Deep Sea Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

Oh my what a day!!!! We got up this morning without a real plan. I guess we were going to the beach. Tim started looking through some brochures and called about a deep sea fishing trip. The big charter company was all full but he found an advertisement for Ty's Fishing Excursions that had the afternoon cruise open. Now to say the least this was pretty pricey but Tim has always wanted to do this so we went for it.

We get directions and pull down this street called Marina Road. I'm thinking we are going to a Marina until we see a sign out in front of a house. We pull in the drive and of course my mind is thinking what have we gotten ourselves into. Some kid pulls up in a car and we go wait by the back yard dock. There are some absolutely beautiful homes and boats. Really neat area. This was just a typical house. We wait on the dock for about 10 minutes for the boat to get back from the morning cruise. They had caught about 30 fish. Good size ones too. Mostly Spanish Mackerel. The captain was a 65 year old guy with a white beard. He really fit the part. We climbed aboard and out the channel we went. Of course I loved seeing the beautiful homes and giant yachts. We got out in the ocean and the deck hand put the lines in the water and away we went. The fish started hitting the lines. There were several times when all six of us were pulling in fish. As soon as the line went back in the water another fish was on. This went on for most of the 3 1/2 hour trip. The only time it slowed down was when the captain would pull out further away from the shore.

It is hard to believe but even Josh really got into this. He would run from pole to pole reeling in fish. I think he probably caught the biggest one of the day but don't tell Tim or Jake. At one point Tim and Josh were up in the crow's nest, and a couple of fish hit the lines and Jake and I struggled like crazy to get them in. We all had a great time. Jenni was very reluctant at first about the whole fishing boat deal but she made fast friends with the captain and deck hand. It really was alot of fun. Jake can't wait to tell grandpa Bill about his fishing excursion.

We ended up with about 47 fish. This is about half of what we caught. We through back about 50 bar jack fish. She said they weren't good eating. Jake's hands actually got sore from reeling in the fish. They cleaned the biggest ones for us and we donated the rest to them. They said they take them to churches and fire departments. These people were wonderful. We had the best time. If you are ever in this area I suggest you look up Captain Ty's Landing. They are good people with lots of experience. http://www.capty.com/

After fishing we stopped at a place called Gulf Shores Steamers. We had great steamed shrimp for dinner. It was really good.

We came back to the RV and the kids were playing in the sand outside the door. I thought they deserve to play in the ocean when we are this close. So Jake, Josh, Jenni and I walked down to the ocean and stayed till dark. They were so fun to watch. They would stand and wait for the waves and then just jump up and over it. Tonight they had their suits on so they would fall in the water. The beach was pretty crowded for being that late in the day. The funniest part was Josh came to say he was ready to go. I asked why? He said because the sand was itching in his pants. I about died laughing. I'll be cleaning sand out of the RV for months to come.