2 Weeks Away...

Every Summer since the early 80s, late July to me means heat, humidity scattered storms & the Grand Isle Tarpon Rodeo.    The 2018 Rodeo begins 2 weeks from daybreak tomorrow (July 26-28) and hopefully will be blessed with decent fishing weather.  Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser is this year’s President with Jim Henderson being “Admiral of the Fleet”.   I will co-MC the awards ceremony with Jim on Saturday night (July 28^th) in the air conditioned Pavilion on the east end of the island.   You can register to fish the Rodeo ($25) for one, two or all three days.   Motel space is limited on the island so don’t wait until the last minute.   If you register, you are entered to win a 22 foot fully rigged boat & trailer or a Garmin GPS navigation system,   Not a fisherman?  No problem.  You can win the boat or GPS system by just registering for the Rodeo.  Go to www.tarponrodeo.org.  Each night in the Pavilion are local bands & great food & drinks.   The weigh station is at the east end of the island at Sand dollar Marina.  Break up the boredom of Summer and spend some time fishing the beaches of Grand Isle.  Many families also set out crab traps along the beach and often do really well.   I’m pumped hoping I can get back on the leader board and win a prize (2^nd place Sheepshead) like I did back in 2014.  Time to wet a line Gang.

 

Weather-wise, another day of spotty, slow moving storms.  With the center of a large upper ridge staying well to our north, we should see clusters of storms fire off each day on the underside of the ridge.  The usual question is where/location?   Sometimes we can track these clusters/disturbances on satellite loops.  Sometimes they just erupt during daytime heating.  What a challenge for local forecasters.   I don’t have that stress anymore!

 

Chris is booking towards colder waters of the north Atlantic and will likely transition to an extra-tropical storm by tomorrow.  The remnants of Beryl  could reform once they past northward out of the Bahamas.  The issue I see is she would move over waters churned up by Chris so development will be restricted.  Regardless, she will not threaten the U.S.   No models show any development during the next 10-14 days besides Beryl & Chris.   Stay tuned!