August 22 – “Fish story”

I finally got a chance to go wade fishing for a few hours yesterday.  I knew it was going to be a good day when I got a strike on the first cast as soon as the line hit the water.  That usually means speckled trout.  And it was.  Nice sized one, too.  Not long after that I glanced up to see the fins of two dolphins swimming nearby.  That has always been a good sign for me as well. 

That first speck wasn’t the only one, either.  I ended up with seven keepers.  I threw one back and lost another one because I was too impatient.  I tried to muscle him into the net.  He took off for one last run and broke the line at the hook.  That would have been a nice sized one, too, but I always have to have a story about “the one that got away.”  I also kept the two whiting I caught.  Didn’t keep the two catfish, though.  Nasty beasts. 

Speaking of fish stories, I actually stopped fishing because I got tired, not because I ran out of bait.  And I got tired because of the last catch of the day.  Took me fifteen minutes to finally land him, and by the time I reeled him onto the shore I was spent.  It was one of those bull red fish you hear about.  Chris measured him to be about 34 inches long and a good 15 to 18 pounds.  The little old man and the two little boys who watched me fight him and get him to shore were really excited.  That’s one thing about getting a good catch here in the Gulf.  By the time you’re done, more often than not you have an audience.  Anyway, that was two out of the Big Three Gulf Grand Slam (speck, red and flounder).  I never have caught a flounder at the beach, so it was time to shut it down.  The only thing missing that would have made this my “complete” fishing day would have been finding a pelican feather to go in my collection.  But I found one of those in the WalMart parking lot the other day, so I guess it was covered already.

Of course the whole experience had somewhat of a down side as well.  The rest of the afternoon I was sorer than I had been in quite a while.  Made it really difficult to concentrate when I tried to get some work done.  I did manage to get the better part of the teaching for Sunday “down on paper.”  That should actually read “down inside the hard drive of the computer,” I guess.  Welcome to the twenty-first century.

Psalms 25:1-2 says, “To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God.”

Father, thank you for a really good day at the beach.  Can’t wait to taste the catch.  Amen.