RANDOM THOUGHTS but mostly about fishing

***Or more appropriately, the lack thereof this week in the fishing department. I'm anxiously awaiting brother Billy Ray's fishing report of the beach camping trip he and Shrimper Dan took this weekend that I moaned about here I GOT THE PORT A BLUES.

TAXES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS:
I did actually do what I set out to do this weekend, which was work. I did taxes, which is always a highlight of the year. I did the Princess's Taxes, and the sad part is that she gets back far more than her mother and I. So much for hard work and working more than one job each at times with our own businesses to try to get ahead for the American way. Instead, I'm paying for someone elses American Way who ain't working.

I'll stop that Texas Redneck Rant right now, but I know several of my readers know how I feel. We want to put El Fisho Jr. in a private school next year, as we also did with The Princess when we didn't like the school she was slated to attend. Long story short, I read where the lady who thought up all this BS about standardized testing for U.S. schools has now renounced that position and realized that it doesn't work because kids are...wait for it...too individual in learning styles and testing methods to be subjecting them to crap like TAKS in Elementary and Junior High School.

How many years will it take for the State Board of Education and The Lege to catch up with this lady who dreamed up all this crap is up for a guess. Too many, I suspect. Plus, we don't like the small but significant "gangster in training" element at the school El Fisho Jr. is slated to attend. Trouble in our area seems to begin in this grade, and although El Fisho Jr. has friends of nearly every ethnicity that are frequent guests in our home, this is more of a class/lack of class issue than a race issue as it regards the gangsters in training. Truth be known, most of the "lil' gangsters" are anglo. So it's not white flight driving us away, but rather moving to a more integrated private school with a high end curriculum, but no TAKS and the intense pressure they put on these kids.

FISHING TRIP REPORT:
I'm waiting on the trip report from Billy Ray. I'll guess that he arrived home at his Hacienda and went right to be. Mrs. Billy Ray, I'm sure, fed him and made sure he didn't track sand and half the beach into their lovely home. He'll appear in a day or two, probably sunburned a bit but with enthusiastic stories through which I can live vicariously.

I can't wait to hear about his visit to Island Tackle in Port A. They were gonna pick up some long yet inexpensive surf rigs there, as well as some sage advice.

I just located a nice double boxed (two boxes, one inside the other, for durability in shipping) rod box that will hold two of my 2 piece 9 foot rods that I want to ship to Island Tackle to get new guides put on. As I mentioned here HOW I SPENT OUR SPRING BREAK 2010: PART ONE , I had a guide replaced on a favorite rod at Island Tackle and was mucho impressed with the work for a fee of $4 and some change.

I want to get the other guides replaced on that rod and I have a Garcia Conalon 9 foot pier/surf rod that I'd also like to have new guides put on. Both rods have worked very well over the years catching fish, and I would rather put new guides on them than try to find rods with as nice of an action as they both have. So I need to get those mailed down to Island Tackle this week.

I'm also interested in hearing where Billy Ray and Shrimper Dan ended up setting up camp. Shrimper Dan is an experienced beach 4WD'er and in all their stories I've never heard of them getting stuck, or at least super stuck so that it merited a story, due to the beach-equipped Izuzu Trooper that Shrimper Dan has as well as a 4 WD truck of some sort.

Billy Ray, on the other hand, might not be the fellow you want at the helm in extremely soft and deep sand. It's gonna take sweet talking for El Fisho here to convince the wife that there is a reason for me to go fishing with Billy Ray (and possibly Shrimper Dan) in a week or two at Port A and not take her with us, as she dearly loves Port A.

Although Billy Ray is El Fisho Jr.'s godfather, and although she also know Shrimper Dan and likes him, she is not going to be extra keen on the fellas taking "her boy" down to the beach for some rugged camping.

She doesn't care for beach camping, and we will be WAY DOWN YONDER on the beach, possibly out of cell reach, with no sort of civilized potty equipment. No electricity, unless I decide to bring a small generator. So it might be better for me and family to hook up with Shrimper Dan and Billy Ray in Port A and leave our SUV with the wife and let me take El Fisho Jr. out for his first surf fishing camp experience, with a condo room nearby to return to for showers and a bed after a few days living in nature on the beach.

I'll give El Fisho Jr. this: he's a hardy camper. He and Billy Ray and I did some 20 degree camping on the Llano two years ago in January, with the winds howling. Me and El Fisho Jr. got inside two down bags doubled together, along with blankets as well, and stayed warm despite the inclimate conditions. After a night of freezing, we were, however, ready to hit the SUV and the heater and headed to the house. El Fisho Jr. slept all the way home, except when I made him wake up to see the Perdenales (then full of water). I saw a bunch of turkeys rousting about on that cold and frosty early morning, and that was pretty cool.

THE SAN ANGELO EXPEDITION
Billy Ray has access to a nice place for us to use in San Angelo. There's no fishing immediately around it, but nearby there are several fishy creeks with parks on them that look very fishy and that I've wanted to fish for a number of years.