Shallow Red

Well, it has finally happened. It has gotten cold along the Gulf coast of Texas. Not only does this mean we can expect to see driving winds this month, but we’ll probably also experience some extremely foul weather at times, as well. Icy wind and chilling rain are two really good reasons why a lot of people choose not to fish during colder times of the year. However, many dedicated saltwater anglers who are willing to combat the elements in order to spend a day on the water can often recognize great rewards for their efforts. Some of the year’s largest trout can expect to be taken this month and next, but anglers should also recognize the need for them to possess a great deal of patience and perseverance in order to locate and land one of these behemoth cold-water gals.

Coastal anglers should expect to find fish in deeper water this month, especially if the weather turns extremely cold. Common deep bodies of water in our general vicinity include places such as the Army Hole that’s located just next to Pringle Lake out on Matagorda Island, the stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway from West Matagorda Bay to San Antonio Bay, and the Victoria Barge Canal which starts near the town of Seadrift. These are deep places that tend to hold fish during periods of extreme cold, but anglers don’t need to limit their search here. When temperatures drop, but are still not near freezing, wintertime trout and reds will often relocate to water that’s just a bit deeper than that where they were previously located just prior to the drop in temperature. This means anglers should also investigate area drains and ditches, canals, bayous, guts and creeks, especially any which happen to be situated just adjacent to a sandy, muddy, or grassy flat that allows a warming spot for the fish in between wintertime frontal passages.

The midpoint between cold fronts often provides a lull in the wind and some much needed warmth from the sun. During such days in January, anglers should look to some of the larger oyster reefs that populate the open waters of San Antonio Bay. And when the barometric pressure begins dropping in advance of the next approaching frontal passage, anglers will commonly be pleased when they discover the trout bite to be just a little better than normal as the fish tend to start preparing themselves for the onslaught of more cold weather. Happy New Year to you, and yours! Keep grindin’!

At the treats table are Grace Stone, Susie Onishi, Carol Lide and our USCG Commander In Charge, Joshua Martin.

First National Bank of Port O’Connor once again held a Cookie/Sweet Treat Contest at Christmas time. Twelve talented bakers entered the contest and 45 bank patrons participated in the tasting and voting.

The winners were:

“Best Tasting” won by Paige Satterfield with “Diabetes” cookie bars.

“Most Original” won by Dawn Ragusin with candy cane dusted white chocolate covered pretzels.

“Best Display” won by Brandy Boriskie with Brandyland Christmas sugar cookies.

Dawn, Debbie and Amber at First National, Port O’Connor wish to thank all who came out to share in the spirit of Christmas with them.

Port O’ Connor Improvement District has changed billing systems so please keep an eye out for your bill. If you go to www.eonlinebill.com/uswgu and create an account you can view your bill, pay your bill, view payment history, get set up with automatic bank draft, and paperless billing. If you have any billing questions or concerns, you may contact the office.

The main water line from GBRA to Port O’Connor Improvement District had a break in the line on Highway 1289. The leak was repaired on Monday January 8. Due to the leak in the main line a Boil Water Notice was issued by TCEQ. The Boil Water notice was a precautionary step due to the break in the main water line.

The Boil Water Notice was lifted on Wednesday January 10, at approximately 3:45 pm.

The Port O’ Connor Improvement District and LaSalle WCID No.1A customers will need to make sure to sign up for alerts on the District website as we had a lot of customers that were not alerted of the recent Boil Water Notice due to the 12” line break on Highway 1289.

Please note, to receive an alert in regard to POCID activities, please sign up at our website pocid.org. It only takes a few minutes and then you will receive alerts in regard to water, sewer, storm events, outages, etc. Please sign up.. all it takes is an email address.

Call our office at 361-983-2652 for any questions.

The Next time for the Roll Off Container will be February 3, 2018

All residents of Port O Connor on the Air Vac System please take time to look around your yard for possible infiltration or inflow into the sewer system. Such as clean out caps off, your candy cane or vent is loose allowing rain water to enter into the system. Finding these problems will help in reducing unwanted water into our sewer system.

I believe it all started in 2008 or 2009, when my daughter went off to college, as she teased me that she was replaced by 19 girls! It started in the kitchen of the fellowship hall at First Baptist Church in Seadrift TX. There was a call to get something started with the kids. Jennifer Mikolas and I got in the kitchen and started to teach these young ladies to cook along with lessons in life and devotions as well. We called them The GA’s like Rachael Ray. The girls made a pecan pie, crust from scratch and even cracked the pecans! Great talk time when you’re doing that!

Soon the boys came by to sample the cooking, the crowds grew, and we found ourselves cooking and feeding over 100 children on Wednesday evenings, and filling them with the knowledge of the Lord and songs of Praise. You think they had a blessing; the workers were the ones getting the Blessing! We learned missions by feeding sick members with food we had prepared. We even prepared the snacks for the grand opening of our new library. Each Wednesday was a miracle of its own; on a shoestring budget, the crowd was nourished in more ways than one.

The Lord saw the need and used the ideas of Tommy Stanfill and manpower of the church body to build and fund a million dollar building. The kids moved from the fellowship hall to a spacious building that also houses a gym. We have had many leaders over the years. At times we didn’t have a leader, but it was consistent; these kids learned the stories in the Bible. We have had setbacks and this year Charlotte Wooldridge, Nancy Henson and many others fed and clothed folks in the youth building in the aftermath of Harvey, The call is still there; the children of our community need to learn about Jesus Christ. So, the workers cleaned the youth building and we are preparing to begin again with the Youth.

We were formerly known as WOW-Worship on Wednesday, we will be going forward as KFC –Kids for Christ. We will be meeting on a new day, Mondays! The times will be from 6:00 to7:00 pm. For middle school and up, we will be in the kitchen cooking up a snack at 4:30, and learning how to clean up also.

If you feel you would like to help be a part of serving the kids of this community, we will welcome you.

Church office hours are 9:00 to 1:00 Monday – Friday.

361 785-3411