High Island Recon

Final post of the year – via Blackberry from High Island, Texas. 43 inch reds are running in the surf at the Chambers County Line:

Jamen, Kadie, and Craig with one of several 40+ inch redfish they caught yesterday

3 were caught yesterday afternoon  by some folks next to where we had camped. When I say “we”, I do not have a mouse in my pocket – I refer to the Queen Bitch Of The Word and Lucifer, the Prince of Dogness.

How to get there: Take the ferry from Galveston and go 29 miles until the road curves. Don’t curve – go straight. You are now on the “Lost Highway” – Texas route 87 – abandoned in 1983 after Hurricane Alicia. Theoretically, the Lost Highway goes 30 miles to Sabine Pass, and then you can cross into Louisiana just above Holly Beach. But the last time anybody made it the whole way was 2003 in a 4wd Ford Bronco – it took the guy 8 hours. He brought sheets of plywood to drive on, and had to use them a lot.

I used to drive Route 87 when I was a teenager in West Orange – it was the beach road, We’d cross the ominously steep and narrow “Rainbow Bridge” at Port Arthur, then head south on 87 to High Island. These days it’s a great place to camp.

The first mile or so is mostly fishermen and campers. Once you get out about 2-3 miles, there are more topless sunbathers, gay blades, and beach voyeurs with binoculars making everything somewhat creepy.

However, I have never seen it crowded, since it is so far away from everything. Since Hurricane Ike, it’s virtually deserted down here.