Adventures in Fishing and Crabbing at the Island

Regular E let Archie use his fishing equipment and came every now and again to fish and crab with us. 

Dauphin Island is small and not as touristy as many beach places.  I would let Archie venture out to the beach or rocks by himself to go fishing whenever he wanted to.  He would gather up his tackle, bait, bucket and pole and head out.  

The very first time he caught a fish all on his own, I knew it when he was far away from the camper.  He came with his bucket, grinning ear-to-ear and could hardly talk he was so excited!  He had caught a fish all by himself!  With no help from anyone else at all!  

When he went to the cleaning station to go clean his catch, some other stupid kids were giving him a hard time about the size of his fish.  So he came back, fish still in tact, almost in tears and really mad.  I asked him how big was the fish that those boys had caught.  Of course, he said they didn't catch any fish.  So I told him to not let their jealousy get to him and they were trying to diminish what he had done by attempting to make themselves look 'cool'.  

I think he would have taken it fine from just one kid, but it was a whole group of them.  They had done their work, though. It really made me mad and I could see it had somewhat diminished Archie's excitement.  He was still happy about his catch, but it just wasn't the same.  It's rotten how others can be so caught up in their own egos that they are quick to try to ruin a moment that is very thrilling or important to someone else.   It still bothers me every time I think about it.

Another weird thing that happened on a different day when Archie was fishing, was that he was picked on and harassed by some old ladies on the pier.  They kept taunting him and made fun of him for using squid as bait.  Apparently shrimp is the old-lady bait of choice.  They spent a little while harassing my 11 year- old boy, then left all their fish guts, scales, drink cans, and other garbage on the pier when they moved on to other fishing spots.  Archie seemed okay about it, other than it being really an odd thing for a grown person to do.  His main complaint was that they were taking up a prime spot on the pier, then left it all crapped up with their fish guts and garbage so no one else could sit down on the dock and use that space when they left.    

Most fisherfolks he came across were friendly, and wanted to share their hobby with the younger generation and were quite encouraging and helpful to him.  People would stop and chit-chat about what he was fishing for, what he had caught so far, and stuff like that.  I don't know who pee-peed in those ladies' cheerios that day, but it was really bazaar that old women would take time out of their day to taunt an 11 year old who just wanted to go fishing.  They must be really unhappy people.

This is just a random picture of Archie fishing off the shore.

His very first catch!!

At the cleaning station.  Apologies to my vegetarian friends...This is the only guts picture I am including!

He cooked his own dinner!

And it was good!

We also did our fair share of crabbing at the Island.  We never caught enough to eat in one crabbing event, but really, the fun part is catching them.  We let them go back in the water after we were done crabbing.  The cleaning is rather tedious anyway.  

SUCCESS!!  He was thrown back at the end of the evening due to a lack of cooperation from all the other crabs!

This picture of Regular E and Lawrence crabbing and gazing off into the distance is one of my favorites!