Whoa! Who the heck gets up at 4:30am to go fishing!? Apparently I do now! But before I tell you about this great day of fishing, let me give you a little back story…

The last time I ate fish was April 20, 1993. That was the day my daughter Jules was born. Best day of my life and I thought it was going to be my last. Hungry and tired after a long day, with both her mother and Jules resting, I went to the cafeteria and ordered fish. I never eat fish in hospital cafeterias, but I did that night. After a few bites I started choking on a bone, got up and ran to the nurses station and struggling to say, “Fish! Bone! Choking!” Well, she got the gist of it, reached over to a used dinner tray on a cart and handed me a piece of someone’s dinner roll and said, “Here, eat this!” And I did and the bone slid down my throat. I swore off eating fish that night and haven’t had any since, until a couple weeks ago. A friend of Kathy’s had some trigger fish and her and Kathy’s family persuaded me to try some. Did so and I really enjoyed it. So now I am headed to be the great fisherman of the Eastern Shore!! Ha!!

Back to the story at hand – Up early and headed to Deal Island, Wenona for a fishing excursion. Started in the dark.

The moon setting and the sun coming up over Fairmount.

I forget who tried to catch this huge skate – Gail? Well, he took everything when he was cut loose.

Gail did good, catching quite a few trout. but Kathy out did us all with her 19-1/2″ Rockfish.

I didn’t do too bad. The Captain kept coming over to give me some pointers (Damn City people!) He told me, “You’re doing pretty good – almost.” WTH! No, actually the Captain was very helpful. He kept re-baiting our lines and then removing the fish for us. Half the time he would unhook the fish and throw it back over the side. “Hey, I wanted him…” He was trying to make sure we had good sized fish for our limit.

After a few hours out there, somewhere between Crisfield and Smith Island, it was time to head back.

Our catch for the day: 1 rock fish, a few Trout and 3 Spots. We caught a bunch of Spots and most of those were used for bait. Also caught a couple Oyster Toad fish and Croakers, which do make a croaking noise.

Time for cleaning.

Kathy’s mom asked what I was doing? I was supervising!

Great day with great family!