Ocean Fishing

Last summer Kyle and Owen were exposed to ocean fishing. Prior to that they really didn’t know anything about it; it just wasn’t really on their radar. But here — especially in this part of the Lowcountry — ocean fishing is a big thing. There are lots of people who come here, in fact, just for the ocean fishing. Deep sea fishing is a big deal here. But perhaps just as much of a big deal here is surf fishing. We’ve met many people who come to Harbor Island specifically for its prime right-off-the-beach ocean fishing. The folks who come here to fish are a very different crowd than the folks who come here for tanning, eating, history, or all the many other reasons people choose to vacation here.

For the most part, the people who come here to fish are real (stereotypical) ‘Guy’s Guys.’ They are (generally) men, from the South (South Carolina; Georgia; Alabama), and they have their fishing equipment, they have their beach chairs, they have a cooler of beer, and they enjoy themselves.

Last summer, very quickly, K & O became extremely interested in these Guys-Who-Fish. It seemed like everyday K & O had made best buds with yet another guy fishing off the beach. For the most part (somewhat surprisingly, I’ll admit — all things [especially race and The South] considered…) these Guys-Who-Fish seemed to genuinely embrace K & O. It appeared that many of their own kids weren’t exactly thrilled about their dads’ fishing hobby… and here are two boys who are, most definitely pumped up about it, excited to absorb any and all information provided, wide-eyed and idolizing these Guys-Who-Fish… and — wammo! — you’ve got some Guys-Who-Fish who are very happy to take on some Young-Apprentice-Fishers. Very often these Guys-Who-Fish would offer to let K and/or O hold their fishing pole, or — even — reel in a fish for them. And before I knew it, these guys had — one by one — very quickly — indoctrinated my impressionable young sons into the ways and means of surf fishing.

I have to be honest: Braydon and I were not thrilled about this. The whole prospect of purchasing the necessary equipment — let alone actually baiting the hook (because in this case, it is a huge hook and it is something like a six-inch SQUID that has to be threaded onto it, and there is absolutely NO WAY that Braydon is going to have anything to do with it)… well this just was not something we had prepared ourselves to include in our sweet little family excursion to South Carolina. But our boys are nothing if not determined, and so… much to our surprise… we found ourselves as a novice ocean fishing family last summer.

Over the winter, as we were planning our 2014 trip to South Carolina, it was made quite clear to us that K & O were fully anticipating ocean fishing as being at the top of the agenda. We had learned quite a bit last summer about what was involved. And like many people, with many things, we often learn the hard way (i.e., cheap equipment breaks easily; squid really is the best bait; bringing Clorox wipes along for fishing excursions is absolutely critical). So, this year, we were quite prepared.

Kyle and Owen are (perhaps like their sociologist mother?) very good observers of people. And they let it be known exactly how it would go if it were to go the way that they would like for it to go— basically, we’d do it the way the Guys-Who-Fish do it: we’d lug our equipment onto the beach, we’d set up our beach chairs, Braydon and I would drink beer from cans, K & O would drink soda from cans, Meera would drink whatever-the-heck-she’d drink, and we’d enjoy ourselves. This would be “relaxing” (Kyle’s description).

They were very specific about the beer part: it had to be beer, and it had to be from cans. Kyle told me repeatedly, “Mom, I’ll tell ya one thing — fishing at the ocean is not a wine kind of thing, it is a beer kind of thing. And it can’t be from a bottle or a cup either. The beer has to be from a can when you go fishing at the ocean.” Alrighty then.

We’ve been fishing a few times since our arrival here this summer. But the other day we made real the dream. We stopped at a roadside stand for beer. K & O went with me to buy it. They were ecstatic when they saw me buy, for Braydon, one of the “big ones” that they see the Guys-Who-Fish drinking. It was a sort of joke, and Braydon definitely got a kick out of it (I had the normal-size can of Bud Light). I don’t think the boys had ever seen us drink beer from cans, and they were in their glory.

We sat on the beach, in our chairs, ocean fishing, and “relaxing.” And for just a little while… all was right in the world-of-our-10-year-old-Guy’s-Guys-ocean-fishing-loving-boys.

P.S. Check out the middle photo below. Kyle’s expression cracks me up. He’s taking this fishing-and-relaxing VERY seriously!