Our first anniversary was an ablation-titration party at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, room 19 in the cardio clinic. Our seventh was sheltering in place at Barksdale Airforce Base in Shreveport Louisiana during the Covid outbreak, Sheri in a boot from a broken fibula. We had to look back into our photo library to figure out what happened in 2-6 and 8 – all of which involved pictures of food except year 4, which revealed tent camping on the Appalachian trail. While nothing can compare to the big day, we decided we are still happily married and would rather commemorate the occasion in a memorable way than with a Duck Donut in Rockville after a trip to the dump (year 7).
Catching fish is the kind of serious business in Corpus Christi Texas that is fit for an anniversary celebration. The problem is that the fish rarely care to party with you, and could be hanging anywhere in the expansive waters of Padre Island National Seashore, which stretches 66 miles along the Gulf from Corpus to the Mexican border. Since the fish aren’t talking and we have no history of catching success, we decided to buy our way in with a No Fish, No Pay day.
Like the true fisherman we are not, we met Capt. Danny at dawn at the Billings Bait Stand under the JFK Causeway on S Padre Island Drive. A blustery morning with the wind picking up and white caps dotting the bay, Danny started hedging, letting us know that most charters were cancelling, that it was going to be rough out there, that with the water churning and bluebird sky it would be hard to find the fish.
We laughed and waved the “It’s all good” flag as weboarded his 22 year old metallic blue Ford Super Duty for a 16 mile ride to the Laguna Madre put in at the National Seashore. Outfitted with rods, reels, catch cooler and lunch in the yeti, we raced 12 miles offshore into Baffin Bay to the Tygates Bar, flying past floaters and winged divers, cutting through the chop like butter.
Danny is a salty character. Born and raised in Corpus except for a Far East stint in the Marines, he spent three decades at UPS and four on the Padres water. The father of five knows how to operate safely in any weather condition, which came in handy today.
How he came to acquire his wrapped Majek Xtreme fast-boat comes with a made-for-TV back story that involves arms running to the Mexican cartel which just adds an ambience to the sensation of speeding over the chop at 50 mph propelled by an enormous 300 HP Yamaha outboard that you simply cannot get if you just went to Bass Pro Shops with 100 large in your pocket.
On a day when 9 out of 10 boats stayed out off the water, Danny took us to where the salt water trout were feeding. We pulled in our limit along with a flounder and a red drum.
When we returned to the dock to clean our catch, we compared notes with the one other boat that had ventured out on a day when high winds and choppy seas made the fishing challenging. They had only managed to bring in 2 fish. It could have been that we had Danny, or it could have been that we are naturally awesome fishermen. Hmmm, that’s a tough one that we will just have to leave unanswered.
After getting Ninja filleting lessons from Danny, we took about a quarter of our catch to a local hangout where they blackened and fried it up for us, serving it with some first-rate bar sides. Fresh fish is good. Paired with a cold local beer, fresh fish is wonderful. After 9 hours on the water under a blazing sun and racked by gale force winds, fresh fish paired with a local beer in a cool, quiet and dark local hangout is indescribably fantastic. Happy Anniversary!
