Short story about why my nerves are shot.... I got a call at 8:30 am to a crying wife saying that my daughter and granddaughter were in a car accident and their car rolled a few times and ended up on the roof... I was on my way home within a second. Hospitals won't let visitors in, so it was a nerve wracking time. Fortunately, they are both doing as well as you could expect from a rollover accident. Actually, my granddaughter was pretty much unscathed, but my daughter got it a bit worse with the air bags, glass and stuff.
Anyway, I've not heard about the boat in a week, so I decided to get out fishing at the old Bat Cave this morning, so I could sit quietly and just unwind. Dog walkers (that became dog swimmers right in front of my rods) and strokers everywhere, but I tried not to let that deter me.
I was off to a bad start as I caught six of these guys. Not quite Minus One's, but a definite ZERO total for 6 fish. hahahaha
A couple walked down to talk to me and I really didn't want to be bothered, but they were very nice and I had nowhere else to go. When the gentleman asked why I am fishing at this exact spot, I replied "It's the furthest spot from the walkway I could get so I didn't have to deal with many people". They got my point, but we had a pleasurable conversation anyway.
I was finally nice and relaxed when the bay started to come to life with people and I was starting to get packed up as it was still a pleasant 3.5 hours soaking some baits in the quiet of the bay. Just then I turned around to see two strokers coming in hot right at my line. I've always thought that being a stroker was like getting into your car, putting it in reverse and trying to drive with only looking over your shoulder every once in a while. Seems so ridiculous when I think about it that way.
No joke, as I was taking this picture, I saw my line go absolutely limp and knew I was on because it was a big mackerel head. The girl strokers literarily stopped "Stroking" right in front of me for a rest while I was tight but the line was screaming out. I asked them to "duck" as the line shot right at their heads over the boat and I had all open water at this point. I knew it wasn't a monster, but I was only using my coffee grinder and seriously this has been my biggest bat in 2 or 3 years. LOL
I finally get it on shore and maybe a 40# model.
Nothing huge, but it put a smile on my face knowing I saved my morning with a final second catch. My shoulder is a little sore from it, but that's to be expected from any legit bat ray. hahaha
Well, I packed it in and got home to call about how my boat investigation was going.............
