Boz’s Blog
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I have wasted a serious amount of time writing various versions of “What Happened to Our House in Seabrook When Hurricane Ike Hit,” and now realize it’s best to sum it up in three words, briefly elaborate, and move on.
We got hammered.
A little over three feet of Galveston Bay paid the house a visit, moving furniture and personal items with the random efficiency that only a 15-foot storm surge can muster.
Some 80 percent of our belongings are history, the house is devoid of everything including sheetrock and I won’t begin to go into the alleged insurance policy debacle (not for now, anyway) other than to say you need to be damn sure that you really do have a flood policy that is a really a flood policy before another hurricane hits.
You may not be in such good hands after all.
We have found a condo for which we have signed a one-year lease, and will move to said residence in around a week. From there we will set up house (and the office) and with that as our headquarters do what we can to rebuild.
Meanwhile, Liz and I continue to be extremely grateful for our friends and family. My brother, Bill, and sister-in-law Pam opened their doors to us on September 11 (ironic date, that one) and we have been here since.
I won’t thank friends at this point for fear of all too easily omitting someone.
They didn’t do it for publicity, anyway.
That’s why they are friends.
We have watched virtually no television in the past six weeks, but have caught up on plenty of patio time. Two weeks on generator power had something to do with that as well.
Kicking back on the back porch, I finally got a chance to photograph a hummingbird. And it occurred to me:
If God can give this tiny little bird the power to navigate the open seas during its annual migrations, He can and will see us through this as well.
If you are interested in seeing some of the photos of what happened to our little neighborhood east of Highway 146 in Seabrook, Texas, go to www.flickr.com and search under “coastalangler.”
To all of those who have shared and continue to share their good wishes and prayers, it’s summed up with two more words.
Thank you.

Boz

Read: Life After Ike »

My longtime friend and fellow shooter Mark Hall of CoastalPhotos.net and I will be spending a few days with Capt. Terry Neal of Port Mansfield next week, fly fishing the flats and sight-casting to tailing redfish. We will also fish with Capt. Randle Hall of Geaux Deep Charters on his 31-foot Bertram, named (naturally) “Geaux Deep,” and take advantage of the opening weekend of white-winged dove season while we are at it.
The end result, with any luck at all, will be a “Three Days in the Field” travelogue tentatively slated for the January ’09 issue of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. These pieces are essentially journal compilations, written as we go, and are hopefully half as much fun to read as they are to execute. For once, after two previously-scheduled blow-outs, the wind conditions down Mansfield way look very promising.
Aside from conventional fly fishing, we’ll be using inshore Black Salty baitfish on the flats as part of a sight-casting experiment. As of late, I have done a lot of fishing with Woodee Rods’ 7-1/2-foot fast-action spinning rods (www.woodeerods.com), fitted with U.S. Reels SuperCaster and Doug Hannon Wave Spin spinning reels. Both carry 6-pound-diameter, 20-pound-test Sufix superline, and both cast like the proverbial wind.
They’re fun and effective to fish any time, but when the wind gets too high to allow for effective fly casting, these specialized spinning combos step right in so we never miss a shot at an in-range redfish.
Always on the lookout for yet another good story … and particularly to construct our regular podcast interviews on Great American Outdoor Trails Radio Magazine (www.gaot.net), with host Jim Ferguson, we will also fish Offshore Saltys for red snapper in Texas waters and then fish the big XL-size baits aboard the Geaux Deep with the utilization of the “kite fishing” technique.
The kite fishing goal is to … catch this … hook and land a Texas sailfish. This is one time that, no matter how many fish meet the gaff or how many palomas go in the bird bags, I strongly suspect we are going to return home with some great stories.
Half of the fun is the travel, and Hall and I have learned how to appreciate and capitalize upon every single precious moment of it.
It’s been a while since we tried to fish a wind that didn’t have a name, so we are really looking forward to this one.
Check CoastalAnglers.com next weekend for a rundown of some of the details, and what we learned.

PORT MANSFIELD VOLUNTEERS CLEAR DEBRIS FROM WATER

Speaking of learning something, Capt. Neal called me yesterday to let me know that he and 8 other volunteers recently spent a day that was purely focused on retrieving the scattered detritus of Hurricane Dolly from Port Mansfield-area waters. The stuff was presenting a serious navigational hazard, and although Neal and crew didn’t get all of it, what they did extract substantially reduces the possibility of getting a pier piling through the fiberglass.
“Dolly tore out a lot of the piers on the north and south sides of town,” Neal told me. “A lot of the big pilings that were holding the ends of the piers down were gone. As for as structural damage goes, there was not anything serious,” he added. “There was, however, some wind damage due to lost shingles and water getting blown into some facilities.
“After the storm,” Neal continued, “we started going out and seeing so much debris in the bay that it was scary. It was packed in all the way up the west shoreline, including a bunch of 15-foot-long, 12-inch-diameter pilings hung up on the shallow grass bars with their ends protruding out of the water. Still,” he noted, “they were very hard to see.
“So, the first thing we did was identify them, using Styrofoam pool noodles so people would not run over them,” Neal explained. “Then, 8 or 9 guys volunteered their boats and brought deckhands to help with the cleanup effort. We tied the pilings on to ropes and pulled them in.”
By the time Neal and volunteers were through, they had towed approximately 100 pieces of heavy debris to shore.
“There is no guarantee we got it all,” Neal cautioned. “In fact, it is certain that we didn’t, and a lot of what remains is submerged … in some cases, right below the surface. A lot of it this stuff sinks real fast. Boaters still need to be very careful running the west shoreline.”
According to the veteran flats fishing guide, there is also scattered debris south of Port Mansfield that will be marked and picked up within the next several days. “A few of the fishing cabins on the Intracoastal Canal completely disappeared,” he said. “We’re talking about entire houses that are gone. We need a good low tide to be able to see it all, and it may be the first hard cold front of this fall before we get a really comprehensive look.
“We had a big storm surge with Dolly,” Neal continued, “and although most people don’t realize it, we got another substantial surge with Hurricane Gustav.”
The good news?
“Gustav brought in a lot of green, Caribbean-clear water,” he reported, “and the East Cut is stacked full of trout. I know that because I was out there scouting for reds for the trip we are making next week, and instead of redfish, caught a limit of trout blind-casting with a fly rod. I was throwing a chartreuse Clouser minnow fly. (For the record, Neal’s son T.J. owns East Cut Saltwater Flies, and ties what are without a doubt some of the finest fly-rod offerings available anywhere. For more info, check the Web at www.eastcut.com).
“As for redfish,” Neal added, “they are everywhere. On any given day of wade fishing you will find at least several concentrated pods of quality reds working their way across the flats, feeding on crabs and other bottom forage.”
For more information on Port Mansfield, from one of the area’s premier pros, contact Capt. Terry Neal of Terry Neal Charters at 956-642-7357. Check the Web at www.terrynealcharters.com or send email to terry_r_neal@msn.com.
To check out the offshore scene, contact Capt. Randle Hall at 956-689-1911, check the Web at www.geauxdeep.com or send email to captainhall@geauxdeep.com.
By the way, we’ll be spending our down time at the Port Mansfield Sunset House, a comfortable and nicely-appointed hotel situated at 1144 S. Port Drive in Port Mansfield. For information or to book a room, call 1-800-311-4250, send email to portmansfieldsunsethouse@comcast.net or take a look on the Web at www.portmansfieldsunsethouse.com. Aside from owning the hotel and doing an awesome job of maintaining and operating it, owners Ed and Debbie Freeman are also veteran outfitters who can hook you up with quality fishing and hunting trips in not only Texas but Mexico and elsewhere.
Plus, they are just bona fide nice folks.
We are, as Willie memorialized it, “On the Road Again.”
We’ll be back in touch soon as we hit town. Meanwhile, no matter where you are boating, pay close attention to the water and be safe out there.

Boz

Read: On the Road to Port Mansfield; Area Volunteer Cleanup Well Underway »

As I write this, the eye of Hurricane Gustav is making landfall only a few miles from Cocodrie, a tiny little fishing community near Terrebone and Vermillion Bays in southeast Louisiana. I used to fish there several times a year, until my friend Tom Holliday passed away and his lodge changed ownership.
The fishing was incredible.
I’ve been invited back, and hope to fish there again, assuming there is still a lodge standing on the shores of the narrow spit of land and sand after Gustav has diminished and dispersed. That is a dubious prospect at best. Then again, Louisiana is made up of some very stubborn and resilient individuals, and they may well surprise us all.
Meanwhile, our prayers are with them.
It’s difficult to construe anything positive from something that causes so much outright misery for so many people. Yet, hurricanes are essential components of Mother Nature’s plan, and despite their inflicted damages they nonetheless do indeed contribute to the health of saltwater bays and estuaries.
The topic came up Saturday, when I was called by Santa Barbara, California outdoor talk show host John Henigin of Fish Talk Radio to participate in an interview (www.fishtalkradio). The show is webcast, and you can, if you like, go to the archives to find and listen to programs that you didn’t catch live. Henigin and crew wanted to know if tropical storms and hurricanes had much of an effect on coastal fishing.
I assured them that they do.
In negative scenarios, saltwater storm surge flows can back up over deep-inland nurseries and estuaries and stay there long enough to deprive the area’s vegetation of oxygen. The result is a devastating fish-killer colloquially known as “black water.” It is yet to be seen if Gustav will have that effect.
What is certain, though, is that the hurricane will in effect “flush out the bays.” When significant storms pass over bay systems, their powerful surges essentially “clean up” the locales, washing out accumulated silt and significantly deepening channels, and accordingly, increasing the intensity of currents and tidal flows.
The same holds true for the surf. Although siltation does not tend to be a major issue inside surf guts (the tide-carved trenches between sand bars), the passage of a storm usually creates “cuts.” Sand bars and guts run parallel to the beachfront. Cuts are just what they imply, shortcut passageways

Read: There’s a Silver-Sided Lining to Every Storm »

It’s a choice I made, living in a home less than a mile from the western shoreline of Upper Galveston Bay. I’m really happy here, and why not? Seabrook, Texas is a great little community, a quaintly-tropical locale just far enough away from the “big city” of Houston to retain its identity as a small town, a place where every time you go to Kroger for groceries or Lyna’s Dry Cleaners you run into someone you know.
The town mascot is the pelican, and for good reason. The birds are everywhere, soaring above the Seabrook Lagoon and not too far away delighting visitors to the Kemah Boardwalk.
There are many other birds here as well … green herons, roseate spoonbills, black-crested night herons, blue herons, snowy egrets, ospreys, and of course, along with many other species, a burgeoning population of seagulls.
As a wildlife photographer, I couldn’t have chosen a better place.
The Clear Lake Channel is five minutes away … less than that if you miss the red light on Hwy. 146 at Nasa Road One. My boat is always ready to go, and there are always good places to go. For years I have been catching redfish, speckled trout and flounder from some of the most unlikely-looking locales imaginable. Those fish care about the presence of baitfish, not what is on the shore. If there happens to be a million-dollar home within casting distance of a quality fishing spot, so be it.
Our police department, our fire department, you name it … everyone who works with the city is an integral component of our community, a place where we all rely upon each other when situations make it necessary.
Such situations include the possible appearance of a tropical storm or hurricane.
I knew that when I chose to buy a house here in 1995.
Right now, with Hurricane Gustav loosely targeted for a massive “cone of uncertainty,” we are all on edge. We have been here before. Ever since Hurricane Alicia, we have been immeasurably lucky. Tropical Storm Allison dumped a torrential deluge on the Houston area, with subsequent flooding that wreaked havoc on our residents, our businesses and our lives.
My son was three months old when Alicia passed through 25 years ago. I still remember cradling him in my arms as the howls of the storm’s surging wind shrieked and moaned for hours. I was, at the time, living in Southwest Houston off of the West Loop.
Now, here in Seabrook, it’s a wholly different picture. If we have to evacuate we will, but I pray that the evacuation will be nothing like the traumatic debacle that preceded Hurricane Rita three years ago.
They called it “The Disaster Within the Disaster,” and aptly so. Liz and I were in separate vehicles, on occasion handing out cold bottled water to less-fortunate road warriors whose engines had overheated on Beltway 8 and the Westpark Tollway.
People died that day. One of them was an elderly woman inside a car in front of us who succumbed to heatstroke. We did what we could to help get the traffic stream to move over to accommodate the ambulance driver desperately trying to reach her. One guy in particular, driving a pickup, refused to move over to let the ambulance past. I’ll skip the details, but suffice it to say I resorted to threatening him with terminal injury in order to get him to move over, which he finally did.
Sadly. it was too late.
The lady was in the rear seat of an ancient Chevrolet four-door, one whose rear windows would only roll halfway down. The EMTs did all they could to get IV lines through the window space, trying to hydrate the stricken victim, but they lost her.
The temperature on the Explorer dash gauge showed 123 degrees. Vehicles had been sitting on the asphalt, motors running, long enough to make the black road surface as hot as a griddle.
Why, I wondered, was the guy in the truck so resolute in his determination not to let that ambulance past. Another mile down the highway (which translated to an hour behind the wheel) the reason became obvious. There was a gas station at the next exit, and the driver did not want to lose his place in line.
That day was a nightmare, one I hope we will never witness the likes of again. I understand TXDOT is already taking measures to facilitate the one-way lane conversion that will expedite evacuation, and hopefully, make us far better prepared to cope with the ramifications if the storm ultimately heads this direction.
“If.”
That is as good as it gets right now.
We are watching Gustav’s path, like everyone else. If we are told to evacuate, we will.
What worries me is that many others will not. The ghastly memory of the Rita evacuation is still fresh to them. They vowed after that day to never again be sucked into a fiasco of that sort, and understandably.
What’s frightening, though, is the contingency of coastal citizens already resolutely stating they will “ride it out” this time. If Gustav, even as a Category Three hurricane, hits the Galveston area, they may well end up riding it out atop a piece of floating debris on Galveston Bay.
No matter how horrible the memories of the collective Rita escape, those of us who live close to the water need to understand that Rita was Rita and Gustav is Gustav … two different hurricanes, each with its own potentially-catastrophic predilection to unpredictability and its own lethal potential to flatten the low-lying areas of the Upper Texas Coast.
Todville Road, just down the street here in Seabrook, goes underwater with an unusually high tide pushed by a southerly wind. With any kind of storm, it becomes a reef.
Please, if you are thinking of staying at home in the event that Gustav center-punches the Freeport-to-Gilchrist area, perish that thought. Calamitous as the Rita getaway turned out to be … and again, officials are already taking preemptive measures to avoid another such tragedy … it still beat the dickens out of staying at the house and learning too late that the house might not still be standing once the storm has passed.
So, we pray, and we wait.
I just pray that some of us don’t choose to wait too long.

Read: Waiting for Gustav … But Don’t Wait Too Long »

A healthy dose of skepticism is always critical to any product appraisal. When John Stuart of the Garland, Texas-based Scent Shop approached me this past April at the Rockport Spring Fling media event, I told him up-front that before I could write anything about his products I had to see the results for myself.
Stuart respected that, only asking that I give his Skeeter Screen products an honest evaluation. Now, a little over four months later, I can assure you with all due confidence that the Scent Shop’s repellent products … Skeeter Screen Reed Diffusers and Skeeter Screen Personal Mosquito Deterrent spray … do everything they promise. Enterprising outdoorsmen will probably, like me, discover that they do substantially more.
I don’t care if you are sequestered in a freshly-brushed duck blind or kicking back in the back yard hot tub, mosquitoes are some of Mother Nature’s most obnoxious denizens. Living in Seabrook, Texas, less than a mile away from Upper Galveston Bay and some of the state’s premier mosquito breeding grounds, I possess a deep appreciation for anything that can repel the things.
Both of the products Stuart gave me at the meeting do exactly that. This coming Christmas, I expect to buy more than a few packages of both items to share as “stocking stuffers.”
Neckties are fine, I suppose, but even the finest Neiman Marcus accessory can’t help you when bloodthirsty insects invade your turf.
We were, for the better part of the summer, a virtually mosquito-free zone here in Seabrook. The city does a great job of fogging the neighborhoods. When I hear those trucks coming, it’s like detecting beautiful strains of classical music. Unfortunately, though, even intense fogging efforts fall short when mosquito breeding conditions fall into place with the proper amount of rainfall collected in just enough untended back yard planter pots and open containers.
About a week ago, worn out and sore from running my boat on some choppy waters the day before, I attempted to take a dip in my back yard Jacuzzi. I realized before I touched the water that the long-anticipated and highly-dreaded mosquito infestation had finally become reality. The nasty things chased me inside, and I was on the verge of opting for the bathtub when I remembered the container of Skeeter Screen Reed Diffusers sitting on a shelf in my study.
 It took about 20 seconds to set it up. If you have ever been to Pier One and bought room-freshening scent sticks in various fragrances, you have already seen Stuart’s products. Inside the box is a small glass vase filled with clear solution, a chrome ring that is placed atop the container in place of the cap and a rubber-banded sheaf of 10 wick sticks. Uncap the vase, slide on the ring, immerse the sticks and you’re in business.
 Actually, if you are going to be using one of the devices fresh out of the box I recommend giving it at least an hour for the sticks to thoroughly absorb the repellent. A less-patient fishing buddy of mine places the sticks in the solution for a few minutes and then re-inserts them the other way down.
 I placed the setup on the fringe of my hot tub and went back inside to do a little writing. Just an hour later I went back outside. The bugs were gone.
 I don’t mean diminished. I mean gone.
 It wasn’t insignificant that the night air was as still as a fence post that evening. Common sense tells me that a brisk breeze would reduce the efficiency … but then again, that’s why Stuart sells Skeeter Screen Personal Mosquito Deterrent. I have used that product as well, and am similarly impressed with the results.
 Yesterday evening, after a half-day of drift-fishing Upper Galveston Bay with my fish-farming friend Kenneth Henneke of Hallettsville and his family, I found myself on the driveway swatting mosquitoes as I gave the 225 Mercury its customary post-trip freshwater flushing. The mosquitoes were unusually thick, and every bit as hungry as ever.
 I went into the study once again, pulled out the bottle, applied a light spray, went back outside, and bingo … no more bites. What’s really surprising … and, of particular interest to people with sensitive skin … is the fact that Stuart’s repellents contain zero DEET. Long acknowledged as the hands-down defeater of attacking mosquitoes, DEET is nonetheless a pretty harsh chemical. People will tell you that it’s worth it, that any insect repellent that does not incorporate the stuff will not do the job.
 In this case, people are wrong.
 Stuart is quick to note that his products are not limited to mosquitoes alone. In fact, the purpose that I find almost as appealing as a skeeter-free hot tub is the prospect of only having to kill the yellowjackets in our Lavaca County deer stands once a season.
 We are not unique in this regard, I am sure, but Post Oak Savannah yellowjackets are notorious squatters. Build a deer stand, and soon, they will come. Kill them with wasp spray, and within a month, they will come back. We spend half as much time hunting for yellowjacket and wasp nests as we do hunting.
 Not this season. We’re whacking the ‘jackets one time and then affixing a vase of reed diffusers in a corner of every stand we hunt. Stuart has many testimonials to back it up (including one from an intrepid engineer who works in the jungles of Peru), but I am confident that when he says the insects won’t return, they won’t.
 We’ll be clearing the yellowjackets and wasps out of those stands within the next several weeks. Give me two months and I’ll be able to fully verify the product’s propensity to keep a confined area like a box blind clear of insects … and not just yellowjackets, wasps and pesky mud daubers, but all insects … including the growing horde of bees that in the past couple of years has taken a liking to stinging us (Africanized, I am convinced, but that is another story).
 Skeeter Screen is designed for both indoor and outdoor use. One set of reeds will protect up to 200 square feet … around 184 square feet more than the typical box blind. Stuart claims the product will maintain its efficacy for a full four months.
 At this point, based on experience and having exhausted ample skepticism, I am no longer in the mode to doubt John Stuart’s claims.
 (Note: For more information on the Scent Shop and its product lineup, or to buy direct, check the web at www.scentshop.com. Call 1-800-527-4190 or email john@scentshop.com.)

Read: Mosquitoes or Yellowjackets, Scent Shop Skeeter Screen Passes the Test »