During the May 1 City Meeting in Seadrift Mike Mueller was recognized for his service with the Calhoun County Independent School District. He has served ten years as a trustee. During that time he also served as president and secretary. May 13 was his last day to serve on the school board.

Mike is a long-time resident of Seadrift having lived in the area for 32 years. Along with his wife Joann, Mike enjoys spending time with family. He also loves fishing, gardening, and travel. Best wishes to you and yours, Mike!

Appreciating Mom and Dryer Sheets

Greetings from the island everyone.  I hope all of you are doing well and enjoyed a wonderful Mother’s Day with your mom this past Sunday.  Whether visiting with her in a heavenly way, or blessed to still have her in person, our moms deserve and have earned all the love and appreciation that we can give them on their special day.  I was blessed to be able to attend church and visit and have lunch with my mom, Leona, and family, and I thank God for every opportunity to be with her.  I love you, Mom.

I attended the dedication of the new POC Library a few weeks ago, and this is going to be a beautiful building and great library to enjoy.  The project is not yet completed, but everyone attending was given a walk-thru, and it’s gonna be nice.  Please support your new POC Library by purchasing a permanently laid  paver with your name inscribed. .  this is a great cause.  Contact Friends of the POC Library, 512-567-1464, for info.

I walked outside on the porch a few weeks ago, right at dark, and saw a huge fire in the middle of the bay near POC.  The flames were very high and lit up the sky.  I called my friends, Britton and Susan, and they drove down to Front Beach to determine what happened,  and they could see the sky glowing from the flames well before getting there.  The source of the fire was a dredging barge that had caught fire after rupturing an abandoned underwater natural gas pipeline during their dredging, about one mile off Front Beach.  Thankfully the crewmen were able to escape the barge and no one was injured.

On a very positive note about the dredging, the spoils from that channel project have been used to create a beautiful wide beach area for POC Front Beach.  There is now an amazing and relaxing expanded beach area for everyone, especially kids, to play and enjoy.  I walked the entire new beach area recently, and was very impressed.  This is a great addition for POC.  Thank you to everyone responsible.

I attended the Crawfish Festival this month and had a great time.  I was told that 5,000 people paid at the front gate, not counting vendors, cookers and volunteers, so there were a lot of people there.  The arrangement and setup of the festival was perfect, and the bands played great music.  Thank you to the POC Chamber of Commerce for organizing a very successful Crawfish Festival.

I ventured across to the mainland and spent a few days house/dog sitting for good friends, Karen and Leroy, earlier this month.  Corky enjoyed playing with their Rottweiler, Zoe, who I leave him to play with on some of my mainland trips.  I had forgotten how nice it was to have a clothes dryer and use those little scented sheets, making laundry smell very nice.  Those things are great!  On the island I only have  a solar powered dryer (clothes line), which works great, but doesn’t add that nice scent.
I recently submitted the paperwork to do some volunteer work at the POC Elementary School.  I had read that a gardening area project had been established for the students, and I am excited about helping out and donating seed grown island tomato plants for the kids to grow.  The idea of kids learning to be self-sufficient in this way is a wonderful thing, and a positive testament to POC Elementary’s desire to teach.  Speaking of gardening, my tomato plants are doing pretty well, I just wish that the skies would open up and deliver a few inches of much needed rain.  The watermelon and cantaloupe plants have kicked in and are doing good as well.

As with anything mechanical out here in this corrosive island environment, I’ve been having issues with my old truck.  Over time, the evil foe we islanders call rust, takes its toll on all metal parts, it is simply part of island life.

I continue to be humbled by the kind words of strangers that I meet in town, that enjoy the Island Life articles.  Thank you, Lauren Martin from Richmond, Tx.  for your appreciation of the articles.  I’ll continue to write them as long as they are enjoyed.

Well that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a great day.

City of Seadrift Employees- Terry Maddux, Noah Rodriguez & Draven Adame pose with our character cut outs made by a couple of very talented FNB employees (Linda Johnson & Lisa Rogers)!

The theme was Star Wars…our team name was wE Wok for A Cure at FNB…the objective was to help the American Cancer Society save more lives by funding groundbreaking cancer research, supporting education and prevention efforts, and providing free information and critical services for people with cancer who need them. Employees at First National Bank (Port Lavaca, Seadrift, and Port O’Connor) are honored to announce our total contribution, as we call came together to host various fundraisers for this year’s Relay for Life held at the Calhoun County fairgrounds on May 4th. We are blessed to work for a company that believes in investing time & energy back into our community!

We thank all who made donations, sponsored luminaries, bought baked goods, and attended our garage sale and silent auction! We also thank all the teams that participated at the relay in this common goal.

Sincerely, Employees of FNB

Father and Son Family Time! Making Memories!
-Capt. Jeff Larson

OK, May is underway! There is still a little freaky weather out there, late fronts, high tide then low tide, who knows what the weather will bring tomorrow. Faron Floyd and I were in Kentucky Turkey Hunting. It has only snowed that late in April three times in 100 years. I have been there two of those times in my lifetime. Here’s one for ya, The Farmer’s Almanac is predicting some drought conditions for us this year. Based on what I could tell flipping through it the other day. Its anyone’s guess.

ANYWAY, The Trout Bite is on Fire! Captains DB, Danny Shane and myself went for a reef hoping session a couple of weeks ago. The 1st couple of reefs yielded a quick smoker trout for Doug and Danny but went dormant as fast as it started. So we kept bouncing from reef to reef and saw the well sought after trout sign upon a small reef. Active birds giving us the ol’ high sign here they are. I pointed to ‘em, DB hollered “Birds Working!” over some high volume Led Zeppelin riffs and Danny followed my crooked finger to a small no name shell reef. We bailed out and within minutes we had our five a piece. So like any good buddies would do, we sent strap pix to our buddies stuck in morning traffic in every major city around Texas. It wasn’t a Brag, it was a wish you were here pic. We had popped 15 decent trout nothing really over 18”. We went to the Casa and called it a great morning! Danny pulled up to my house, I jumped out as Kid Rock – I Wanna be a Cowboy faded in the distant. Danny has one of the Best Sound Systems that I have heard on the water. Not sure what it was though. Great Trip! I appreciate the ride, my friends.

On the Red Fish Scene. Low tides mean outside shorelines or jetties UNLESS you have some custom low-to-no water needed transportation. The ol’ Air Sled has been putting my customers in the schools of Reds and Drum. Tops, tails and bait are all working. Even flies are working for the Fly Guys. The reds have been all decent ones ranging from 20 to 26 inches. The jetties have been yielding upper slots and over. Keep your tag handy if you want to fish the jetties.

All the Bait stands are loaded up with bait prior to the weekend. Croaker, shrimp and mullet, live or dead, are the natural baits of choice. Get their early and often.

The surf is another area that is starting to heat up for trout and reds when you can get out there after a light norther blows through our area and settles it down. The trout are solid. Just be careful when fishing close to the beach. Rogue waves or a set of ‘em can capsize and rain havoc on the best of boats and watermen.

We have been getting a few inquiries about flounder gigging. Flounder gigging is off the charts as well. Captain Pat Lester just called and was telling me about two of his charters. A few days ago he had a flounder trip with a five man group of Fathers and Sons. They left the dock about 9 PM and were done with their 25 before midnight. Last night Bubba and he went for a couple of hours and grabbed their limit real quick. We are on the back side of the full moon so gigging will be good any night you wanna go. Don’t forget the mosquito spray!!

Billy is on standby to get you set up and booked into the Lodge. Give him a call at: 713-907-4796.

Looks like it is going to be a great summer. Looking forward to fishing with you,

Captain Jeff Larson: 281 217 0399
“Legend in his own mind..”