Matthew+Reinoso

Matt's Memoir

“Matt, let’s go!” yelled Andres. “Shut up man!” I answered. My father, cousin, cousin’s dad, grandfather, and our friend Eric were going on a fishing expedition. My grandfather was a very serious man; he laughed at times but barely did, in his young days he was in the army. I hoped that this day would give him something to remember. This was the first and last time that I got to go fishing with him, since a few months after he passed away, I’m glad that I had this trip with my grandfather. This would be my fist time going fishing out in the ocean, nut I have gone fishing other times before this so I would have some experience. I’ve been anxious for this day because I knew it was going to be a good memory for the rest of my life.

Anxious and impatient, I walked to the car as calmly as I could. Today I would go fishing for fluke; this would be my first time going fishing for fluke. After we started driving it took us about 15 minutes or so to get to the dock. When we got at the dock we parked and started to unload everything we needed on to the boat, such as the cooler for the fish we would catch, refreshments, bait, the fishing rods, and this device that showed us where the fish were. Now was the challenge, getting the boat into the water. It took us quite a while to get the boat into the water and it definitely took a lot of team work.

“Get on the boat everybody.” Eric blurted. “VRROOOMMMM!!” the boat roared. We all jumped from the sound that the boat gave off. We left the dock after Eric started the boat. As the boat veered side to side the breeze of the cool ocean air was soothing when it touched my skin. It took us 45 minutes to get to our fishing spot.

“We’re here guys.” Eric shouted with relief that we finally arrived at our destination. “What are we waiting for, let’s start fishing!” I considered with sheer excitement. I vigorously grabbed my fishing rod, and so did everyone else. The bait we were using were live fish, we had to stab through its head in order to get it on the hook. I was asking myself, should I hurt this fish or should I use fake bait. “Don’t worry, you won’t hurt the fish, I’ve done this plenty of times.” Eric explained as he saw my confused face.

We casted our rods into the ocean with hope of getting the first bite so we can amuse each other with the fishes we catch. My grandfather got the first bite on his hook; he reeled in the fish as if he were steeling candy from a baby. This filled us all with excitement and made us eager to catch a fish. I got the next bite on my hook; it felt like I was reeling in a 1000 pound fish since I lost my balance and fell which caused me to reel in the fish on the floor till my cousin came to pick me off the floor. It was hard to reel in my fluke because it kept going under and to the other side of the boat. After I reeled in the fluke we measured it, it was 25 inches long, and we put it in the cooler. The fish that we put in the cooler would flop around. Most of the time when we felt a bite on out hook it was a crab that would cut our bait in half with its pinchers. My cousin and I caught 10 fish all together. We all at least caught 1 or more fish. Every fish we caught that was big enough to keep was put in the cooler. I was exhausted and worn out from reeling in all the fish that I caught. We spent about 2 hours or more hours out in the beautiful ocean. And now it was time to go home.

After we got home we cooked the fish for dinner. This was the best night I had ever had. After this fishing journey I cant imagine without going fishing again in my lifetime, but next time I go fishing I want to catch bigger fish.