NEW TEXAS FISHING TRUCK TO BE HERE SOON

Billy Ray has bought a big Jeep Grand Cherokee (I believe). The bigger one, mostly basic with the normal Texas options like Air Conditioning, automatic, windows and doors. It'll have the serious, or at least fairly serious, 4x4 drive train and support packages that go well with 4x4s.

So we've now got a new fishing ride for upcoming adventures. There will be plenty of room for El Fisho Jr. to take over the back seat for the road trip part of our fishing adventures, and with a good roof rack we should be able to do all kinds of gear hauling with rods and such up there. I've been working on a roof rack fishing rod carrier using some parts I have, and need some PVC pipe and some spacers and I'll be ready to put it together.

The idea of the roof rack mountable fishing rod holder/carrier is that the rod goes in full length if 7' or under and half length if over 7'. Because the rods that are over 7' long are bigger in diameter, they need a larger PVC tube than the one piece 7' and under rods. A slot is cut at the top and bottom of the PVC pipe for the reel foot to slide into, and a strong and short rubber shock cord holds the rod in the PVC pipe. The pipes will be arranged and spaced with spacers and some wooden supports and glued into an integral package that can be lifted on and off a roof rack of an SUV. It can be bungy corded into place for travel.

So that and some kind of large cargo basket that can be an easy on/easy off type of deal would work well for some Padre and Mustang Island beach fishing expeditions and certainly for all other kinds of fishing. Big enough to tow a boat, and I've been hankering for a boat of some sort, preferably a v hull metal boat like a Lund about 14' to 16' long. Simple, easy to launch and load, easy to trailer and large enough and tall enough to take on some large lake water or protected bays for fishing.

So Billy Ray will be going to buy his new ride from his old college buddy, whom I've bought a car from myself and Billy Ray has now bought several. So within a week or so, Billy Ray will be back in Texas with his new Jeep SUV 4x4 and I'll give you the lowdown on it then.

I'm going to put in a bid for a trip to Meridian State Park sometime this winter when the rainbow trout have been stocked. It's a great park with a great lake near a great town called Meridian, which the last few times I passed through earlier last decade had a great mexican food restaurant in town. There are other great small towns nearby, and lots of Texas history about the settlement of the nearby area by Norse immigrants. Some very cool stories and little communities if you ever get the chance to drive around the area.

More to come about the new stylin' Texas Fishing Truck. Billy Ray is convinced his new ride will brave the tip of Matagorda or go as far down the beach at the National Seashore headed south as he wants to go. Or till the beach runs out.

We'll see. There are plenty of places around here with challenging sand to drive through, so we'll get an idea how it does driving in sand before we take it out to the wilderness that is a wild 4wd only access beach.

It's an astonishing development that earlier this summer didn't look possible. I'll get some more details about the fishing truck and post them here when I do.