For Father's Day weekend I headed out to the Jerz to spend some quality
time with the fam. Then, on Sunday evening, my dad and I drove
down to the Jersey Shore so that we could get up early the next
morning and drive to the Mid-Atlantic Highlands to get a charter
and go fishing for the day (which has turning into somewhat of
a yearly tradition).
See also:
Fishing With Pappi: Part
One (October 5, 2002)
Fishing with Pappi: Part
Two (June 6, 2003)
Fishing with Pappi: Part
Three (July 19, 2004)
Sunday, June 19th
Here's my dad on Father's Day, getting to enjoy his
Father's Day Treat Breakfast. Haha. We pretty much just hung
out all day, then in the evening we drove down south.
Monday, June 20th
The next morning, my dad woke me up early.
I'm not usually even asleep by this time in the morning, never
mind awake for it.
My hair was starting to get sorta "hippy long" and I didn't want the
to blow it in my eyes and potentially distract me from hooking me some
fish so I decided to throw on...
...a hat.
Hahaha. Yeah, much better. (Jeez, baseball hats look awesome on me!
I wonder why I don't wear them more often? Or play baseball more for
that matter!)
Ten minutes after rolling out of bed, we were hopping in the car and
headed to catch a fishing boat. My only consolation was the special...
..."mobile breakfast" my dad had arranged for.
We got to the Mid-Atlantic Highlands pier just a bit past 6:30am. Now
it was time to find our boat.
The Mi-Jo II! There she is!
Shortly after we were aboard, we headed out to see. I mostly hung out in the
cabin; fucked up that box of doughnuts and tried to will myself away.
About 45 minutes later, we were out in the open sea and it was time to put our
lines down into the water.
The guy standing next to me got the first fish.
Welcome aboard!
Just a few minutes later, my dad, who was standing immediately on my other side,
got his first fish. Ready?
And puuuuuuuuuull!
Check out the size of the large-mouth bass this guy managed to snag.
Holy cramoly, that thing's big.
Look at his neat-o insides!
Look! You can see New York City in the background on the horizon!
Netting a blue.
In between catching bluefish (which is what the boat had set out to look for)
my dad was (per his usual) catching all sorts of other stuff besides blues. Like
this little skate. Look at its crazy mouth!
And its scary demon-eyes!
Awww, he sorta looks pretty cute from this angle, though.
Then for a while, my dad's hook kept getting bitten off of his line.
This little shark turned out to be one of the culprits.
He was a wriggly little fucker! The mate managed to throw him back in the water
just before he lost his grip. And check out how his dorsal fin has been half-chewed
off!
Later, my dad hooked another, much smaller dogfish.
One of the mates helping someone bring in a skate that will be unhooked and thrown
back.
This guy though? Not so lucky!
Straight into the garbage can with your friends! Think that's bad? I guess that's
mostly because you probably don't realize you're about to be...
...skinned alive!
This brings to mind what I recently heard Dimitri Martin say in his comedy special:
"Why do they call it fishing? Why not call it what it really is: tricking and
killing." Hahahahah.
After a few hours and a few different locations, the captain called "lines up"
and it was time to head back to port.
As the mates cleaned all the fish, they throw all the guts and whatnot overboard
into the water which resulted in this stream of gulls following our boat all
the way back in.
I climbed up onto the boat's flying bridge to take some pics.
This guy was keeping pace with the boat and soaring in a fixed position with
it for like 10 minutes. It was so neat to watch!
Boat wake and gulls.
Check out all the pilings poking up out of the water; all that's left
of what must've been at one time a massive wooden pier.
We tipped out the mates, and headed back to the car. In this picture my dad is
either showing that he managed to catch eight fish or he's joined some new gang
that I don't know about.
Me? I caught zero fish! (But that's mostly because I didn't put any
bait on my hook! Shhhhhh!)
We spent the rest of the day watching movies and lounging around my
parent's tiny shore house enjoying the nice weather.
Tuesday, June 21st
Tuesday was another gorgeous day...
...we woke up early, had some breakfast...
...then I got suckered into helping my dad install a new pair of waterproof,
outdoor speakers for the patio. Hahah.
Then we went and hit some golf balls at the driving range! Then later
on, my dad drove me up north to Pt. Pleasant so I could hop on a train
and head back to NYC.
 Happy Father's
Day, Pappi!
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