June 8 - “The one that got away”

I had a chance to go fishing yesterday with a long time friend of mine from back in college days (and beyond), Robert Creech. He and his family were staying at a house in Sea Isle for a few days, so we met there and did some wade fishing. His wife Melinda even waded out and tossed a line with us for a bit. 

We made a pretty good haul for a day when the live shrimp were truly shrimpy (very small).  We landed lots of hard heads. Not happy about that. We did get one speck and a good frying mess of whiting. Even got to use my new fillet knife. It is really sharp (get it?). 

Of course the real excitement came when I landed two bonnet-head sharks about 2-3 feet long. Then Robert pulled in a black tip shark about the same size. The water was amazingly clear, and one time we watched as yet another shark swam right between us. 

All that action was awesome, but there always has to be …The one that got away. I had whiting cut bait on, slowly reeling in. Suddenly I had a massive strike. The aggressor immediately started taking out drag. The pole tip was bent over, and I held on for dear life. Sadly, after just a few seconds, whatever critter that was broke my line. Of course I’ll never know for sure, but by the way it hit and ran without ever coming to the surface, I’m pretty sure it was another rather large shark. 

Late in the afternoon Jachin came by for a visit. He had just come from a summer job interview on the pleasure pier. And boy was he in a talkative mood. He told us all about the Alaska mission trip from his perspective. Even showed us some of the pictures he took. It was great just sitting around talking to him. He’s quite the young man. 

Last night we joined Robert and his family for a big shrimp boil. They did a great job putting together the shrimp from Katie’s Seafood, fresh corn on the cob from a neighbor, potatoes, carrots, and even some garlic cloves. They decided (after we combined forces to consume the bulk of the pot) that it could use more spices next time. Either way … it was some good stuff.  

Romans‬ ‭10‬:‭17‬ says, Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.

Father, thank you for good friends from our past lives who still remember us. Amen. 

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