are there. The reds are showing up in the lakes. Drifting with live shrimp has been a good bet. San Antonio Bay has been my best bet but like I said, the fish aren’t very big; 16 to 18 inches for the most part.

The Jetties are holding lots of fish. The only problem has been the wind. My last two trips to the Jetties have been a bit slim because I really couldn’t get to the spots I wanted to fish due to the heavy seas. Reds, Drum, lots of Mangrove Snapper and a few Flounder have been the main attraction.

Capt. Bob Hill
Port O’Connor Charters
(281) 984-0015 www.fishportoconnor.com

Hunters are generous people. More than 11 million meals were provided nationwide to the less fortunate through hunters’ donations of game meat in 2010. As a reminder to all hunters to consider sharing their harvest this autumn with those in need, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) has developed a new video and webpage that encourage making venison donations to food banks and other charitable meal providers. Programs like Hunters for the Hungry and others are active in nearly every state, including Texas, so hunters have plenty of opportunities to participate in a donation program. NSSF’s new Hunters Feed website (http://www.nssf.org/huntersfeed/) provides information on how to contact the many active groups that accept game meat donations.

Catfish, I guess, go back as far as man can recollect. Some mighty fine eatin’ and some, I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. All not the same, but most just as much fun to catch. I’ve stored up a few recollections of them whiker kritters. I’ll just sand up while I’m thinking on this one…

In the late fifties, I was shrimpin’ with Arthur Medolf on the Joe Thomas, working San Antone Bay not far out of Seadrift. We made our last haul and headed in, not having the trash shoveled overboard, which included hard heads not on the dead side yet. Coming up on the dock, throwing a line to the pier wasn’t all that hard, but takin’ a strain on that mooring line, slipping and coming down butt first was bout as hard as one could take it on the back side, especially sittin’ on a pile of prickly critters. Makes one numb and not just from the flop! I guess I sat there 30 seconds of a life time. I was worried more in that situation than I have ever been, in any given time or place. I don’t know if I was more embarrassed to find out I was stuck at all or taking that dive in public. But it sure felt good to get that numb off my butt. I can still feel a twinge just thinking on it.

Catchin’ hard heads when I was a kid around the docks was not a great feat. Any bait would do. I resorted once to using big blow flies when nothing else was available.

Back when women came down to the shrimp houses to head shrimp, there was always some two legged wharf rats to keep occupied while moms headed the catch. The not so elusive hard head helped fill the bill for kid-weary moms.

I get this idea once while watching the shrimp heads being dumped over the pier; you never seen so many catfish boiling in any one spot where the heads were dumped. One metal bushel basket, a piece of discarded rope and a bucket of heads for bait. Just lowered this contraption down a few feet, count to 10, and come up as fast as you can. A easy half bushel of hard heads as you’ve ever seen.

Working out of Port Lavaca on the Joe Thomas was another story. I was takin’ a nap, tryin’ to stay in the shade when Mr. Medolf let me know it was time to haul in, beings them boards just closed up is less time than any haul yet. He says we just cut across the corner of the most god-awful black spot in the bay you ever did see (I think he did it a purpose). “Gaff top sails” we shook them fin-sticking things down the net, very carefully swung them aboard, (always my job to open the sack). This time very cautious – splat – fin city.

About that time, who comes down the channel, Joe Thomas Medolf, the boat’s namesake, on a tug. We just ease up together, cinch up and sit down to headin’ gaff top. The help was a blessing.

Time we pull in to Port Lavaca, we had just over 700 pounds of gaff top tails. Wasn’t much a pound, but sure covered the fuel.

I guess I wasn’t much older than 15 workin’ with Uncle B. Sanders on the Jane. I like the Jane. Seems like that boat was always tryin’ to tell you something.

Anyways, we were working some nylon strike nets (it was legal then) somewhere outside the channel near Beacon 21. We had some luck on specks and was headed in when we seen this bunch of birds workin’ a muddy spot on the flats off the channel. It was right near where Mr. Edwards kept that big house boat (which my Uncle Bernie DeForest ran for him). Anyways, Uncle B. Sanders says, “Let’s give that a try.”

We did that, dropped the hook, takin’ the net skiff circling that bunch of birds with that fine nylon net. Uncle B says we’ll just strike it once and see what we got ‘afore we work it down. Thank God for that, (hard heads) occasional rat or tow, too small to keep. Ever see a few hundred catfish in a nylon net? Took us come dark time to get them out. I guess if that net still existed, it would still have fins twisted or cut off in it. Catfish and nylon still don’t mix.

I’ve had some experience with catfish, but this one really takes the cake and should I say, other things. Anyways, it was my privilege to serve in Vietnam, most of the time on the river. We on occasion were sent up the Vente Canal off the Mekong River to a listen outpost (monitoring sensors placed in strategic positions) for support purposes.

Anyhow, there were no indoor facilities…just the outside kind, and you wouldn’t call them outhouses, either. Most cases just a railing that covered the lower most portion of one’s extremities. Now that wasn’t the case at Tinbin, ‘iffin I’m spellin’ it right. We had to build our own on 55 gallon drums and placed it on a catfish pond, for what purpose I found out.

Needless to say, I had to go one time or another and at what expense I’m not for sure. Most people say they just sit and relax and wait for mother nature.

Now take a few hundred catfish all waiting for the same thing coming down that chute. Seems them 55 gallon drums made this certain kind of ripple when one sat on the throne. *#!?##*! I’d swear to it nothing hit the water. Things kind of got wet under there. Never was that regular after that first time, but one must go…it’s inevitable to think otherwise. Come dry season, it’s told there was a bumper crop of big cats otta that hole!

Talk about eatin’ fish. I’ve eaten fish in some odd places, but heck, that’s another story…

Pastor Tim Smith preaching during a missions trip to the Canary Islands in October 2012.

Pastor Tim Smith of First Assembly of God in Seadrift returned from a Missions Trip to El Fraile, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain on October 9th. Pastor Smith was in the Canary Islands for nine days. It was his second trip to the Islands in two years. He spoke eight times to four different congregations.

He was invited by Missionaries Mark and Kelly Baumgartner to speak at Calvary Assembly International Church for their 8th anniversary revival services. He also spoke at El Farro Assemblia de Dios, Calvary Deutsch Assembly of God, Iglesia Christiana de Canarias and to students at the Bible Institute of the Canary Islands.

Pastor Smith said that seven persons received Christ as Savior, over twenty rededicated their lives to Christ, four were filled with the Holy Spirit and over thirty were refilled with the Holy Spirit. Smith said the services were lively with a lot of singing and praise and worship. Pastor Smith was assisted by interpreters in each of the four churches. Seven services were interpreted into Spanish and one was interpreted into German. Mark and Kelly Baumgartner are the founders and Lead Instructors at the Bible Institute of the Canary Islands. The Institute is the only Evangelical Bible School in the City of El Fraile.

The Canary Islands have a population of 1.3 million people with ½ of 1% being Christian believers. The Bible Institute graduates about twenty students a year. Each student completes classes that are required for a person to receive minister credentials with the National Assemblies of God of the Canary Islands.

The Baumgartner’s have helped start two churches with graduates of the Bible Institute as the pastors of the new works. The latest church is a congregation of German speaking believers.
Pastor Smith said the people of the Canary Islands are very hospitable and friendly people. “They are hungry for God and are very enthusiastic to attend church and to learn of God. It was a great honor for me to travel to the Islands and preach at the four churches and to speak to the Bible School students,” Smith said.

First Assembly of God in Seadrift helped him to go on the trip. “I could not have gone without their help,” Pastor Smith said. “The Seadrift Church understands the Great Commission. We are all called to reach the lost. It is not an option, but an urgent necessity,” Smith explained. Pastor Smith is planning more trips. He is making contact with missionaries about opportunities to preach in other countries of the world. Smith said, “Everyone deserves to hear the gospel, everyone deserves to hear about the saving grace of Jesus Christ.”