Little Boat, Big Boat

Last Friday, before we left for our weekend concert tour, sponsored in part by our good friend and favorite big brother Hal Harless (thanks Hal), we hit the bay in our Gheenoe!! We left early and put in at the Courtney Campbell Boat Ramp. Eager for some good fishin' action, the chicks were rigged and ready. Now, let me just preface this story by saying that Andrea and I have caught a whopping 3 fish, to date, in the bay, where we fish in our little boat. So, coming straight off of two spectacular fishing days on my dad's big boat with an average haul of 50 to 100 fish, I think our little Andrea might have been just a bit jaded. Her comment to me during the drive to the ramp was, "we can put all the fish we catch in the cooler or on a stringer ok?" Again, we have caught 3 fish in the 5 times we have taken our boat out, you do the math. Never wanting to be the one to burst a bubble, I just smiled and nodded my head, thinking to myself, "she must be on crack."

Things started out a little bit rough because this was the first time that I had actually backed the boat onto a ramp, a ramp that slopes down into the water. Everything was going fine and then, the boat disappeared......down the ramp. Andrea's yelling "No, no, straighten it out, your going sideways!!!" I'm turning the wheel every which way, yelling back to her that I can't see the boat!!! Totally ignoring me, she continues to yell, "Why do you always go sideways??!!!" In another one of my more dramatic moments I slammed the car into park, got out and yelled, "You do it then!!!" And she did. She's such an ass.

So, I pulled myself together, parked the car and we loaded into the boat. The motor started right up, which took both of us by surprise and Andrea headed for the channel. I saw a big boat speeding toward us so I calmly let Andrea know, and for one split second she got this "deer in headlights" look on her face and I was sure that I had felt that exact same look on my own face right before I crashed a Jon Boat into the seawall in Crystal River (we'll save that story for another day). Always cool headed, she gained control of the boat and her expression, while I tried hard to erase the Jon Boat incident from my mind. Off we went.

The day's haul totaled a whopping 2, a Jack and a chubby Mangrove Snapper that would have been a keeper if it hadn't wiggled itself off of my hook before I got it into the boat. It was just as well though, I haven't really gotten up the nerve to actually kill a fish, even if I do plan to eat it. All in all, it was a good day though, not too hot, very relaxing with good friends and good fun.

Are any of you starting to notice a pattern here? Little boat, a little fish. Big boat, a lot of fish. Hmmmmmm.

The Meaning of Life

You know, for as long as I can remember
I have been trying to figure out
the meaning of life.

I've been quite a complex soul
since I was just a little girl.

In my search for what the meaning of life is,
I only seem to come up with what
the meaning of life isn't.

It isn't hatred, bitterness, or strife
It isn't condemnation, judgment, or prejudice
It isn't separation, segregation, or alienation
It can't be fighting, killing innocent people and terror

The more I ponder it, the more overwhelming it gets.
I might never know the true meaning of life,
at least not during "this" life.

But for now, I choose a more quiet and peaceful meaning,
filled with loving family and friends, that don't harbor
hidden agendas, impure motives, and deception.

Living my life to make these people happy
and not worrying about the ones that
only serve to make others miserable.

Although this may not be the meaning of life,
it gives mine an abundance of happiness
and a lot less stress!!

Andrea's Big Day!!

This was one of the greatest fishing days ever!!! Andrea and I started researching and planning the trip, the day before, so that it would be a perfect day and our pre-planning paid off!! We went and checked out the boat ramp and talked with a local bait shop owner to find out where to find the Mangrove Snapper. Now I've never really been the pre-planning type, but I do believe that my dear, organized friend Andrea is starting to rub off on me. We marked the map, made our plan, and we were ready to go.

I was so excited to show my dad all the fishing tricks that I had learned. We have been going fishing for as long as I can remember and he is REALLY good. When we got our boat, and starting fishing I realized just how much I had learned from watching him. So, it was very important to me that the trip turned out to be a good one, and it did.

We headed out with our map upside down, despite multiple warnings from Andrea that, "you never turn a map upside down." We turned it around and we were at our first fishing spot in no time. It was a little bridge on a residential canal. He'll probably kill me for saying this but my dad cast his line up onto some guys boat and it got stuck. I was just so glad to know that even the most seasoned of fishermen still do that on occasion. Sorry dad.

My dad and I caught the teeniest tiny Grouper and Mangrove Snapper, that we had ever seen. We started to feel like we were in a twilight zone version of "honey I shrunk the fish." But still no fish for Andrea. Jovial as ever, she was just happy to be there!!

Searching for some bait, we headed for the flats. My dad threw the cast net and Andrea manned the pole that kept us out of the bushes. My dad, Mr. Thrifty, made her fish a life jacket out of the mangroves. All the while she was yelling, "there better not be a body in it!!!" Thank God there wasn't. It would take years of counseling to get me over something like that!!! Well, we got a nice life jacket but no bait at all, so we decided to head over to the bridge in search of some bigger Mangrove Snapper!!

WE FOUND THEM!!! Oh boy, we were pulling up Mangrove Snapper as fast as we could get our bait down, it was awesome. My dad was having a blast. I was so proud that the day we had planned was turning out so great. Andrea kept getting bites and having her bait stolen (Mangrove Snapper are the master at bait stealing) but no luck. My dad had caught a couple of keepers (over 10 inches) and I had caught a few that were just under size and then it happened. Andrea hooked a fish. From the time that fish hit her line she was yelling, "it's a keeper, it's a keeper!!!" Always the optimist, that Andrea. It could have been a Sting Ray for God's sake and she was going to keep it!! While she was yelling, she quit reeling it in and we were yelling at her to keep reeling or she was going to lose it. It was quite a scene, I'm sure that every boater within a 2 mile radius was aware that Andrea had caught her first fish!!! It was a little Mangrove Snapper, probably about 6 inches or so. Her face lit up like a jack-o-lantern. My dad took it off of her hook, we took a picture and my dad proceeded to flip the fish back in the water. Well........Andrea's face looked like someone had just punched her in the stomach. My father made the grave mistake of only estimating the size of her fish and didn't go through the ritual of measuring it. Doh!!!

She rebounded quickly and hauled in a record 5 fish for the day. None were keepers but the excitement eased the sting. All together we must have caught 25 or 30 fish and 5 of them were keepers. We almost have enough for a fish fry, so we're heading back out this Sunday. Hopefully we'll have another great day!! Honestly though, any day that I can spend out on the water, with two of my favorite people in the whole world, is a great day. Fish or no fish!!