Fish for the Retreat

After being out of town all week and since Tracy could not accompany me, we were both ready for a little "trailer time" on Friday.

The weather had been beautiful all week as the summer heat finally relented and cooler temperatures and clear skies dominated the Southeast. I missed catching a flounder along the rocks before supper but still enjoyed this glorious Pelican Point sunset.

Our annual retreat for elders and ministers is scheduled for later this month and I volunteered to provide a fish supper on the first night. Since we have not been keeping any fish, the pressure is on to catch enough to feed everybody. We got off to an early start on Saturday morning. This sunrise picture was taken in our new spot along the Diversion Channel.

We had a pint of live shrimp and a couple dozen live finger mullet and were ready to test the waters of the West Matagorda Bay system.

After a long dry spell, we finally caught some keeper trout. This trio will find a new home in the deep fryer. Tracy caught a nice red in the morning with a kink in his tail - he was plenty big enough but would have measured about 23" if his spine was straight.

After lunch we went back out to see if there were any more hungry fish to be had. I cast netted up some more mullet around the boat slips and we took some shrimp we had in the freezer. Tracy fished the shrimp and said she felt a "nibble, nibble" then found herself hooked up with this two foot long red monster. At first the fish stayed deep and we couldn't see what it was - every once in a while we got a glimpse of this little gafftop but surely this little guy didn't have that much fight in him! Soon enough the mystery was solved. When the fish finally came to the net, it was evident that Tracy had caught two fish at once on a single hook. The slimer must have found the shrimp first just before big red had the same idea. Talk about a bad day for the little gafftop!

This will feed a few hungry retreaters. We still have two more Saturdays to catch a few more.