Things have been a little bit damp here at the ranch for the last two weeks. April ended with a 3 1/2″ rain which filled up the lake and made me smile. However just a few miles north of here they received over 9″ and the floodgates at Gibbons Creek Reservoir had to be fully opened. As usual, that put Gibbons Creek out of its banks and flooded the south end of my property. But to make matters much worse, the Navasota River began to flood, so the water from Gibbons Creek had no place to go. The Navasota River crested about 3 feet higher than the highest ever recorded. As of May 1, CR 190, between my entrance gate and the Gibbons Creek Bridge was under at least 8′ of water. On the north end of my lake it came close to breaching the emergency spillway and dumping into the lake. My wooden bridge over the creek was floating about 6′ above its normal resting place. CR 190 has been impassable for over two weeks. As of this morning, the road if finally clear, but the stench and the mosquito problem from the still flooded pastures is pretty bad.
To add to the flooding problems the oil well just on the other side of the road from my place flooded so badly that one of the oil tanks floated and tipped over on its side. Environmental cleanup crews have been deploying oil booms by boat for the last week to contain the spill.
Fortunately we still have road access from Highway 30 to the north and have not been cut off from the rest of the world. Last week, Mike and Helen Luchak visited for a couple of days and so I got in some serious fishing. We averaged about 10 bass per hour and ended up with a total of 87, mostly on topwaters. Unfortunately, the coontail moss is starting to explode and we had a tough time fishing any type of subsurface baits. Mike won the largest fish award with a couple of 5lb fish.
Saw a few interesting things while fishing such as a 4′ rat snake climbing up a dead tree in the middle of the lake and slithering into the wood duck nesting box mounted on the tree trunk. Also spotted a big beaver and a 5′ lake lizard.
While driving back from town a couple of days ago, had to dodge a gator walking down the middle of CR 190.
As if that wasn’t enough, the forecast is for 2-3″ more rain tomorrow. At least my old man skin is not as dry and wrinkled as usual.