My first experience at going offshore fishing came when I was around 11 or 12 yrsold Capt.Matt Murphy (retired from the coast Guard started an offshore charter business in the early 60s with a 40 ft wood hull boat called the Warsaw. I was completely surprised when my parents announced that we were going deep sea fishing as this was a major cash outlay for our modest means , as I recall it cost abot 15.00 a person for an allday trip and 60.00 for the four of us represented a big percentage of the old mans weekly hard earned paycheck, and in those days most mechanics worked 5 and a half day on Saturday, and oilfield hands worked a full 6 days a week even in the 70s when I broke out on a drilling rig. Dad must have taken a Sat. off as we left home very early to be at the dock in port Isabell at daylight . I dont remember mybrother being as excited as I was but this was a bigtime adventure for a kid that dreamed of joining the Navy and sailing the 7 seas as a career (which continued into 1968 when I met an Army recruiter at the RGV livestock show with a smooth sakes pitch , man I would still like to kick that sobs ass) Well it turned out the warsaw was no speedboat but I was all over the boat for the 4 hrs out to the nearest rocks while apparently my Dad an brother Dave were maybe not quite enjoying the trip as much as thry were turning from a shade of grey to green. Arriving on the rocks we let lines down and immediately began hauling in small snapper ( there were no sizevor possession limits in those days) most were about 10 in long my favorite size to fry whole and a few maybe 3 or 5 lbs, I dont remember David doing much fishing but I think he an dad did some chumming while mom an I filled our ice chest. Little did I know that this one day of deep sea fishing would lead me on to working on a commercial fishing vessel in the summer of the next 2 yrs starting as a deckhand at age 13 and then later in life owning my own commercial gulf fishing vessel and becoming a charter boat gulf capt.and then after going broke passed exams for a uscg masters license and spending 15 yrs as an oilfield boat capt.running crewboats and offshore supply vessels in the gulf and running the ICW from Brownsville tex to New orleans.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 17:01:17 +0000
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