Fishing in the Deep Sea!!!

Fishing is one of my favorite hobbies.  It’s a hobby that will certainly exercise your patience and temperance.  As a matter of fact, there are a host of people who enjoy fishing.   A month ago I took advantage of the opportunity to go deep sea fishing with some good friends from Houston.  Frank Melton (minister of the Shady Acres Church in Houston), affectionately called “uncle frank”, his son (Frank III), Lamont Robbins (old classmate from SwCC) and Brian (a brother who attends shady Acres church).  All of us went on a deep sea fishing expedition in the Gulf of Mexico off of the coast in Galveston, Tx.   Carole came with me but stayed with Lamont’s wife to prepare the feast that would be served with the great catch of fish.  Let me not forget my good friend and brother Allen Carter… who incidentally jumped off of the boat into the gulf of Mexico the year before to fetch his reel.   He REALLY loves to fish (smile).   Anyway, we went on a fishing boat called the New Buccaneer.  An Older Preacher, a younger preacher, 2 song leaders, and two brethren on a boat in the gulf of Mexico with fishing poles in hand and faith in our hearts that the trip would yield our dinner for that evening.   It was a 12 hour long expedition.   We rode for three hours out into the deep blue sea.  The staff or “deck hand”, as they are called, were really great hosts on the New Buccaneer.  Uncle Frank shared stories on previous expeditions of catching large fish.   We left the dock early that morning excited, energetic and anticipating a great catch of fish.  When the boat got about 60 or 70 miles into the gulf, the captain told everyone to drop their line.  Our lines were baited with squid.  The stench from the squid alone was enough to make you regurgitate a years worth of dinner.  We were determined.  It’s red snapper season so we all were anticipating red snapper… and boy were they biting.  Left and right people were reeling in the ferocious red snapper;  some were small and others were huge.   There was a two fish maximum of red snapper so after our limit was reached we began fishing for other fish.   King fish, red liners, grouper, porgie and  sword fish were all on the menu to catch.   I have to pause and let you know that if you’ve never eaten Red Snapper you are missing out!!!  Anyway,  as the day went on and the sun beamed down on the fishing boat in the middle of the day, fatigue began to set in.   After wrestling with the relentless fish, and enduring the noon day sun, we were beat.   We  did however end up with enough fish to eat for that night and the morning after.   It was great fellowship and a good work out.   We all decided that this would be an annual expedition and that we  will invite others to share in the bounty of fish.   What a great expedition!!!   Oh yeah... Allen didn't feel the urge to jump into the gulf of Mexico this year!!!  Yeah!!!  (The deck hand remembered him because of this)

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