Gulf Coast Photos

We spent some time bay fishing this Summer on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The shot was taken from the front yard of our bay fishing guide's house / inn, where we also spent the night. It was nice, with comfortable bunks and several bathrooms. The food his wife cooked was excellent... Pancakes for breakfast and fresh seafood for evening meals.

We went fishing in the boat pictured here. According to Marvin Strakos (our fishing guide), German and Czech immigrants made up much of the post-Spanish, early European population of this area of Texas. Mrs. Strakos was born in Texas, but her family was originally from Germany. When she was younger, many of her family members still spoke German regularly amongst themselves (years after moving to Texas).

This is one of Marvin's dogs. She is laid back, always taking it easy (locker bleiben), like a true Texan.

The Ava Maria, a shrimp boat.

We travelled to various fishing spots in this boat. I'm standing in front of the boat, on the left side of the picture (wearing a cap, backwards). Craig's standing in the boat, wearing a blue and white cap. The other guys were along for the ride.

I can recommend Marvin's services. He's a nonstop story teller with a seemingly endless supply of curious and entertaining stories, and you'll catch fish with him, or the trip is free. I see that he also leads alligator hunts (read my alligator hunting story here).

We picked up live bait from one of the waterside bait stores before we got out into the bay. You can check out some of Marvin's bay fishing photo album from July 2004, about the time we were there.

We were wade fishing, which means we were right in the water with whatever we were catching. Unfortunately, we only caught a few small sharks and stingrays before ominous storm clouds blew in and cut our trip short. 

The Ava Maria, a shrimp boat.

Is this or is it not a crop of Milo?

Another of the seemingly innumerable roads to infinity that criss-cross Texas (remember, Texas has 8 times the area and 2.25 times the population of Austria).

We didn't catch many fish, but I still had a great time on the trip.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the drive home.