Back from Arroyo, worn out, wonderful trip, terrible fishing.
OK, terrible meat fishing - dink fishing was still fun, pedaling the NWR and wanting more, great times with friends, were all over the top.
Our beating tailwind for the drive down was a beating cold front into our face Thursday night, lingering cold on Friday.
I caught 20 fish Thursday night, We finished the night each with a large spec caught on RB77.
20" and 22-1/2" - both upper end of slot, both filleted out female.
The conditions somehow kept bait from concentrating at our dock, so no schoolie males ever arrived.
Top it off with an extended family moved into the dock next door Friday and Saturday nights, blowing their ghetto blaster through the dock piers - they caught hardheads (catfish), and the kids all hooted and hollered, which was the good part.
The prevailing SE wind and the tropics returned on Saturday. Think I caught one fish each for those two nights, and then 15 on Sunday night after our loud neighbors were gone.
Again, all nursery trout up to 16" and all fun on light tackle and lures - caught many fish on the metal jigs - it's always fun to have success on new lures (and I didn't have to fillet 50 fish).
I let Susie take my big fillets home to bake an exotic feast for Lou - they were too big to saute for my favorite fish tacos.
Before the trip, I sent out an e-mail that mesquite and yucca chert on the trails would require bringing spare tubes - not that Lou ever listens.
We discovered Saturday you can't get into the NWR from the county park, and that was a good ride right up to Lou's flat.
My saddle bag has 3 tubes and a fold-up tire - Ice Mule and beer in the front bag.
Then most of Sunday was spent chasing down a tube at Walmart, so we only got enough taste of pedaling the NWR on Sunday to want more,
but it's in the Ten Best Things You Can Do on a Bicycle.
We made Granjeno loop - we have to go back for the Upper Cayo loop.
The star of the trip was the palapa and Steve's fire pit.
Steve's firepit with screen top is safe on the wood deck, kept the girls warm and entertained on the cold nights - and even better,
Steve has it set up as a pizza oven with a 700-degree stone.
Susie's melt-in-your mouth beef stew + perfect cornbread was a warm welcome on Friday night.
We got creative with the pizzas, picadillo, nachos and Abuelita's home-made tamales (from Jerry's bait shop across the road) for other meals.
Susie's star for the trip was a lemon buttermilk pie. No words to describe the quality of her pie crust.
Everyone had a blast, relaxing time. Enough fishing to make it fun, enough adventure to want to go back next winter.