Today's Mixed Bag

Yesterday was a great day to fish until the wind came up and made it very difficult to paddle a kayak upwind...and even with small anchors we still had to fight our way back into position when the wind pulled us off our anchorage....I took a new fisherman out on Lemon Bay to teach him the ways of salt water fishing and despite every effort to see that he caught fish...in the end it was Monk with a nice Spanish Mackerel, a lady fish, a four pound sail cat that put up one hell of a battle and a nice sea trout of about 22".....and Wayne one puffer fish....we fished with the same bait the same rigs and within 20 feet of each other...I felt like I should hand him the pole every time I hooked one...it he had been a kid I would have....but I thought that as an adult he might take offense to that....the UV index was a nine but as far as I was concerned the UV index for me was about 109... I burnt my legs so bad (I put lotion on everything but them) that today every time I stand up the blood rushing to them and the tightening of the skin as my muscles tense, hurts so bad that I just want to scream out loud....I don't know if this fishing guide thing is going to work if I'm the only one who is going to catch the fish...I'm certainly to much of a die hard fisherman to just sit by and watch my clients fish...

I got new pictures of Dakota today she looks a lot like her Dad but a lot cuter...I'll just throw one in here...I'll fight my instinct to show you all of them.....

I got nine copies of the book in the mail...what a rush....I was happy and sad at the same time...happy to see my book in print and sad to know that if it weren't for a lot of great brothers in arms I probably would not have been here to write it....God Bless all my brother Marines and all service people who have or are now serving their country with pride and honor.......To my sons Kevin, Travis and Kyle...Thank you for your past and present service to our great country.......

Monk

P.S. Just got a call from my son Ryan...he feels bad that he's only mentioned once in my bio and not in my stories...I just want him to know how proud of him I am....a top U of R about to be graduate and one very smart cookie...he is the rock that his brothers and sisters count on...he wants to be a cop and the lucky town that hires him will thank their lucky stars that they did....he already is a fine human being and will make an excellent protector of the people...love ya Ryan.....