Well, what can I tell you about another well planned outing gone bad? Impatience is not a virtue but a mortal sin. Dustin and I committed to going once he scheduled this particular day off of work. Destination: Padre Island National Seashore. We took Dustin’s 4x4 Toyota and packed my zodiac in the back. Like I do in my Nissan, we strapped my 9.8 Tohatsu motor to the back of the passenger front seat. About three hours into the trip we hit the sand. The bumps didn’t seem any different than on any other beach I had driven on. The morning light hit us about 15 miles down the beach. We could clearly see that the surf was a torent and the water like chocolate milk. Not even a line wet and we were thinking about plan B, drive the whole 60 mile of beach to Port Mansfield. So, we did. A thousand rough spots and 21 deer sightings later we were at the scene of my first fall 2009 weather beaten trip. Once again Port Mansfield was not about to just hand over the fish. Dustin and I fished the surf and off the jetties first. I prepared to air up the zodiac when I discovered that the high pressure pump had broken in the back of the truck. Not only that but beer bottles in my cooler broke and soaked my sandwiches. Double whammy! We inflated the zodiac to the max pressure we could get it without the HPP. It floated and plowed but could not get on plane without being rigid. We fished a few near spots with the dinghy and turned up nothing with artificial. Only dead shrimp that Dustin brought prevented total skunkitude by landing us some hardhead cats. These were not ideal fish to land on a zodiac. It was like giving a cat with sharp claws a balloon to play with and it would be just a matter of time before we had an accident. So, we gave up on that and called it. Why is it that I write more about failed missions than I do successful ones? Texas winters: sometimes good and other times not so good.
