We have just returned home from another great week at Gulf State Park. The ride home was quiet as usual after a week long trip. As we traveled through Evergreen my youngest son (18 years old now) woke up long enough to ask me a question that made me ponder over my answer. "Dad, what kind of rod are you getting to replace that one you gave that kid?" Thats when the wife cut her eyes over with that look that says "Excuse me".
Since the pier was under renovation we had spent the week learning to surf fish. We visited Fort Morgan several days with minimal luck outside of sharks and hardheads. Our last morning on the beach things changed. An hour after daylight the birds began diving just offshore. My 2 boys went to running to the cart swapping setups. Within the next hour and a mile of following birds we had landed and released over 50 big Spanish.
As we walked back to where the girls were sunning we passed a family feeding squid to the hardheads. A teenage boy from Arkansas asked what we had caught. You should have seen his eyes when I opened the cooler to show him what we had saved for dinner. His dad told me that his son was autistic and only laughed while fishing. I let him look at my cart and all the tackle we had brought. He proudly showed me his Wal-Mart special and his bucket of squid.
When he asked how we caught them I figured the best way was to show him. I handed him my Spinfisher on the 8" Stellar rod and told him how to work the X Rap tied on to it. Low and behold he caught a lady on the third cast. He was ecstatic!
I walked off a short time later leaving that combo in the kids hand. I told him to bring it to the pier next time and someone would be there to help him. I felt comfortable telling him because over the past few years I have received help numerous times. Most people never knew I was watching and learning from them.
I eased my wife's mind by telling her that family needed a little help to have a better trip. I started rattling off all the things that had been done for me. That time Harley showed me that Mullet were chicken of the sea and how to snag them. Or when Haywire showed my son how his trolley rig worked. Maybe it was David Lea handed my daughter a rod bowed up by a bull red. Or was it the time #r showed me how to catch those finicky trout in the shallows.
We are all blessed with a beautiful place to fish. Share the skills and knowledge when you have a chance. I've been handed shrimp, jigs, leader, etc. when I didn't have it. I remember every face that went along with it. That's the reason I never looked back when I left the beach that morning. Now if they will please hurry up and open those gates so I can get back to my happy place.
