Gone Fishing!

Summer’s pretty much over, and many of us went about the lazy days of the passing season doing activities with the children...summer nights filled with grilling out by the pool.....perhaps attending a swim meet or two... visiting grandparents....camp. Many of my fondest memories of my own childhood are from summertime. I had hoped that this summer, we would have a family trip that stood out from all the rest: the kind of vacation that we would be talking about when we were on a vacation many years from now with grandchildren. I had heard a consistent request from my son that he wanted to go boating and fishing. The request seemed strange since we had only taken him on a boat once, and he had never been fishing. Finally, I decided that we would take the family to Matagorda Bay for a week of vacation. I booked a house right on the water, and as the weeks went by and the day finally came to leave, my son be- came more and more excited about.... of all things.... fishing. We arrived at the house that overlooked the ocean and was full of promises of building lasting memories of a summer in 2010. We asked the grandparents and the nanny to come along. The house was full of family and with board games and books not yet read and canvases waiting to be painted, we anticipated an eventful vacation week.

The first day, it rained. The mosquitoes were so bad that you literally could find yourself with at least ten new bites each time you ventured down to the beach. Not expected since that does not happen in Myrtle Beach. I got in the car and quickly got my bearings, as my Daddy would say. Upon further inspection, I discovered there were four restaurants all of which had different times and days they were open and none of which was in a hurry to do much. There was one place to buy fresh fish, one place to buy milk, eggs and a fishing license, and one place to buy bait. It took me less that an hour to cover the entire town. In fact, the first day I met a lady who told me the only thing to do there was to drink and “find a honey” to which I rolled my eyes. I almost packed up and headed back home... seriously.

On day two, it rained, and after watch- ing people fish off of the pier, I discovered three things about fishing. 1. There are rules for every fish as to length, and you need to know what the fish are and the rules for keeping them. 2. Some fish have the ability to hurt you. 3. Fishing in Matago- rda means baiting with live shrimp.

I called a man named Captain Michael and explained to him that I needed to create a fishing expe- rience for James Edward. He asked me to meet him with my crew at 6:30. I hesitat- ed...6:30? I did not want to go fishing at night, and he laughed and said, “No, first thing in the morning.” I asked him what was the latest we could arrive, knowing full well to get my crew out the door and on a boat at 6:30 am would require an act of God. I told him to expect us around 7:30. I thought okay...it’s raining...we are watching movies from the homeowners DVD collection, and we are all covered in mosquito bites. BUT There WILL BE FISHING! Just hang on until Thursday!

Thursday morning finally arrived and with it, a very excited little boy. He had gotten up earlier than everyone else and planned our picnic for the boat - his favor- ites of course - boiled eggs and ham sand- wiches with purple grapes. We got out to the dock, and there was Captain Mike with a boat and eight poles sitting in hol- sters ready to go.

The morning passed by rather quickly. We fished, and if they were too little or there were none at all, which was pretty much the pattern, Captain Mike would gather up the poles, throw into the water the half-dead shrimp and move us around for a second, third,... well you get the idea. Each time we would catch a fish, Captain Mike would take it off the hook, look at it and then without saying a word, toss it back into the water. The children began to think this was the idea of fishing all together. About mid-morning, guess who reeled in a 22” Drum? The little boy who had been promised a fishing trip! Captain Mike took James Edward’s fish off the hook, opened the cooler and tossed him in. The rest of us kept casting and reel- ing and getting the same old small, throw back fish.

Brian made the comment that the fish would probably be enough for dinner. James Edward had been lifting the top of the cooler and peering in to look at who he had now named “Jeffrey”. He stated calmly that his mouth had stopped mov- ing a lot. He paced about the boat and went back to check on Jeffrey with a look of despair on his face. We began to discuss

what types of dressing we might place upon poor Jef- frey and the side dishes we would prepare to go with him. James Edward sat beside the cooler and opened the door.

Everyone was quietly concentrating on catching more fish when James Edward let out a wild cry, “We are not eating him. He is going home with us to live in our fish tank!” Everyone stopped. Everyone waited for guess who to figure out what to doandtofixit!Isatdownbesideanow very upset little boy and asked him, “Why do we need to take Jeffrey home? Jeffrey lives in the ocean and not with goldfish in houses.” Jamesy looked at me with tears running down his face and said, “We can’t eat him! That would kill him! I didn’t want to kill him!” Suddenly, I remembered the rule. We only kill things that get into our house that don’t live with us; we do not go out into the world and kill things in their environment. That meant a spider in your bed was fair game but a spider crawling on a rock outside was to be observed and respected. James Edward was practicing the life law I had established. Brian rolled his eyes, and he knew what I was about to do. I said to Captain Mike, “Well, it looks like Mr. Jeffrey has had enough fun with our family today, and he needs to go back home and check on his children.” I winked at him and without saying a word, he opened the cooler, massaged the fish until he woke up and threw him back into the bay. James Edward immediately cheered up, and we all realized that the point of the trip was to go fishing. Period.

I said, almost apologetic to Captain Mike, “I can’t believe the only fish we caught that we could keep we had to throw back.” He smiled and said, “You’re surprised at what good sportsmanship that little man of yours has? All the best throw them back!”

I had hoped the last vacation of sum- mer would be memorable, even one that might stand out in all of our memories for years to come. Who knew it would be about James Edward’s first fishing trip and that the luckiest fish in Matagorda Bay would have a name?

Take Care of You!   Alisa