Yesterday I had a fisherman's dream day. Chris gave me a new net fish well, so I was going to go Sunday afternoon, just to try it out, of course. But Chris talked me into waiting until yesterday, primarily because of the heat. Great call on her part. I picked up some live shrimp and made my way to the beach by about 7:30. I struggled a bit about where to go. The water was kind of choppy at my usual spot, and I considered driving out to Jamaica Beach, but I decided to rough it out for awhile at least. So I climbed over the rocks out in front of WalMart and made my first cast. And caught my first fish.
The first one was a speckled trout. Keeper. Portent of good things to come, perhaps? The next cast was equally successful. And the next. And the next. Speck after speck hit on whatever size shrimp I could throw at them. Some were too small to keep, but the majority were really good eating size – right in the slot. Some whiting made their presence known, and even a keeper red fish. I threw in five or six croaker to use for bait later. Twice something hit the line and broke it right off. Once I got a pretty big red close enough to see him swirl at the top of the water before he, too, broke free.
As my bait bucket began to get emptier and the net well began to fill up more and more, I could see that I was close to the limit in specks. So I decided to go for more of the whiting. There's no limit on them, and they taste pretty good fried up. I dug out one of the larger dead shrimp from the pail and tossed it out. It no sooner hit the water than I had another strike. And this one wasn't giving up easily. It pulled out more and more of the drag, then jumped out of the water into the air, flopping and shaking. The leap was repeated two more times before it finally began to wear out. As I captured it in the dip net I realized it was the biggest speckled trout of the day. On dead shrimp. I tossed in a few more of the dead shrimp and did catch a whiting or two, but then more specks began to push them aside.
I finally wore out before my bait came to an end. I had either caught something or lost the bait on every single cast. As I trudged back toward the rocks I began to wonder if I could even lift the net well full of fish. And it was tough. That was a long walk up the stairs and to the truck. I had to rest a minute or two before I could lift it into the truck bed. As I rested I looked up at the clock over at the bank. 10:30. All that in about three hours.
When I got back to the house Chris came out to meet me. She thought I was kidding when I lifted the bucket full of fish out of the truck. Jachin and Micah arrived just as I was carrying them into the house, so they helped me. Chris took some pictures, and we put one of them up on Facebook yesterday. So far all who have seen it have had some variation of the same reaction: "Fish fry." It took another hour or so to get them all filleted and packaged. Didn't take near as long to eat the two big speck steaks Chris cooked for supper.
Matthew 7:9-12 says, "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
Father, thanks for the incredible array of fish you let me see yesterday. Use them to strengthen the family when we eat them Amen.
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