Corpusfishing.com

[Towboat Trash]

Pictures from the 1970's of the Novillo line camp.


Pictures from the early 1960's of the old Green Hill line camp.

Quote:

I made a statement one time when we had that cookout and that lady said-she said- we were telling about meat--how we kept meat over here. We had no refrigeration over here, we still don't have no refrigeration over here when you pass--and I said well the first thing my Dad would do when he came over here, he'd kill a calf and strip that meat in strips and hang them on the clothesline--the old clothesline is still hanging down there where--at Novillo--meat line or whatever you'd call it--where they'd hang that meat over there and dry it out. She said, "What if flies got on it?" One of those ladies there asked me that. And I said, "Lady these flies over here are all healthy flies." And man everybody just got a roar out of that, and I said "Wait just a minute, out of the whole history of this Island, I don't know of any disease on this Island so I do say that those flies are clean."

--1977 interview with Jim Lynch, old Dunn ranch foreman on Padre and Mustang Islands

Quote:

Later on in years, he and Mrs. Dunn would go back and forth on Mustang Island because they had a paved road and they would drive back and forth and look at the cows and we went over and bought 23 head of real top cows and calves and brought over there and they would call them up to keep along the fence and they'd drive back and forth on that road to see those cows. That was every evening seven days a week--and we had a storm just about the time we brought them over here and the old cows would swim when the water would start coming up they would get on a knoll and as the water would get higher, they would swim to a taller knoll--just swim to another hill till they got to the highest hill and would keep out of the water. Our new cows didn't know anything about that and the eye of the storm was going out to the Gulf. The water was coming out of Corpus Christi bay--this was on Mustang Island and course those cows had no knowledge of this moving to the highest hill, so they--I'm sure they got on one but they didn't get on one tall enough and they didn't know how to change and they all drowned and they all washed out into the Gulf and several days later when we came over here for an inspection, why they--the 23 cows were lined up on the beach dead. They washed out into the water and then waves had washed them back on shore.

--1977 interviews with Jim Lynch

Quote:

There was 2,500 mother cows on this Island and there 500 on Mustang Island.

--1977 interviews with Jim Lynch

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So we'd drive them about for that trap for about two days and we'd open the gate and let them go and just head them in this direction and everybody was just raising hell and riding as hard as you can go and bring them out of this pen and get them started down the island...

--1977 interview with Jim Lynch about the Dunn ranch annual cattle drives up the Island from line camp to line camp

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Quote:

Oh sure, I stayed in line camps with Dunn. The 25 mile ranch, that's the furthest one south. No, below the Mansfield Pass, now, you see. We had a corral and a tent there. And let's see--Burton--I was talking to him one time--his son Burton Dunn--Burton, his son, and a cousin of Burton's, "Red" Dunn--they were caught down there during the 1919 storm. The spent the '19 storm in that little shack. He said the water got about three feet deep and no place to go. 'Course that back there, you know, is flat. You have to go this way to get to the sand dunes. I asked him was he scared and he said, "What do you think?" He said, "Red Dunn, as mean as he was, he even prayed."

--1978 interview with Louis Rawalt

Voices are calling, from inside my head...
I can hear them, I can hear them....

--Ozzy Osbourne, "Shot in the Dark," 1986


Well, howdy everyone. Hope all has been well. I recently got back from El Trabajar and decided it's been about long enough without a beach beatdown and some Island antics. So two days after touching down in the "Pothole city of taxes and real estate mayors," off I went packing up and heading down Island. Lol, see? I'm already starting the antics.

First stop? A place I try to visit annually that has been receiving a lot of attention from the folks at HQ in the form of maintenance and preservation. A place that darn near everyone should take the time to visit. The NOVILLO line camp, the first line camp that the Dunn Ranch of yesteryear built south of Pat's big camp at present day Best Western. Being able to cattle drive the cows 15 miles per day, every 15 miles heralded a line camp. And I like to check on 'em once in a while, in hopes some old fly-bitten jerky eating cowboy ghosts might come out and tell me some stories....

Here we go....


And the water logged Island would yield such health and beauty this day....the Prairie Agalinis flower! The Indians used this as a tea to treat diarrhea and during the Civil War it became used by surgeons to treat diseases of the kidney! After major rains it spreads as far as one can see across the barrier flats!




As my destination loomed into view, I paused to savor and take it all in...




And I grew closer and began to walk the old pens and corral posts.




Over the years, beginning with Robert Whistler in the 70's, the NPS has kept this site alive and realized it's significance. There's just so much more than "epic shark glory," on this old stretch of ghost strewn sandbar....and I love every bit of it.


And I want to know your story. How old are you and what have you seen? It seems the voices in my head from yesteryear have only grown stronger as the years have continued and the Island has drawn me into it's mystery-shrouded history...






And of course, a stop to C&GS station "Quail."


And here's where the fun begins. What you're seeing is the chowhall! Nevermind the lumber in the back (from recent preservation work) this is where meals were served and the cook handled his business!


This windbreak was exactly that! A spot for the cook to get out of the north wind or more often, the SE blow that bodyslams my zodiac so often!!!


And of course, a hitching post and Pat Dunn's cabin.


Notice the doors facing the SE and the S! And notice the slats to let in the breeze!


And look! The north by northeast end....no slats! Don't need any January northers blowing through the house!


And par for the course....a snake!


While I've known snakes live under the cabin, I'm told this coachwhip snake is a resident of this brush pile near the tin and cooking area! About 6 feet long!


So I took off for the traps.


All of the materials were normally scavenged off the beach by Dunn's vaqueros. Nothing was "bought at Home Depot."


And men were men and pink Columbia shirts were met with a swift kick in the bootie.


And this would be the loading chute. You see, Dunn was against roping. When in later years the four wheel drive was invented and a surplus of post WWII equipment became available, the Dunn ranch began to truck their cattle out by using loading chutes and a system of traps and pens and corrals.






And some of the planks were but so funny! And I wondered if by adze or bandsaw or what! We are talking old history! There was no Milwaukee Lithium Ion E45 super constellationary mega battery powered tool line!




So old....


And I stood there in my Mexican vaquero hat, sweat dripping down my brow...and thought about how easy we all have it today. I spend my days and nights in a cool wheelhouse listening to radios and feeling the rumble of several thousand horsepower 55 feet beneath me as my tug shoves barges up the Mississippi....but what about 100 years ago? What about the past that seems to so quickly be disappearing around us? From Port A to Packery, to the Lake Padre area itself, to "Wackobahn," it seems nothing will be left for our kids except memories....


But a visitor caught my eye and that was that. Roll out!


After a quick stop at HQ, to the beach!!!!


And I was met by brown water and Royal terns! You guys mean summertime to me!








And it was HOT!




And our strange invasive species of vegetation remains at the 10....but it hasn't spread or decreased on iota! So strange!


And this species....ruddy turnstones! Foraging together!


And as planned....my livewell full of ridiculously bloated in price croaker would soon put some trout on the table! If they can only hear the bait, not see it...the better!!


And I met a friend.


Here's to you buddy.


And shells were deposited and rearranged in swales and cuspices, as they wont to do during storms and big blows like the Tropical system that had just made landfall in Mexico.


And as I fished at the water's edge, Googan number one appeared. Doing 35mph by the truck in a 10 year old jeep, he was not happy at my apparent truck parking so cut as close as possible to it. I hear him flying by and then see him from over the hood about flip the jeep over to avoid a rivulet.


Pretty sure I saw it go up on two wheels.


And I do realize, this is our new Padre reality....but I'm gonna have talk with a few of the ghosts haunting around on this old stretch of beach and see about having them terrorize some of these folks. Makes me think of Billy's old ghost at the 19 story...love it...


And soon....croaker PREVAILS! TOUCHDOWN!!


For the fabulous low price of 1 dollar a fish or something like that, you too can be one with the ecosystem and have a shrimp boat go out and catch these for you and then spend 50 bucks to catch one fish. But doggonit, is live bait great!

So loaded up the old Poncho Brundidge rod fished it just for to make my dear friend Ralph Wade smile from his resting place. I miss you so much ole buddy, there's no one left like you no more and I miss ya...


All I can hope is that you were looking down on me laughing at my griping about "Avets" and how every Tom, Richard, and Harry can have one in every color of the rainbow for only a truck note apiece....




And the Island told me it was time to go, so I did.


But not before a trip to an old wreck over the dunes....just hoping the ghost of one of the survivors would find me and whisper some new secrets in my ear...


And soon the moon that had been driving me mad for three days before this trip would come up over the almighty Gulf and let it be known....TIGER MOON. But no baits out this night, still large swells from the Tropical storm...


But the morning came quick and with it, road hunting for those fatty trout...


Fire in the sky!




With the sun up, it was time to fulfill the mission for the next two days. Shark fish at night, and zodiac hunt up and down Poseidon's highway for whatever may lurk in the depths below...


With the one and only Kevin Eager old school lures from back in the day.....WELL EQUIPPED SON!!!


Ahhh...as expected...cool....


And cooler....


And finally out in 50ft of water....downright COLD!!!!


Which meant.....thermoclines and color changes!!!!
Which means minnows and kings!!!!





And while there are those who fish for tournaments and sport, I just ain't one. I truly fish to put food on the table and because there's nothing I love more than tossing one of Kevin Eager's tuna poppers of love and holographic stickers out over the Gulf of Mexico only to watch a king come up from the bottom depths and hit it with the force of ten thousands Hurricane Beulahs!!!!


Doggone I need better hooks...this is an all the time event!


And sometimes they'll shake a lure only to be hooked in the tail and resume the fight...


Knowing the first king was big....but not thinking he was as big as a king I caught last summer with my pal Jeff....I didn't worry about STAR tournaments or the like or even the Zodiac get thrown out of the boat rodeo tournament....I just went ahead and bled 'em out so the meat wouldn't spoil and went on about my business.


Or tried to.....because as I drifted along alone out there 3 miles off the Isla Blanca in the land of the Spanish explorers and of the mastodon fossils down below me in the clay.....one....two....5....8....12....18 odd COBIA showed up under the boat!!!!! And my only advice to myself and to you today is to HAVE A CLEAN PITCH BAIT READY AT ALL TIMES WITH THE HOOK WELL HIDDEN IN THE BAIT FOR THESE GUYS!!!! With nothing to attract their interest....they slipped back down to the deep. But not without giving up to me a new bottom structure site that they had made home.


So later in the day, I headed back inshore to find bonita amongst the color changes off the bar.


Where ya at, Little Tunnies?


It just doesn't get better than this...


REALLY???? Gulf toadfish....and I had forgotten they can produce sounds with their swim bladders and for a brief moment there thought one of those old Spanish ghosts was whispering in my ears again....


And as the water heated up....the offshore oil seeps began to fill the eyes as far as one could see with oil from below...


And it became time to go back in.






What a beast!!!!! What the heck!! The state record is only 58.5 and 79 lbs!!! We were close weren't we ole' boy!




And the water remained yellow.


And as I fished....another Googan. Now. About this. The only reason you're not seeing a man's intimate area is because my zoom lens happened to not be on the camera. First, the two kids drive by and almost run over my cooler while taking their last swigs of a cold beverage...then they immediately pull over almost in camp and proceed....to get out the truck and turn TOWARDS ME TO RELIEVE THEMSELVES! LIKE ANYONE WANNA SEE THAT TEENY TINY!!!!! NASTY!!!!!!


With no one around me for miles and miles and miles folks sure are strange.
So I relocated and got ready.


For a Tony Chacherie's style southern stingray injection ceremony!


And out they went.


Boy do I love my gelcoat and webbing job! Thanks Keith and crew at Fibertex for all the glass and gelcoat and mat!


And I took some time with a new book! Thank you Charles my fellow history man! You're love of the mystery and the mystique of this Island never stops to inspire me!


And soon the unmistakeable sound of Billy's Indian flutes rang out and it was Indian time again....




And I sat in the dirt covered in sweat and kingfish slime and salt and tasted the last remnants of saltwater dripping down my face into my lips and loved every second of it.


And somewhere in those fiery distances of true preservation at its best I once again found myself again somewhere deep down inside of me, in those places we can only reach in times like these. And I thought that with it being the centennial of the National Park Service how much I appreciate all the folks at the park have done to allow me to sit here like the swashbuckling pirate that I think I might be...


And how much I love each...and every blade of grass on this 130,000 odd acres of unspoiled beauty. Each bird, each fish, each grain of sand, each sunrise and each sunset.


And as the blaze that lights up this whole world set, I suppose I had found what I needed that night, shark or no shark.


And the Beach evening primrose flowers of the night and morning that I love so much opened up.


And dinner was served!


And the moon rose.


But the night would pass with one run followed by a breakoff, and around 0100 something swam into my line and pulled drag only to break it off. Not uncommon, and the reason one must run floats. We don't leave our wounded gear behind, it comes with us. Well....unless one is sponsored by Ranch-Salt and gets leaders and hooks for free. Nathan, that'll make ya laugh? Lol.






Astounding levels of beauty.


After hauling back all gear....off we go!!!!!


Hot diggity dog was it like bathwater that day to the touch!!


So to the Nic we went...




And soon I would head out to 60 ft of water and walk the old trolling pattern road.


But everything ends, and with the cooler water gone, there were no thermoclines for me and old Evinrude to exploit and even the offshore terns were struggling to find a meal.


But like always when the water is great...the fishing ain't worth a toot!


But me and Ralph and Poncho tried anyway, and somewhere up above us, they smiled down...


And the winds howled and the surf ran hard to the north.


So after fishing about 20 miles of beach including the jetty I procured enough fresh bait to set 'em back out and wage battle again.


And I sat in the shade and loved life. This life.


And did some more studying one of my new books. There's just so much I want to know, to experience, to see, to touch and feel and learn....isn't that the definition of human?


And I sat way down south among the bodies of the 1554 shipwreck's victims and among ole' Fransisco Vasquez ghost.... Remember him? When those wrecks washed in and after the Indians began to hunt the 300 survivors down and put them in the dirt, that old sly fox stayed behind at the wrecks and lived for several months in hiding in the dunes waiting on the salvage ships he knew would come. You see....the Spanish were much like the REAL founding fathers of the Internal Revenue Service. They NEVER left money on the table and they INVENTED paperwork!!!!!!




And I sat and read R.E. Halter's journal. I know I really haven't gotten around to him yet....but he's just a massive hero to me. He left his home up in PA behind to come live on Padre from 1876 to 1881 and map the island for the Office of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. And if you can read this....he's talking about an old man showing up at the present day 19 out of nowhere, heading north with cattle. Totally blown away by someone other than himself on the deserted Island, Halter asks what the heck he's doing! And old fella tells him this.....big storm a'coming in...big one. Time to go. And the rest? Well, let's put it this way, Halter stayed and yep-we get to read about his grisly experience with one of many Hurricanes he live through out there.


But what the heck do I know, I'm just a Naked Indian after dark anyway!


And as the sun set and I sat on the dune. A 6 foot snake flew out of the railroad vine from 10 feet away!!! What the HECK!!!
You been hiding on me the last 20 minutes!!!



And he went off into the vines, but try as I might, I couldn't see the bugger! Boy, he blended in! Looked like another coachwhip!


And as a lone daytrip fella headed north from Mansfield about 3 hours too late, there I was.


Well, me and two pork chops, a ribeye from Moody's, and toast and beans and Lil Debbie!!!!


And doggone, was it good!


And the morning found me with 3 out of 4 rods broken off all within 2 minutes of each other around 2300 the previous evening. What the heck! That doggone sneaky snakes fault...




It being Thursday, it was time to go to put gear away and have a daddy and daughter day on Friday. While I didn't set any records in the "get thrown out of the boat rodeo" or with the STAR tournament and get a free truck.... .....I deliberately beat myself to a pulp, got bloody feet, a hole in my right thumb filled with sand and infection, got to see some really inappropriate private areas of some 20 year old who needs a father figure, put a massive treble hook right through the starboard side of the boat while 3 miles offshore, almost got to see a Baja 5000 Jeep Spankler get flipped upside down by it's owner right in front of a 12 gallon livewell of croaker...and....oh, last but not least, get run over by a flying Coachwhip snake down near Mansfield way. Did I miss anything? Sure did! 0200 hours on Tuesday morning I wake up to something off, see headlights coming, 20 minutes later a CHRYLSER TOWN AND COUNTRY MINIVAN GOES BY WITH BOTH BACK SLIDING DOORS WIPE OPEN AT 10 MPH!!!! Just another beach trip in the books I suppose. And ya know? It's like the wife said last night, "And just think...you actually enjoy all that...you actually find that fulfilling." Yep! Going back down in 24 hours to do it all again, hopefully without seeing a teenager's "area" this time or a Breaking Bad minivan thing around 230 am.

Ya'll take care and treat each other well, and if you got a buck a fish, I guess go have at those croaker. Lol! $$$$$

--Colin
_________________
Protect Padre at all costs for future generations to use and enjoy and never forget our freedoms aren't free.

www.padreislandexpeditions.com

[deputydawg]

Good stuff as usual! Whens the baby girl gonna hit the sand?

Me and momma are finally heading down in a couple of weeks. Got a week to spend on the sand!

[Sea Shell]

Tow boat inspires me . Lucky to have had the chance to to say hello and talk to him on this adventure . Had to cut it short to land a 4 foot Black Tip . I've been the length of Matagorda Peninsula , Matagorda Island and the first 8 miles ( from the south ) of San Jose Island before being run off by SJ personnel in helicopter and trucks . His posts lead me to PINS . I've learned much from his posts and have followed his advice into the back country of PINS . Thanks Tow Boat for leading me on on awesome adventure . Still listening for the flutes !!
_________________
Expert nest picker

[rbljack]

LOL....a dollar a fish?? you get off cheap! We have to drive 8 hrs just to hit the sand,...hehe. One of these days my son WILL get his hammer, and I WILL get my tiger....one of these years may be more appropriate, but it WILL happen.

Thanks for posting another great story. Look forward to hearing how the "turnaround trip" went too.

Take care! One of these days I hope to be down there again, with my toes in the water....Im going coastal!! jut don't know when..sigh.

[NaplesJohn]

As always, a narrative of so much more than a fishing trip. Thanks for sharing the adventure!

[fri8632]

Really enjoyed that....pics were great!

[AnmRanch]

Always enjoy the pictures/story/history. Thanks for sharing.

[HungerBuster]

Great stuff. A spiritual read, brother.

May seem like a silly question, but...what were the bloodsuckers like? You get carried off behind the dunes by the mosquitoes, or was the wind right?

Love the primrose.

HB
_________________
Fish ON!

[Towboat Trash]

[ironmanstan]

Now that's a report. I like Ozzy and I have caught a Coachwhip snake and released it. I like the nocthed out beams on the old building.
_________________
I LIKE MINE FRIED.

[Towboat Trash]

[darth wader]

Love your reports Towboat!

On a side note, where would find historical readings about the island? I've had a desire to learn more about it for quite some time but dont know where to begin...

[Towboat Trash]