A Great Fishing Trip - And Not Just Another Fish Tale...

Too fat, too dumb, but quite happy
to be out fishing with my son Brendan.

...because this one comes with pictures. Today, Brendan and I went fishing on the Super Hawk out of Point Lookout. I tried to wake him up at 5AM but as usual, on a Friday night, he was out late last night or should I say until early this AM. He was up and at em though by about 10AM so, I asked if he wanted to go out on a half day boat (actually a 4 to 5 hour trip). He said sure and I had him make the sandwiches while I did some other things - like have breakfast and some coffee. Sooner than later, we were off to Point Lookout and we had the poles, reels, tackle box, sun block, caps, bait (they give out bait on the boat but I usually take a long a box of frozen squid too) and everything we needed for a fun day.

Brendan looking cool and ready to fish.

In past years, we try to get out to fish a few times during the spring, summer and early fall but last year we never got out on a boat, and today's trip was the first fishing trip for us at all this year. I don't know if it was because it was our first fishing trip together in too long awhile, or if it was because it was a really nice day with calm seas, or if it was that each of us had a great fishing partner in the other, or that we met some nice folks on the boat, or that we actually caught a good number of fish but we had one heck of a great father and son day. I really am lucky to have a son who still likes to hang out with me at the age of 21. We shoot together, hunt together, fish together and get some other stuff dome together in there too. Now if only I could get my wife and daughter to come on one of our fishing trips with us, I would be in heaven.

When Brendan and I go to the range, I am always proud to see how well he shoots since I taught him to shoot. When we go fishing or hunting it is the same feeling for me because I taught him how to hunt and fish. With shooting, well - he cannot out shoot me yet even though he is a darned good shot. When it comes to fishing though, I guess I have to take second place. While I caught the first fish today, he caught a lot more of them than did I and bigger ones too. He guessed he caught about 20 to 25 of them, I think he caught closer to 25 or 30 though neither of us was keeping an accurate count. As for me, I caught about 12 or maybe 15 at most. We were fishing for sea bass and porgies (aka: Scup) and they were most of what we caught. They were mixed in with a skate, some bergalls, and a fluke. Others, on the boat, brought in an American eel and a couple of blackfish along with the same types of fish we caught. As for our fish, Brendan caught the fluke (only a couple of inches short of the 20.5" size requirement) and I caught the skate; both were throw backs. We both caught sea bass and porgies too, in fact they were most of what we pulled up over the rail. Most of the bass and scup (aka: porgies) we caught were not keepers. We were lucky enough though to have caught 5 or 6 keeper sea bass and 3 or 4 keeper porgies. While not a lot and not very big, they will add to tomorrows dinner nicely.

Besides fishing we had some fun looking at other boats, trying to figure out where we were, trying to guess what ships were hauling, and feeding the seagulls. Watching the gulls twist and turn in flight then dive into the water while trying to grab a tasty morsel (piece of clam or squid), that we threw to them, out of the water was neat. Neater than that was watching them catch some of those tidbits in midair. Yep, it was a good day.

Brendan showing off a nice sized porgy.

In all, when it came to fish we caught, we wound up with probably only 3 or 4 pounds of fish fillets. The cost of our trip was $40 each for the party boat fee, $6 for two pool entries, about $7 for the frozen squid, about $5 for gas, about $12 for our sandwich fixins and snacks, about $6 for the drinks in our cooler, and a $10 tip for the mates. All in all, a total of $126 and that divided by 4 pounds (at best) of fish. That works out to about $31.50 per pound. Wow - fish are sure getting expensive, but as they would say in those credit card commercials - so much for this, so much for that - SPENDING A DAY FISHING WITH YOUR SON - AND KNOWING HE HAD A GREAT TIME - ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!

All the best,
Glenn B