As a high schooler, my spare time, when not involved in athletics, hunting or studying (ugh) was spent fishing and most of the time this was around the south Galveston Jetty, either walking the slippery rocks or wading along the Gulf or channel side.                                                One Saturday afternoon in early October, Bobby Baldwin and I were wading along the channel side of the south jetty, casting into a small gut at the base of the rocks. Bobby had a backlash and as he was removing it, his Dixie Jet spoon with a yellow buck tail attached, floated to the sandy bottom.

Pictured is a Dixie Jet Spoon with a yellow buck tail. Getting the snarl out Bobby began retrieving the excess line and when his line came tight, he grumbled, “I must be snagged on the rocks,” just as his line headed east for deep water and he was into a nice fish, what kind, we didn’t know.                                                                                                            After a short, spirited fight, a big Flounder, 2 or 3 pounds, was on the surface. Of course we didn’t have a landing net. That would have been too easy! So Bobby tried to grab the Flounder like a Spec, across his back. It was more like pinching the fish since a Flounder doesn’t have the width or “grabbing” surface that a Speck has. When grabbed, the Fish flopped away, the hook came loose and the fish headed for the bottom.                                                             Sensing something, we cast our spoons toward the rocks, let them settle to the bottom, slowly retrieved them and for the next hour had some terrific fishing, not catching, but fishing! Without a net trying to grab one was next to impossible. We tried hugging them to our chest and they just squirted up, away from us. Trying to use both hands proved fruitless. Anyway we had fun hooking them and trying to “capture” one. We probably hooked 25 or 30 and landed zero!                                                                                                             The tide changed and the fish quit hitting and as we were wading out a man fishing from the rocks yelled at us, “Boys, that was a great show, and it was free!” Being well brought up and taught to respect our elders, we said nothing and walked back to our car.