Here fishy fishy fishy....

As mentioned previously, the boys and I headed out fishing on Wednesday morning.  Early.  O Dark Thirty early.  We left the house at 4:20 to meet the captain at 4:45.  With an 8 year old and a 6 year old.  Both of whom were stoked to be going, however.  We climbed aboard the Captain Ike II (a little ominous for us coastal Texans who still remember the 2008 storm) and settled in for a long ride.

Captain Dave called us the night before to discuss the itinerary.  The tuna were located well to our south, so that was out of the question.  The tautog was out of season, so that was a no go.  Sharks were a plenty, and thats what the boys wanted to catch anyways, so shark fishing it shall be.  As we made our way out of the channel we watched the sunrise.

The fishing grounds were over 60 miles off shore, so the ride took a little while.  The boys closed their eyes ( I think I did too), and we motored offshore.  About 90 minutes in, some chatter started on the radio.  Someone had caught a tuna.  Good for him.  About 10 minutes later, someone else had hooked up.  We watch as the captain's eyes grow a little wider.  10 more minutes pass and Captain Dave turns to Ian and I and says, "We can fish for sharks like we planned, or we can just go a little further where they are catching tuna.  Your call."  Ian and I look at the kids, who were both sleeping, and nod in agreement, "Go for the tuna!."

We trolled for a quite a while searching for the fish.  The two families had to decide which one of us would reel in the first fish, so we solved it the best way we knew how: we did paper, rock, scissors.  Damn you rock.  Anyways, it was decided that the Millers would get the first fish.  All we had to do now was hook one.  After about two hours, finally, fish on!!

A nice tuna!  Then it was our turn.  I only prayed that it wouldn't take two more hours of trolling to find another one.  But the captain knew what he was doing and we had another hook up about 30 minutes later. 

Another nice tuna!!!  After that, the captain put us on some tilefish.  I had never heard of a tile fish, but we caught two different kinds: blue tilefish, and golden tilefish.  Both supposedly are great eating.  After the boys had caught a few, I insisted that I get a chance to drop the line and set the hook for myself rather than the deck hand doing it for me.  I learned this from Mark as he did the same thing the last time we went fishing.  This way, I truly knew what it felt like to get a hook up.  The same time we were tilefishing, Luke hooked into his catch of the day.  He hooked into a baby leopard shark.  It was pretty cool looking and both boys were excited about catching a shark.

All in all, we had a blast.  The boys got to go fishing with their dads.  The dads caught some tuna.  The boys caught a bunch of fish, and even a shark.  The Millers have enough tuna to last them all summer.

We had so much fun, I can't believe it was almost time for us to head back to Texas.  Almost.......