Snagging Memories.

A couple of weeks ago we went fishing on a party boat for fluke. I'm not big on fishing for fluke, they are not a real challenging fish. I do like fishing for Blues but the crowd I was with wanted to go fluke fishing, so up at 5a.m. to drop my eldest daughter at my moms and pick up my nephew. My eldest daughter has an irrational fear of party boats and today was not the day to deal with that, so she opted out. We got on the boat at 6:30a.m. and secured a position and poles. A friend and his daughter met us there. The five of us were eager to go fishing. Lizzy had never fished on a party boat before.

The glass like calm of the water was amazing. Even in motion,the boat was no more unsteady than a car on an average road. As the boat approached the first spot, we baited our hooks and dropped them deep to the bottom of the dark green unknown. After a few nibbles on our bait my friends daughter struck first blood and brought up a small flounder. Not a keeper but a promising sign. Next my buddy struck, then Lizzy, then my nephew. The only thing I brought up was a hook that had the small bait minnow adeptly removed by a fish, that got a free meal. My friends daughter had several more strikes. Right before poles up, the first mate put a skate on his head and used it as a hat.

We went farther out. The water was deeper and darker. My friend, his daughter and Lizzy had several more strikes but no keepers. While they were catching fish, I was feeding them, one minnow at a time. Finally,I got a strike. As the fluke came up, the first mate measured it, not a keeper. Another skate was caught and when the first mate asked my nephew if he would wear it as a hat. He agreed. I started taking pictures. Lizzy also agreed to wear the fish. While taking her picture, the first mate manned my pole. He handed it back to me and said, “Here's your pole, there is one on the line.”. I reeled the fish up and sure enough, the only keeper we had.

The whole day was filled with laughter, fun and fish on the line. We may not have caught many keepers that day but we snagged a lot of memories.