Jacob Ryland Stryker, born April 2, 2015 to Jason and Candice Stryker and big sister Clara of Port O’Connor, TX. Jacob was born at Memorial Medical Center and weighed 8 lbs 9.9 oz and was 21 inches long. His grandparents are Sonny Cook (Port O’Connor) and Carrie Cook (Ingleside), Robert and Pam Stryker (Schroeder), great grandparents Bert and Joanne Haynes (Port O’Connor ) and Ashley Engle (Norman, OK).

Congratulations to Janie Goldman who was inducted into the Daughters of the Republic of Texas on May 2 by virtue of her ancestor Daniel Webster Lee, a citizen of the Republic. Janie, the daughter of Johnny and Joyce Rhyne of Port O’Connor, is a Forensic Science and Food Science Teacher at Clear Brook High School and writes “Cooking with G” for Dolphin Talk.

60th Reunion of the Last Graduating Class  (1955) of Port Lavaca High School!

What a great 60th reumion at the lovely home of Waymon and Ann Boyd overlooking Lavaca Bay!  Special guest was Ann Ford Smith, our freshman PE teacher.  Our delicious meal was catered by Liz and Jim Rudellat.  Even had guitar and violin music during our meal provided by the Vannoy’s grandsons from Houston.  After a lot of visiting and “story” telling, we are ready for the next reunion.
Pictured: Back row left to right:  Jimmy Partlow, Russell Grant, Roman Koronczyk, David Dierlam, Kenneth Boyd-Robertson, Ruthie Berger Boyd-Robertson, Jerry Dodson, Wynona Morgenroth Shannon, Evelyn Knebel Motl, Lloyd Meyer, Buzzy Lane, Virilene Walker Freemen, Charlie Kroll, Joyce McDonald Shillings, Huey Smith, Murlyn O’Bryant, Barbara Burton Koliba, William Sturm, Lloyd Cody, Charles Vannoy.

Front row left to right:  Ann Ford Smith, Dianna Renfro Reeves, Barbara Jackson Crouch, Harry Stellman, Elsie Paychacek Hamilton, Sue Beck Crober, Ann Fisher Boyd, Joyce Gerdes Smith, Paul Kelm, Bob Koliba. Not pictured: Larry Garcia.                      Photo by Robert Rodriquez

60 tons of trash removed from Texas beaches Saturday

Nearly 5,000 hard-core Adopt-A-Beach volunteers braved thunderstorms and wind Saturday April 18 to haul more than 60 tons of trash off Texas beaches for the 29th annual Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Spring Cleanup.

“Adopt-A-Beach volunteers are a dedicated group,” Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush said. “I want to thank them for making a difference. They are what makes Adopt-A-Beach one of the most successful volunteer efforts in the nation.”

Saturday’s cleanup wasn’t just all work — at most sites volunteers enjoyed a party afterward hosted by cleanup sponsors such as HEB, Shell or Schlumberger.

And aside from the usual cigarette butts, beer cans and diapers, some pretty odd and interesting items were found, including a urn full of ashes on Galveston Island, crab traps and tires at Sargent Beach, a catheter bag at San Jose Island, a dead armadillo and a rattlesnake at Magnolia Beach, lab samples and ping-pong balls at Mustang Island State Park and a 6-foot piece of rail from a railroad track at Austwell Pier that dates back nearly 100 years.

Adopt-A-Beach volunteers at Surfside even turned over a few injured seagulls to a local wild animal rehabilitation center. The volunteers said the birds had broken wings from wind gusts and head trauma from the hail storms that had just swept through before the cleanup.

Adopt-A-Beach volunteers make Texas beaches cleaner for every living thing that depends on them, from local tourist bureaus to crabs, birds and turtles. Over the past 29 years, 481,000 volunteers have picked up more than 9,100 tons of trash from Texas beaches as part of the General Land Office’s Adopt-A-Beach cleanups.
To learn more about the Adopt-A-Beach program, visit www.TexasAdoptABeach.org or contact the GLO at 1-877-TX COAST. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/texasadoptabeach and follow us on Twitter at @TXadoptabeach.

The results for Saturday’s cleanup in Calhoun County:

Cleanup Site Miles Cleaned Volunteers Tons Collected (lbs)
Port Lavaca, Magnolia Beach (Bay) 6 99 0.725 (1,450)
Boggy Nature Park (Bay) – canceled 0 0 0 0
Port O’ Connor, King Fisher Beach (Bay) 1 35 0.65 (1,300)
County Total 7 134 1.375 (2,750)

Melissa, better known as Mom; Momma’s happy, everybody’s happy.
Capt. Jeff Larson

Finally, a break from the rain and here come the mosquitoes. We all know they are big as teal, down here.  Plus, You need a shotgun to exterminate them. When they raise their wings and start attacking, I always threaten to install a mosquito mister, then I realize I would be misting everybody’s yard but my on, due to the strong winds blowing the mist into my neighbors yard. BTW, I do have good luck with Cutter’s yard sprayer to keep them in check, its the one that hooks up directly to the water hose. We can’t gripe too much about the standing rain water that breeds mosquitoes because there are more benefits when we get this much rain.

The rain is really helping the trout population.  The run off gives the upper bays a good flush. We suspect it also concentrates the schools of trout. We have been seeing plenty at the cleaning tables.  The good news is we are having a better trout catching year in this area compared to last year’s numbers.  I’m sure there is a fisherman who catches trout every time he goes out and wants to argue this point. But for most of the guides, who have been here for over a decade, remember last year was off on catching trout, comparatively speaking.  The reds are still plentiful and have been a good fish to target and catch. Black drum are still making it into the cooler if you fish for the striped bottom feeders. Top waters are definitely NOT the bait of choice for ‘em.  Peeled shrimp is by far the best bait to bend your rod on black drum.

The water has been steadily warming, bringing the spawning trout up shallow to spawn. The topwater bite is definitely on for the fishermen who enjoy the challenge of catching their 5 in inches of water.  We have been using super spooks, junior spooks, broken backs, badonk-a-donk HP & LP.  These tops are great choices to use for wading and drifting. Topwater baits come in many different colors. “Red and White is always right,” is a saying you might have heard and is a good rule of thumb when you are choosing to buy or select a top to use for trout and reds. Of course everyone has there personal preference. One color I recommend is anyone of the above listed baits with an orange bottom.  Do you remember Producers Ghost, Halloween, is a great color that yielded tons of fish and blow ups.

The wind has been blowing up the tide all over our bay systems making it easy to get in the back bays to stay out of the wind. It really hasn’t stopped the bite but has wrecked some reefs in San Antonio Bay, West Matagorda Bay, and up in Lavaca Bay.  It’s hard to fish in the open bay’s when the wind is pumping 20 plus.  The fish are still there but it gets uncomfortable.  It’s best to get out early in the mornings before it starts to build.

Here’s one for you. How many readers, fishermen and fisherbabes, keep sting rays.  They are great shark bait and are used to catch big sharks in the surf.  I was out scouting the other day getting ready for up and coming charters, when I decided to keep one I caught.  It was a small one so I figured keeping it might save a wader from getting tagged in the calf muscle this summer.  We have all heard their wings are used for scallops and who doesn’t like scallops? Not knowing the best way to fillet a stingray I looked it up in an encyclopedia.  There it was right below where it shows you how to catch them.  Enough,  I Google’d  it, YouTube’d it, watched it a few times on my wrist watch phone and proceeded to hack away.  A sharp knife makes it nice when slicing the wings off.  The fillet, rather small, was impressively white and firm so I sautéed them for lunch and they were just as good a tasting as any other fish in the bay. The plan is now to stream line cutting the tail and barb off safely and keeping a few from time to time. They taste good,  you have to clean fish anyway, so why not keep a few for dinner. We see a ton while gigging and we would get em out of the wade fishermen’s way. I will keep you posted.

Texas Turkey Season, South Zone, is now closed and was very eventful.  Plenty of fluffed up birds danced around and on top of the Jake decoy only to find, LIGHTS OUT!  We made plenty of Turkey Jerky with this year’s birds  using a dehydrator.  It’s real easy, set it and forget it.

Give Scott a call at the Saltwater Lodge and he will hook you up, literally.

361 – 785 – DUCK ( 3825 ).

May your bobber get towed way under and the rod jerked out of your hand.

Captain Jeff Larson
281-217-0399

Spring Season – a Blast!
Capt. Jeff Larson