Taking advantage of the unusually calm weather on the upper Gulf Coast, we had enjoyed some great fishing around the jetties and the near oil rigs. As the sun peeked over the eastern horizon, Brad, my Son, “Dub” Middleton, a close friend and I were cutting around the end of Galveston’s South Jetty on our way to our “spot”. Brad had just turned 8, and this was his first trip to the jetties.

We pull up and anchor at our “spot” and congratulate ourselves for beating the Saturday crowd. While I’m getting a shrimp out to bait Brad’s line, I notice a boat pulling up within 50 feet and it is my buddy, Wayne Thomas. He’s guiding today and has 2 clients with him. I wave while Brad casts out, and before the bait can sink, a Speck nails it right on the surface.

Landing Brad’s fish, Dub lets me know he into a nice one and soon I net a 3 pound, Speck for him. I bait up Brad and he casts out toward the rocks and has another savage strike. This one is not coming in easy and proves to be a nice Red. Wayne yells over from his boat, “Jon, you’d better get to fishing or that boy is going to catch all of the fish.”

As I bait up Brad for his third cast, I still haven’t even started fishing. I turn around to get me a shrimp when I hear Brad exclaim, “Dad!” As I turn, I see his rod and reel leaving his hands and come bouncing back towards me in the back of the boat. My natural reaction is to quickly move to my right and scoop up the rod and reel and hand it back to Brad, all the while his fish, a Flounder, is still pulling

Dub is laughing, Wayne and his clients are laughing, as he yells over, “Nice stop! I see you still have good hands!”

We ended the Day with 16 Specks and Reds and the one Flounder.