"Speed Fishing" - Molding a Coastie

The next step in my evolution to becoming a "Coastie" was fishing with my father-in-law, Mike.  Let me start by explaining that he is a retired Police Chief who, prior to working up the ranks, served as a MP in the Army during Vietnam.  Mike is admittedly a Type A person--- which makes going out on his boat with him extremely entertaining.

Mike does a lot of what my wife and I call "Speed Fishing". By that I mean that we never spend more than 10 minutes at each fishing spot.  I might be exaggerating a little but not much.  I could be pulling in 5 fish at a time, but when Mike is ready to move on--- he is ready to move on. From this, I learned about 100 different fishing spots in about 3 fishing trips.  

Mike also always has top of the line gear.  It's like he just stepped out of some kind of bait and tackle magazine photo shoot.  Because he has all sorts of fancy gear, he makes sure he uses every bit of it on every trip.  Every single bit of it.  This means that at each 10 minute stop-- 5 minutes of that time is used to switch out lures, weights, or bait; hell, he might even be working one pole on the top water and one pole dragging the bottom.  From this, I learned which gear is good in which spots and which name-brands to splurge on.

My brother in law, Trey and
my father in law, Mike, heading to the
next spot.

Mike, driving the boat and rocking the
stache. Terri--- photo bombing.

Organization is key on Mike's boat.  There is a place for everything and everything has its place.  There are compartments labeled with a P-touch, there are velcro straps for the gear; hell, sometimes there are even assigned seats and an itinerary posted so you know when and where the next stop will be.  When we get done, the itinerary (in a waterproof bag), tells us what chores we are all assigned to in order to stow the boat properly. From this, I learned that your gear lasts longer when you take good care of it, it's easier (and quicker) to change your gear out if you are organized, and the cleaning part goes faster when you work together.

Mike's baby

Doing my chores

He let me sit behind the
wheel once. For a minute.
 Before he
got in the boat.

I also never need a baby sitter when I go out on the boat with Mike because he is the WORLD'S GREATEST PAPA.  The kids know where their assigned seats are and they know what their chores are when we get home.  From this I learned, kids are always welcome when it comes to fishing because somebody has to raise a future generation of Coasties.

Assigned Seat Fun

Quit playing and do your
chores! I don't care if you
are 2 yrs old.

Jez- pulling in his
own catch.

Jez and Rae with their haul

Look, it's a sheepshead.
Now--get back to your
assigned seat.

Jez-  taking a break from his
assigned seat.

Papa and Jez

If I'm lucky, my mother-in-law (Terri), will go out on the boat with us.  She always packs sandwiches and sun screen, and she is always excited about being on the open water. Let's just be honest, there would be no boat to go out on if Terri didn't let Mike buy one. From this I learned: sandwiches and sunscreen make everything better, it's always exciting to go fishing, and (last but not least) bad ass wives let their husbands buy bad ass boats.

Excited Terri.
Photo bomb by the sandwich cooler.

This post's shout out obviously goes to my in-laws. Thanks, Mike and Terri. Not everyone is lucky enough to marry into a family full of Coasties.

chores