March 20 – “First”

The drought is finally broken.  I actually managed to go fishing the other day.  First fishing trip of the year.  Chris was just beginning to feel poorly, and her way of handling sickness entails curling up in bed and being left alone.  The exact opposite of me, by the way.  I greatly prefer someone I love to fawn all over me and treat me like the poor little sick kid that I am.  Hey, what can I say?  That’s how my Mommy used to do it.  I did get Chris’ permission to leave her alone for a few hours, though.  I haven’t completely lost my mind.

I made a quick stop at my usual wading spot in front of WalMart.  It wasn’t too rough, but the wind was just starting to pick up, and there was a bit of a chill in the air.  I was afraid the combination of cool wind and 50 degree water would be the end of me.  When I texted Chris to let her know I was heading on to Jamaica Beach to fish the canal, she responded, “Thank you!!  Not interested in treating you for hypothermia!”  The exclamation marks are hers, by the way.  She must have been serious.  I pointed out that blue skin should match up well with my gray hair, but she didn’t sound so impressed.  Oh, and by the way, I saw in the paper this morning that the water temperature was “officially” all the way up to 64 on Tuesday.  Keep on climbing.  We have a baptism in the Gulf on Easter Sunday.

I set up shop in the little fishing park Jamaica Beach has designated.  Not many people use it, and there are no amenities other than a bench or two and some pilings sticking up that one can sit upon or tie a stringer to.  But it is on the main canal, and it is not all that far from the actual entrance to the bay.  That makes it a pretty good site for specks and redfish.  Of course, like all canals, it is also a prime hangout for hardhead catfish, but I was hoping it was too early in the season for too many of them to be hanging around.  Fortunately that hope proved true, as I never saw even one of those pests.  There were plenty of pests in the water, though.  I ended up going through an entire quart of live shrimp over the course of the few hours I was there. 

The catch was a pretty good one, by canal standards.  Started out with two redfish back to back.  Both were too small to keep, though.  And I lost one too-small speck right at the bank as well.  The few other fishermen were walking the bank casting artificial lures.  They all lived right across the street, so this was old hat to them.  I heard stories about the ones that got away, but none of them ever even got a bite.  Guess the fish were particular to my shrimp.  Even had one of the Jamaica Beach police officers stop by to see how I was doing.  Great to have connections to a small community like that.  I ended up the day with a total of five redfish, all too small to keep, one black drum that was too small to mess with, and three very nice speckled trout … just right.  A fine start to our next family fish fry.  As Chris said, “Zakary will be excited.” 

Deuteronomy 32:39 says, “See now that I myself am He!  There is no god besides me.  I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.”

Father, thank you for the aquatic part of your incredible creation.  And please bring Chris to healing quickly.  Amen.