Day 25 - Fising with Dad and Kids

I had a nice tennis match in the morning to kick of the Oceanport Men's Tennis league.  I met a new guy to the league and although I won, it was apparent that I definitely need some work.

Fish Sandwich

 This day has its highs and its lows for sure.  The plan was to go fishing in the mid afternoon around high tide.  On our way to the boat ramp my trailer started making some strange noises coming from one of the tires.  I couldn't figure it out but I was a little upset because I just recently had the trailer completely serviced and there shouldn't be any issues with it.  So that's the beginning.

When we got to the ramp I went to collect my killies for bait - remember, I had been going to the trap several times a day for the past few days in order to capture the biggest, best killies I could.  And this morning after tennis I got a lot of them - the motherload!  However, when I got to the bait trap it had been vandalized!  All of the bait was GONE.  In addition, my trap was broken and only half of it remained.  I was so upset I can't even describe it in words - well, I did have some "words" to say at the time - and with my kids there no less!  I'm not usually a curser but in this case my anger just got the best of me.  I couldn't even think straight.  So there we were - all ready to go.  My dad had just driven an hour to meet us.  I had both kids - finally interested in a fishing excursion.  And then there was me - furious about the bait situation and having a temper tantrum.

Well, in the height of dismay the nicest man comes walking over to me and offers me a whole bunch of his bait.  He called me 'sir' and said, "Sir, I couldn't help overhearing you situation and I was wondering if you were interested in taking some of my fresh bait.  I certainly don't need all that I have and I see that you are here with your father and your kids and are looking forward to a nice time out on the water.  Here you go."

What a nice guy.  I was hesitant to take his bait because I didn't want to put him out.  Also, I knew I could drive over to Pat's house and get some killies from him if I needed to.  I was just so overtaken by my emotions from being vandalized that I couldn't even think straight.  I gave the man thanks and took some of his bait as gracefully as I could at the time.  Writing this now, in hindsight, I should have tried to be even more appreciative that I was.  He was trying to save the day for me and I was too pissed to even recognize it.

Ok - so we get in the water and drive over to Pats and get some killies.  It was about a 20 minute detour and the tide is moving away from us minute by minute.  We finally get to our fishing spot and start to get busy.  This is when things start to look up and the lows become highs.

Jamie was the first to hook up.  She was very surprised - but did a great job listening to instructions and bringing the fish in - a nice 19 inch keeper fluke.  We had a great time and did a little fishing tournament with the team Grandpa and Jamie versus Me and Ty.  Jamie and Grandpa wound up kicking our butts and beating us in every single fishing category. . . first fish, first keeper, most fish, most different species of fish, biggest fish, etc.  We just couldn't keep up with them.  All in all we ended up having a really nice time (except for accidentally losing our landing net overboard - another low).

On the way home the trailer went clackity clack.  The good news is that I figured out where the problem was coming from - loose lug nuts on one of the tires.  An easy fix.

Once again the fluke supply will be filled - I should have enough fish for about 4 days.  Now I need to get a new net, and a new killie trap.