Being only a few weeks past this year's fishing trip it is still early to start planning next year's angling escapade. What we have though is retrospect. Thinking back we had a great trip this year. A trip with many firsts and experiences that will carry us through until the next. For those of you who did not or could not make it to the sultry and salty gulf coast this year, you were missed.
One highlight I failed to recognize earlier is that as a group we attained what is called a Texas grand slam. This includes catching redfish, trout and flounder. Just to run up the score we also boated gafftop and croaker. Although not everyone was able to strap a big shouldered aquatic gorilla to the end of their line it did not seem to hamper a good time. We have done far better this year than years past. Last year was a washout but everyone(almost) still made the return journey. Put a few fish in the cooler and the excitement ante raises tenfold.
Chase a fresh gulf shrimp down your own gullet with an ice cold beer and it is hard not to return. Take a salty bite of the lightly battered fish caught the day before by the NHF brother sitting right next to you and the world tends to work itself out for a little while.
Somewhere in the back of your psyche keep in mind that in two years, 10 years, 20 years from now you will not remember your eight to five grind. You will not remember spending the weekend mowing the lawn and fixing the dishwasher. What you will remember is sliding that mud minnow onto your hook before you dunk it into the murky bay with more hope than you had at Christmas when you were nine years old. You will remember sitting next to that dove pond with a bag full of birds as the sun sets on the dusty careless weeds. You will remember kicking the thorns off of the mesquite bush looking for that quail that probably ran off anyway. You will remember the whooshing sound the beer can makes as you open it while listening to more stories of how "it" used to be.
We all work with, associate with or at least have heard about citified, Olive Garden eatin' pud pullers that don't have any idea what this is like. If you are curious as to when the next adventure begins just check out the events page on
www.nhfclub.com
