Galveston / Fishing

1.  Galveston (and its water) is not that bad.
I give Galveston a hard time.  I'm trying to remember where all this animosity towards Galveston and its beaches came from.  To be honest, I think it started as a child.  We used to go to Surfside Beach all the time because our grandparents lived near the area.  We had tons of fun on the beach...but one of the main things I remembered was how brown the water is.  After traveling nearly 4 years with my previous job, I quickly realized that "most" ocean water is not brown.  Anyway...

Many years later....
Within the first few weeks of dating April (back in the summer '05), she had a friend from the Midwest come visit her.  April mentioned that her friend wanted to go down to Galveston and see the beach.  I suggested she just fill up her bath tub with water and then throw dirt in there.  It would look just like Galveston water.  She laughed and ultimately did not take her friend down there.  Sorry, Galveston economy.

Fast-forward 5 year....
Several weeks ago, the inlaws were in town from South Dakota to check out the baby I created with their daughter.  Ape and I always rack our brains trying to come up with unique things for her parents to do while they are down.  Since Ape's dad is always taking me hunting when I'm in South Dakota, I thought it would be nice to return the favor.  Do something manly.  Cuz I am manly.  So, I decided to hire a fishing guide to take us (me, my bro, Ape's bro and dad) out toward the jetties to fish for half a day.  And you know, I had fun.  Fishing is definitely fun....when you catch stuff.  My bro caught a turtle.  Ape' dad caught a dogfish.  Hell, even I caught a huge bull red.  It was roughly 43 inches long and 29lbs.  It was a ton of fun to reel in.  Don't believe me???  Boom....

2. There are sharks everywhere!
During our 4-5 hour fishing trip, we caught at least 15 sharks.  We had to throw most of them back because you can only keep one shark per person per day (something else I learned).  They are everywhere.  These aren't great whites or anything like that, but I wouldn't want one of those suckers latching onto my leg.  Would you???

This one is a bonnet head shark.  It was one of the smallest. Ape's Dad caught the largest one.  It had to be at least 5 feet long.





3. You can EAT shark!
Did you know this?  I sure as hell didn't.  Check this out.  Shark steaks.... 
Surprisingly, the shark steaks didn't have a fishy taste and grilled up pretty easily.  Plus, there are tons of shark recipes online...

Anyway, I think that's it....



FYI...in a few weeks, the fam will be hitting the road for our annual July 4th trip to South Dakota.  Hopefully, I will be able to share some stories and things learned from that trip.  Like...is it smart to drive 19 hours in a car with a 12 week old human being???  Or....what is the best way to hunt gopher?  Can you hunt gophers with a rocket launcher?  Is it easy to shoot gophers with an assault rifle?  How many gopher pelts does it take to make a gopher fur throw blanket?  Wow, that will look nice in the living room.  I could also make a rug....like those tiger rugs that still have the head attached.  But instead, it would just be this little 2 inch head of a gopher.  What was this post about????  Fishing!!!  I'll end this post with some killer action shots...