SHOW AND TELL

Me with my first catch!

Melissa and Jim fished for many years off the coast of North Carolina. Jim took me on my first fishing trip about a year ago. I caught my first striper on that trip and I was the only person on the boat who had a bite the whole day. The striper was 18" long and just big enough to keep. My brother taught me how to fillet it and we sauteed that baby in butter. It was really tasty.

This past Tuesday, March 2, the one month marker, Melissa and I went fishing on the Gal-O-Mine with a bunch of friends from DC. The Gal-O-Mine is the same fishing boat Melissa and Jim chartered for many years. We decided to take some of Jim's ashes with us to spread out over the Atlantic ocean. The captain took off about 7:30am, snacks, drinks, fried chicken, five men and two women, plus the capt. and his mate, all hoping to catch a big rock fish. Little did we know what kind of crazy fishing trip it would turn out to be.

Capt. Benji stopped the boat near the VA/NC state line. We could see the water towers as we headed north. It was a sweet ride but we knew the weather would turn on us by afternoon as we anticipated a big nor'easter to bring high winds and snow to the area by evening. We fished for about 15 minutes without a bite. I told Melissa it was time for some super natural divine intervention. She went to get Jim's ashes and we took the to the edge of the deck. Melissa said a prayer and we shared some fun fishing words and sent Jim off into the Atlantic with a happy good bye. We both went back into the salon area of the boat and smiled.

ched, dave, short guy, shawn, me, charles, and melissa with just a few of our catch

Within 10 minutes the boat had moved south where Capt. Benji thought the chances of catching any fish may be improved. The Mate set the fishing rods one at a time but as he got one in the water, another one had a bite. He was pulling in fish faster than he could get the next one back in. The guys were catching two fish at a time and each fish was bigger than the last. Seriously, we were catching fish one after the other to the point we tuckered our selves out. It was the most divine thing I had ever seen!

We couldn't keep all the fish we caught. We caught and released 27. We kept 18 big ones. Of those 18, 5 were citations, possibly 45-50 pounders! We know know one will believe us but we did get pics from the Oregon Fishing Center. They cut off the catch on the ground. That's me holding the five fingers out.

Shawn, not wanting to be disrespectful, quietly asked Melissa if she would mind sparing a few of Jim's ashes, as he wanted some for his next fishing trip! He'll just have to invite us next time he charters the Gal-O-Mine again!