July 19, 2009

A good walk spoiled.......................

Someone wrote a book about golf which used that Mark Twain quote "golf is a good walk spoiled." Reminds me of my fishing adventure of today.I left early this Sunday morning at 5:00 after checking the radar and latest weather report; chance of thunderstorms after 2:00, winds are calm growing to 8-10 after lunch. Radar showed a line of thunderstorms 25+ miles offshore; should be a good morning to find a few Spanish and maybe a keeper flounder or two.As I motored east and as the sun started hitting the tops of clouds I could see what seemed to be a couple of squall lines approaching from offshore. Well that can't be, but just to keep dry I decided to take advantage of the calm seas and go offshore. Got to the inlet and found a respectable 4 foot swell with more SW wind than expected. Went on out to AR 315 and found some preacher's ...............lizard fish and undersized flounder; and nothing else. Saw a little bait, but no Spanish or blues...odd.About 7:30 I looked offshore and saw two serious squall lines coming in. Having little luck, and being on Dink and Pop duty, I decided go home and to run between the two lines and then follow the first line in. In retrospect this wasn't my best move, especially since Jackson told me later that it didn't rain at the Sheraton where he was at work. Anyway the move was made and I started for the shipping channel. As I neared the channel Shackleford Banks disappeared into the rain, then I watched as Ft Macon did the same. By then I was in the channel and watched as the channel markers vanished. At some point I put the top up, probably brought on by the fact that the radio speaker started sounding kinda funny; it was soaked and so was I. Rode it out in the channel, visibility improved past 100 yards, so I started for the eastern side of Beaufort Inlet. Did I mention the calm winds? Well they weren't.Got inside and went up into the Middle Marshes. No fish at home I decided to scout a creek in the middle of the marshes, tried to punch it a little too far into skinny water and ended up hard aground on an oyster rock. Lowered the trolling motor to pop off the rock and then discovered the trolling motor took a sick leave day. Got out of the boat (where is barefooted Jay when you need him?) and thankfully was able to get into deeper water. By now it was 9 or so, and I've got my day planned to transport Dink to Pop's place, so I decided I'd had about enough. Tried the east side of the inlet with no results, went to the railroad trestle and didn't get a bite, the heck with it, it hasn't been my best day, I'm going home! My neighbors went by and asked me later if I saw the waterspout behind me; just as well that I didn't.
As I got up to speed coming out of the Turning Basin I saw something in the water that caught my eye. I turned around and netted a NC Seafood Festival hat that someone lost overboard. My luck has changed! Someone is getting a nice hat for Christmas so act surprised. Ran on to Spooner Creek, turned into the channel, and as is my custom as I throttled back I reached for my visor on the post, but it was gone! Talk about karma......

Got to the landing, backed the truck in, hit the parking brake and broke it in the locked position.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Got it unhung, got home, hit the engine skeg backing in the driveway, realized I'd lost my sunglasses in all the confusion. After searching the house and garage way too long, finally gave up and got my shower to go pick up Dink. However I did find my visor which must have blown off of my head but stayed in the boat, a la Davis Powers.Before leaving I went to the landing to try to find the sunglasses; oddly enough I found them as I got back into the truck.....I'd been sitting on them the whole time. Who didn't see that one coming? Hope I fixed them well enough to keep the lens in.

So that was my day, which is some kind of circular logic comes back around to golf. I taped The Open, sure hope Tom Watson won.................................