My wife surprised me and our son by planning a fishing trip at 61st Street Pier in Galveston Island.
I’m impressed that she wanted to go outdoors knowing the temperature would be 100 degrees hot that day.
We left the house around 06:00 A.M., all excited for our fishing adventure. Honestly, It’s been a while since I went fishing. I admit that I was rusty and hopefully my son won’t notice it.
It was almost 07:00 A.M. when we reached the Pier. My son said he was hungry so we passed by McDonald’s for some breakfast. He had 2 pieces of chocolate cookies. Just perfect to boost his energy level. I had my caffeine fix to make sure that I was fully alert and functional. Just before we left the car to head for the Fishing Pier my wife asked me, ” Is the car moving?” I replied, “No, the car is not moving?” She asked again, “Are you sure it’s not moving?” I answered back, ” Yes, I’m sure!” By then I realized that from my excitement I forgot to step on the brakes. I told myself, ” duh? ” We both laughed.
The guy who sold us the fish bait told us that these are the possible fishes that we may catch in the Galveston waters. My son told me, ” get me a shark dad.” As I looked at my tiny fishhook I replied with much optimism, ” I’ll try my best.”
“Here we go, let’s catch some fish.”
A boy standing next to my son proudly told him, ” Hey, we caught a shark this morning. “
Call it beginners luck but we caught a Yellow Tail just within 5 minutes of throwing our first hook.
Mr. curious got bored and decided to talk to this gentleman who caught a lot of catfish. He was more than happy to share the some fishing tips.
I felt a tug. I called my son so he can hold the fish pole. He shouted to his mom, ” we got something, we got something!”
False alarm. It was only a seaweed.
2 eels in one bait. How cool is that?
Finally, we caught our second fish. It was a small catfish. My son was jumping from excitement. He kept saying, ” so cute, so cute.” I told him that it’s still a baby and needs to rejoin his family. After taking out the hook, we let it rejoin its fish family.
Another 30 minutes went by without any signs of our third catch. I was getting bored and restless myself.
Just when I thought that the fishes were just not into my bait, a kind-hearted man in his 60’s approached me. He was with his grandson who loves fishing. We talked for a while , then he checked my fish hooks and diagnosed the problem. I was using the wrong size hook. Oops! He gave me two smaller hooks as well as a sinker. He also told me to cut the bait into half. Most of the fish that morning were small Catfish, Yellow Tails and Croakers. He also asked me to join him where he was fishing. My son and his grandson immediately bonded. So did we.
As soon as I used the right hook with the right size of bait, we were catching fishes in quick succession. We were so happy with the new turn of event. It reminded me of the saying, “when it rains, it pours.” By the time we’re finished, we had about 17 fishes in our cooler.
After fishing we went swimming and had a family picnic at the beach. Just before taking a nap, my son gave me a hug and told me, “Dad, I had a fun.” I whispered while hugging him back, “Me too, thank you.”
