Now, I'm not a huge lover of fishing. Katelyn isn't a huge lover of fishing. But the boys both love fishing, so another deep breath and another reluctant agreement to Dave's chartered fishing trip. And that was the only "planned" activity of the trip.
Dave did a lot research for charter companies. He found a small outfit, Charleston Fish Rod Bending Company, that would take out just our family. Since it was just going to be the four of us and the captain, we were able to tailor the trip to what we wanted. When Dave set up the trip, he told the captain he had only to requirements: 1) Katelyn and I would catch a fish and 2) Carson would catch a shark.
Well, Captain Kevin Blair fulfilled those requirements and more in the 4 hours we were out. We had a blast and I'm so glad that I took that deep breath and agreed to the fishing trip.
The boys decided that the first bites were for us girls to reel in. So first up was Katelyn. And her first bite was a doozy!
About the same time the shark struck Katelyn's bait, I had a hit on my pole. Poor Captain Kevin...he had the two most inexperience fisherpeople on the boat with bites at the same time. That, unfortunately, led to a bit more of excitement than really needed to happen. He is telling me to "Reel! Reel!" so I can get my fish in and out of the way. I'm doing my best, but I didn't manage my fish very well and let it get around to the back of the boat and tangled around the anchor. As this is happening, he is also trying to coach Katelyn through landing her shark. He eventually told me just to put my pole in the pole holder and get out of the way. Katelyn is still fighting and reeling like crazy. You couldn't tell who was really winning the battle. She looked to Dave for a bit of help and he steadied the pole for her. That helped take some of the pressure off and she was able to get the shark up to the boat so Captain Kevin could grab it.
Dave and Carson were both anxious to get poles in the water after watching Katelyn and I get bites. So Captain Kevin got their poles set up and in the water. They both were fishing with regular poles with 10# tess line (I have no idea what that means except that it makes it more impressive when you reel in a shark on that kind of pole/line set-up).
Carson literally hooked into a shark. And that little bugger was not happy about it at all. Carson battled that shark for a good 20 minutes before he finally landed it and we saw the hook stuck in the shark's fin. I was tired just watching Carson work the pole and fight the shark. I think that Captain Kevin was impressed that Carson was able to land the shark, especially since Carson's finger is still jacked-up (the pins should come out in a couple of more weeks).
Carson also proved to be the sea trout master that day. He must have caught 15 trout. And since the boys were in charge of dinner that night, that proved to be a very good thing. Sea trout is very yummy to eat!
Dave, too, caught a shark, but unfortunately it broke the line just before Dave was able to land it. Dave did catch a flounder, a sea trout, a whiting (the 2nd "whiting" that he's caught), a sting ray, and got stuck on the oyster beds a lot!
So what were Katelyn and I doing while the boys were fishing? Well we still had our poles and were fishing as well. Katelyn doing a much better job than I. I managed to get a huge rats nest in my line that Captain Kevin worked very hard to untangle. He spent about 25 minutes working on that line, all the while the others on the boat were landing fish and he would pause to help them.
He had finally reached the give-up stage on my line and was just getting ready to cut the line when my bobber went under the water. He cut the line, handed me the line attached to the bobber, and told me to start pulling it in. I wrapped the line around my hand (no, I did not have on gloves) and started pulling. The creature on the end of the line did not like that so it pulled back. Well I wasn't going to lose this catch so I pulled even harder. And I won!
Yep, I caught a baby black-tip shark. It was so pretty, but still had some pretty wicked looking teeth! I had that head almost in a vice-like pinch so it wouldn't whip its head around and show me how irritated it still was with being caught.
More fishing, more dinner.
The trip lasted about 45 minutes too long for me. Fortunately at the last area we fished the dolphins were very actively fishing and I got distracted watching them fish.
1 comment:
Oh my gosh!!! that is so cool! I think sharks are pretty awesome, and can I just say, that picture of Kateylnn's face is PRICELESS!! So glad you had such a fun trip!
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