Vacation Fishing

People get addicted to many things. My addiction just happens to be fishing. Whether I am competing in a bass tournament or cat fishing in my own pond, I simply cannot get enough. This year my wife and I blew our budget and took two vacations. The first was out west to Denver, Colorado and the second was to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. I am not a big shopper nor do I love spending eight days lying on the beach to see how dark my skin can get, but my wife and kids love this sort of thing so that is why I do it. But if I can get the opportunity to fish just one day on vacation then that is a success to me. In Colorado, we saw the beautiful mountains and visited a lot of neat places. Our friends that we stayed with were our tour guides. I had already decided to try and go trout fishing so myself and my friend Collin headed up into the mountains to try our luck. We would get a couple of hours before we had to meet the girls for lunch. The river was gorgeous and the browns were biting. Unlike most of the fishermen that were using their fly rods Collin and I had our spinning outfits. We walked the banks catching some nice brown trout. That made the trip for me. They pull hard in the current and make some spectacular jumps. I could never be a fly fisherman because I have no patience and one cast per minute is too slow for me. I had a great time catching them and hope to do it again sometime. Then two weeks later we headed out east. The beaches were packed and my wife couldn’t have been happier sitting in her beach chair soaking up the rays. My kids loved the ocean and the big waves that were coming onto the shore. I was having fun playing with them but I really wanted to try my luck at some deep sea fishing. There were three other couples with us and a couple of the guys were game if I could get us on a boat. We found out the offshore fishing was not that good so I ended up finding an inshore guide that had an opening. I booked it. We would be going after Redfish, Flounder, and maybe even a shark. We met up early with Caption Robert and headed out to catch our bait. Once he located the shrimp I idled the boat around for him while he used a cast net to load our live well full of shrimp. Then we set out on a half an hour boat ride to our fishing destination. At our first stop, Kevin hooked up with a nice Flounder, and for the next hour or so Kevin, Jimmy, and his son James caught fish. No, I did not mention myself because I could not catch a cold. They were all laughing at me because I was the big “Bass Pro” and still the only one not to boat a fish. James was catching everything from Flounder to Redfish. He even caught a baby shark. Kevin Caught two big reds and I had nothing. Finally I boated my first red. It was small but still a fish. We switched spots and immediately Kevin smoked a big red. Finally I got the bite I was looking for. I set the hook and my spool sang as the big fish took me out into open water. After a ten minute fight the Bonnet Head shark gave up. We got him in the boat and we were all excited. The guide estimated him between sixteen and twenty pounds. I have caught some big muskie before and they fight hard but I have never had anything pull like this fish. We fished the rest of the day catching a few more flounder and redfish before we had to go in. It was a great time and an experience I will never forget. Vacation was fun this summer. My wife and kids had a blast and I did to. I got to fish.