A detour from the West

    From time to time a benevolent soul or two offers a fishing trip, a real fishing trip, with a large boat, saltwater, and many hours.

    Such an opportunity presented itself recently and being in the throes of withdrawals from fishing, not having fished since early July and then not catching anything except at the grocery store, I said yes.

     We were to meet for a trip on the New Buccaneer out of Galveston, a large catamaran style fishing charter vessel, operated by Galveston Party Boats - http://www.galvestonpartyboatsinc.com/boats.html

The fish hanging on the bulkhead are not the catch of the day, but from another time.

    It is a large boat, like I said, a catamaran 85 feet long, 33 feet wide and powered by 4 diesels. It is equipped with the latest fish locating and navigation equipment, as well as a galley and grill, basic toilet facilities, one for each sex and a so called sundeck..
     At the appointed time all met at pier 19 in Galveston and awaited the arrival of the "New Buccaneer" eagerly looking at the catch of the "morning" trip fishermen / women. Some had large fish, some had very small fish, some had a small hammerhead shark, most had no fish at all.

   It should be noted this boat carries a large quantity of "fishermen / women". If fully booked I would guess about 100, which means you are standing shoulder to shoulder, each with a fishing rod, so the fish, if there are any, have a great choice of bait, which in this case was squid, sort of along the lines of "should I bite on this one or that one, or that one over there?"

    When 1:30 PM rolled around the boat left the dock and slowly powered out past the US Coast Guard Station (no wake please) and then powered up to full speed for the Gulf of Mexico end of the North Jetty where anchor was dropped not far from the jetty. On the journey out everyone is full of anticipation as well as a few people probably being concerned about having to make their own personal sacrifice to King Neptune.

    While on the way out to our destination bait is distributed by the crew of the boat, the bait being cut up squid. Not very appetising, but at least if no fish are caught we can take the remainder home and fry it up or make a fish soup - we do not expect this to be a favorite dish.

    Everyone, about 45 people on the starboard side, about another 45 people on the port side, and perhaps 10 people across the stern. When will we get the word to drop lines in the water ... anticipation is killing everybody as most have sold the skin before the shot the bear, or in this case, have promised a good fish fry for dinner, but before the fish were caught.

     Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, or at least like purgatory, the word was given. Lines were dropped in the water, and everyone is waiting patiently for fish to bite, ----- patiently .... patiently ---- patiently .... patiently ---- holding rod, finger on the line hoping to feel that nibble on the other end.

     We fished that location for about 45 minutes, a few very small hammerhead sharks and one black tip shark were caught as was some very small catfish, but not by any member of our party.
The captain announced we were going to try another location; fishing lines in, anchor  up, power a few miles to the ocean end of the South Jetty.

     The routine described above repeated itself, again only a few fish were caught, so after maybe 45 minutes the anchor comes up again for a try at a third location; a place called the boat cut in the North Jetty.

     We hit the mother lode, depending on where one was standing on the the boat, because each person was assigned a location to fish from and a few people on the starboard side caught fish, I was not one of the few, nor were any of the others in the our party, even though we were on the starboard side.

    The good people on the port side, particularly those near the stern got into a school of Bull Reds, all requiring special tags because they were over 28" (71 cm) which one is allowed per licensed fisherman / woman per year in Texas waters.

     The fish box on the boat is filling up, for a few people anyway.

    Finally it is time to call it the end of the day. We didn't catch any but had a great time, and we did catch a lot of sunshine, while crew members are busy sorting the fish and getting them ready for "display".

     The gulls were having a great time as the remaining bait was thrown overboard as we decided that perhaps bringing it home was not the greatest of ideas.



     This is what the front of the bulk head looked like on arrival back at the dock.

     Can't claim a single one. However, the experience just verifies my understanding that it is called fishing for a reason, it is not called "catching", and on a similar note, it is not about catching fish, it is only about catching fisher men / woman and their dollars.

    And thus endedth a great day.