In Galveston, I saw people swimming in the ocean so I tried it in the Florida Keys while snorkeling. As I meandered north on the barrier islands many times I saw people swimming so here at Assateague National Seashore I entered the water and swam. I blew it! Should have done this farther south on the continent. No wonder so many people were sunbathing and not swimming. It was COLD. The ranger said the water was 58 degrees and unless a back eddy swirl came off of the Gulf Stream it would not warm up until late July. She said that when these eddies appeared off the coast, they bring with them different fish than are normally found at this time of year. How did I know this? I love to learn. I attended “Surf Fishing.” Having to uphold the “Old Guys Rule” mantra I had to learn what these muscle trucks with their long fishing poles flagpoling out of their front grille did; I had to know the language. My mouth dropped when I saw it was a woman ranger with her fishing wagon with six surf poles sticking out of holders gathering folks in the parking lot to show them how surf fishing was done. We all paraded after her like a flock to ducks following the farmer’s wife out to the surf and sat down in the sand for school. She WAS COOL! Using beach sand as a three dimensional display she showed us how the first 100 feet of the surf line was formed with the bar off the beach. She used flip charts in a binder to show us the different fish that are caught. At one point she started to say something and stopped and started laughing. She apologized saying she was married to a “fish head” and loved talking about surf fishing with him and that sometimes she gets too carried away about talking about details. She showed the right and wrong sinkers that were used and why. The bait floats and hooks and the cutting up of the bait (“Once a bait knife; always a bait knife.”) Next she showed different pole lengths and techniques for casting. She let people use the rods without hooks or bait to practice casting into surf. I took great joy and seeing all of this equipment stamped with “NPS” – National Park Service. What a great use of my tax dollars. Walking up and down the beach she coached folks on their casts. She then let them attach hooks with bait and… let them fish. And through all of this I had absolutely no desire to surf fish. I just wanted to know how it was done……….
It’s a whole different world on the bay side of Assateague Island. And again it was a thirst for knowledge but this time I brought some real time with me. I went on a ranger led kayak trip in the bay. I got assigned a sit-upon plastic kayak; seen ‘em but never used ‘em. The most important part of the ranger’s talk on safety was if you capsized, stand up. The huge bay is mostly 5 feet or less. Our group of families and couples (me being the solo person again) headed out onto the bay with a stop on one of the low grass islands to use a beach seine net to see what could be discovered; spot drum fingerlings, comb jellies, crab. I was impressed with the park service. This was their first year in using kayaks. Both rangers were well-informed and good teachers.
To finish off the day I invited over for supper my neighbors from Connecticut. Mike had said that they were going to buy shrimp from the boatman and did I want some. Yes!! So we cooked and enjoyed supper together. I was a little nervous for they were my very first guests that I’ve had inside my RV in four months and seven thousand miles. It was a wonderful evening. Mike and Silvia - good people.
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