Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!

So my cousin, Carter, is probably the most avid and skilled outdoors man I know. Whether it is hunting or fishing, the guy is always outdoors. About 2 or 3 years ago, he invited me down to Galveston to go night fishing. A lot of the homes in the Morby Beach house neighborhood have submerged lights in the canal which you can see the fish circling the lights going after bait fish. One of the 'mother nature' triggers to go fish is a sudden drop in temperature, aka a good cold front, which the Houston area received Monday night, Tuesday morning.

Tuesday after work, I gathered my fishing gear, grabbed some soft bait lures (Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Pogy 3" Glow) at Academy, threw some ice in a cooler and headed an hour south to the beach house. I arrived around 9:15pm, located a underwater light with plenty of fish and my first line in was at 9:20pm. My first fish was on at about 9:23pm...however I was so excited about fishing that I forgot to grab a net and the first fish I caught, snapped my line as I attempted to bring the fish to the surface. Disgusted with myself, I went and found the sturdiest net I could find and retooled the fishing rod.

Fish 1, Shane 0

Most of the time spent fishing is actually driving around to find the lights. You can catch 1 fish per light before they all scatter and you have to move along. However, one house had 4 lights in a row. It was a new house right on the bay and there must have been 3 to 4 dozen red fish in the lights. Because it was such a large area, I was able to catch one on the right side of the lighted area and then immediately hook another one over in the left zone.

I fished until around midnight, catching 9 fish (8 red fish, 1 speckled trout) in about 45 minutes of actual fishing time. How big were these fish? The smallest I caught was a 17" red and the largest was a 24" red. I only kept 3 fish (2 reds and the 1 speck). Want to see what they looked like?


It was a really fun trip...until I had to clean my catch. I had seen Carter fileted many fish but never had done it myself. Let's just say the dock where I cleaned the fish looked like a murder scene after I was done. I didn't eat any of the fish myself, but gave it out to friends and family. Apparently its good eats! I finally made it back home around 2am Wednesday and let's just say I wasn't very productive that day at the office.

Stay tuned for my next post in which I discuss my impending mid-life crisis!!


Numerical Summary for the Week:

36 - holes of golf played this weekend. Played in the Waco Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament Friday morning and then just finished playing another round at Deerwood Country Club up in Kingwood.

352 - yards my drive went to win a long drive hole in the Chamber Tournament. I won a $50 gift card to Academy for my efforts. Hey! More fishing lures!!

100 - SPF I use if I am going to be outdoors. It's perfect for the course because 1 application is all you need. I do tone it down and go with SPF 70 for my face. Getting old = wrinkles and sun spots.