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!)