South Padre Island

I go to SPI at least 3 times a year.  It takes longer for the weather to get cold down South so if I get the urge to go in November, I make sure to stop by the beach and soak my feet in the water.  I love the ocean.

I was born in a family where you have to love the ocean.  My father’s hobby is fishing. A hobby that has been handed down from generation to generation.  I remember as kid, being about 4 years old, my father teaching me the basics of fishing.  He handed a coke can with string wrapped around it and said, “Start with this and when you catch a fish, you’ll move up to a fishing pole.  This is how I use to fish as a kid.”

To be honest, I can’t stand fishing.  I’d rather lay on the beach and get a tan.  Hooking live bait into a fish pole and waiting around for a slimy animal to swim up and eat the bait is not my defintions of fun.   Plus, i can’t be quiet for that long.   All of the men in the my father’s side of the family are addicted to fishing.  It never fails that every time we go down to McAllen to visit family, they plan another fishing trip.   During dinner at my aunt’s house, my uncle Rico and father were in the middle of another fishing conversation.

Dad  – Si güey!  Mira nos compramos una lancha bien fregona, y entonces si vamos a pescar unos pero bien grandototes.  (Yeah man.  Look, we’ll buy a big badass boat and then we’ll catch the big fish!)

I looked at them and rolled my eyes and said, “You’ve been talking about that bad ass boat for 10 years! Buy it already!”

My uncle Rico corrected me, “No eleven! Get it right!”

LOL

Whatever the weather, with or without a bad ass boat, using a coke can with string or a fishing pole, it doesn’t matter to any of the guys.  They’re addicted to fishing and what once was something my family in the past did for food and survival they now gladly do with pleasure.