Fish Stories

Years ago I skippered a shrimp boat working in the Gulf of Mexico. One day after a long night going after the brown shrimps in St. Joe Bay in Florida, we pulled the nets up from our last drag. While my deck hands were culling the last batch, I saw a school of jack following our boat to grab the trash fish. I put a big croaker on a hand line and hauled in a big jack. Not liking jack for dinner, I decided to use him as bait. After we dropped anchor, I used 1/4" nylon rope for a line and a big rubber balloon for a bobber, I put the jack on a 6" hook and threw it out there. I got no action for the next hour so I ate breakfast and headed to my cabin for some sleep to get ready for the next night. I took the nylon rope to the top bunk and put a loop on my toe to wake me up if any thing bit.

Well, I was yanked off the top bunk and pulled out of the cabin with me frantically grabbing anything to keep from going overboard. My deckhands grabbed the rope, allowing to free my almost purple toe. We watched as a big shark took the line, went under the boat, wrapped the line around the rudder and propeller, straightened the hook, and freed itself.

I tugged on the rope, found it tightened down below, and couldn't free it. I said: "Someone has to go down and get the rope off the rudder and prop."

To that my deckhands answered: "Capt.! You fished. You untangle the rope. We are not going down there."

To say that it was a short but scary dive for me is an understatement.
 
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Yesterday, I got to spend the day with a great friend and fishing buddy. He used to live in Richmond but moved to Charleston a few years ago so we don't see each other often. I've since gotten married and he's had 4 kids, so finding time to fish together has been hard. But, he got a pass for Father's Day to do what he wanted, and he made the 7 hour drive to Virginia to get his brookie fishing fix. We chose an old favorite stream in Shenandoah National Park and had a blast. Here are some pics of the day.

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Those brookies are really nice size. And scenery is beautiful.

That particular stream has never been great for numbers but always gives up some big fish, relatively speaking. It's the main tributary of a very popular stream for hikers and doesn't see a lot of traffic, which is also nice
 
Ah, fishing. I love the concept but fish dont want what I have to offer. I worked for one of the more popular kayak companies for a couple years and went out a few times with our fishing team members. Some of the best of the best, guys who make their entire living off kayak fishing. Not only did i never catch anything, half the time neither did they when i was with them. I've literally had these guys hand me a baited rod, point to where i should cast, and caught nothing. It got so bad that some of them postulated paying me to go to tournaments and hang around their opponents just to extend my curse onto them.
 
How 'bout this one. Not as spectacular as other pictures here but still a milestone for me.
Went fishing with my 2 sons for the first time a couple of weeks ago. They both caught their first fish. The pic shows one of them (Killer Roach).
Reminded me of me and my dad 35 years ago :p

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Sorce know what is great about that pic? Not a single electronic device in sight. So nice to see kids outside enjoying what nature has to offer us :)
 
Sorce know what is great about that pic? Not a single electronic device in sight. So nice to see kids outside enjoying what nature has to offer us :)

Barely Shoes!

That little feller has an Uncle on my sons team and comes with the Grandparents.

No father, so when he started calling me Dad, well, I adopted him!20190602_135320.jpg20190602_134851_HDR.jpg

Sorce
 
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