Allez bon temps roulet!

The summer rolls on in an unusual cycle of rain, weekend tourists, and periodic sun, punctuated by weekend fireworks. Ah, life is good here on the Island with some of the better body surfing seen in what should be the flattest Gulf waters of the year. Knock on wood, no hurricane whirly-girlies yet – I’ll never forget moving here and a week later having to buy plywood and a ladder to get ready for Miss Emily.

This is the time of year when you don’t see the Sons of the Beach very often, except Sandy Feet has been around most of the time to manage her most excellent Sandbox Inn rental. Nice kitchen there in the picture, eh? Many are off at working, at clown camp, on the sandcastle circuit, of up north in places like Ohio. The dearth of ukulele players forced us to even cancel an invitation to play on Good Morning America on TV. I sure wish we could have done that!

Surf fishing has been a little slow because the same wind and waves that give us passable surf are horrible for fishing – one really wants calm, “trout green water” for fishing. One thing I thought was curious was an almost complete lack of bait in the surf. Usually there are immense schools of sardines, mullet, and baby jacks cruising up and down the beach on the tide, but I haven’t seen that this year. You’d think with less shrimping going on there would be more bait, and thus more trophy fish chasing the bait. Maybe the bait is all off the fourth sandbar or at the Coral Lounge.