Trip to Beaufort

Uncle James and I headed out on Sunday morning to Beaufort.  We had not left the state when it started to drizzle, and the sky became dark.     After weeks of dry weather, a storm drove up the Florida coast, with winds and rain and dark sky all the way up the Atlantic, just in time for us.   When we arrived, we also realized that it was a full moon and the barometer was dropping like Auburn's 2011 National Championship hopes.  So, as a result, the fishing was not going to be good.  The weather man kept up a tease, though, each day telling us that the weather would clear in a day & a half.   It didn't.

This picture shows Uncle James driving the boat through the tidewater and Uncle Billy throwing a shrimping net.   The shrimping and fishing were awful,  The crabbing was good!   

It was interesting as a newly retired guy visiting with three members of the family from the previous generation.  There were often two, even three conversations going on at the same time with no listeners.  The two most  often spoken words were "Huh?" and "What?".      I think I contributed about half of those, so this was a peek into my hearing-aid-wearing future.

 We gathered about 60 blue crabs during the week.

Uncle Billy knows how to prepare crab.

 Once the cooking starts, all you need to do is tell fishing stories.

 After the blue crab is red, he is cooked.

 Uncle James had his hat and gear in his van ready to go when I picked him up.   Unfortunately, because we went in my van, he forgot to get his hat out and take it.   He begged me to lend him this Auburn hat, because he has always wanted to wear one, and just never had the opportunity despite his matriculation with a masters degree from that institution.  And then, he begged me to take his photo.*

 We caught a few shrimp as we went, as bait for fishing.   Most were sacrifices to the fickle fishing gods, and the crabs that snatched them.

My only other experience was a couple years ago recounted HERE 

 

 I was beginning to think that I was the fishing jinx because other than a few crabs on our lines, stealing our bait, and a few fish that were too small to keep, only Uncle Billy had caught one.   That is, until I didn't go with them.   That's when James caught his fish.

It was a spotted tail redfish.  Uncle James was so proud of catching that fish that he begged me to take his photograph.*



*[I may have the details of these notes backwards]   ;-)