FISHING
ON THE APALACHICOLA BAY WITH BOOK ME A CHARTER
By: J.P. Jackson (age
9)
I was so excited when my mom told me that we were
going to go on a fishing trip while we were at the beach during Spring
Break! It was going to be a REAL fishing trip on a boat with a REAL
captain and just “us”—me, my mom and dad. When we got to
Cape San Blas on Saturday, I thought Monday would never come!
On
Monday morning we headed to Apalachicola to meet the boat! We met
the boat at Alan’s Seafood, which was cool because when we
got there the first thing we got to see was people bagging up oysters
that people caught in the bay. Then we saw the boat we were going
to take out! That’s when it really hit me that we were really
going out!
We loaded our cooler and stuff on the boat and headed
out! On the way out to the bay we went down a channel and saw lots
of neat boats—one even looked like it had been wrecked. Then
we were out in the Apalachicola Bay headed towards our first fishing
spot! Mr. Dwayne hit the gas and we went flying! It was really windy,
but I didn’t lose my Clemson hat!
The first fishing spot we
hit they said that we were going to catch some trout. If we got one
we were supposed to pull with no slack! We waited, but the only thing
we caught there was a stingray! Since it was so windy the water was “muddy” and
I learned that fish actually find the bait by seeing it so it was
hard to get their attention when the water was “muddy”.
We moved on!
At the next spot Mr. Dwayne tried to teach my mom
how to make the bobber “pop” to get the fishes attention.
On my moms 3rd try, it popped alright….she yanked so hard
she pulled the whole thing out of the water and almost took poor
Mr. Dwayne out! Mom had a few other “casting incidents” that
day—but she stuck with it and got used to the fact the boat
had a top! Mr. Dwayne (and Ms. Sandra) really helped her casting.
Mom likes to surf fish and wanted to improve her casting, so she
was happy! At least the beach is bigger and she’s not dangerous!
Then we really started catching some fish! We were
out in the middle of the bay and that was the BIG spot. We caught
about 30 fish—boy
did those things put up a fight! Everybody needed my help to reel
them it! It seemed like I was just going from pole to pole fighting
fish! One of the fish that Mr. Dwayne caught that I tried to reel
in was so big it snapped the line—that was a real fight! Everyone
thought it was a Spanish Mackerel! That would have been really cool!
We moved to an area in the bay with a sandbar. We
learned a lot about the types of birds that would warn you of a storm
(or wind, I can’t
remember) coming and about other birds that would show you where
the fish were! We caught a bunch of fish there too! I was really
sad when they said it was time to head home!
On the way back into
the dock there was a grassy area and I saw a HUGE black sea snake!
The day just kept getting better! Once we unloaded everything, Ms.
Sandra took us into the area where the clean and shuck the oysters!
These guys were great—wish they would come to dinner and shuck
for me sometime!
All in all it was a great day and Mrs. Sandra and
Mr. Dwayne are great people! I think it was the Next time we visit
Cape San Blas, FL I can’t wait to go fishing with them again
(if they aren’t scared of my mom’s casting!) |