Shark attack

Today was one of the best fishing days ever....................right up until things started to go bad.

Except for a few days of rain and wind, the weather has been great.  But today, it's just too hot.  (Insert one of my evil laughs here.)  It's 85, and Pammie thought it was too hot to go out fishing.  Since I love hot weather, I went fishing by my self.  About 5 miles up to my secret spot in the Everglades NP.   I always seem to catch more (and bigger) fish when I'm alone. And before you say "sure, there's no one to verify my stories" I have photographic proof.

I caught about a hundert of these nice trout.

 

Then I got into a school of large ladyfish.   They're closely related to tarpon.  They're know as the poor mans tarpon, because they fight and jump like tarpon.    At my age, very few things make me giggle.  It's a short list that includes grand kids, catching ladyfish, and maybe a couple of other things that I can't remember.  I tried to take a photo of ladyfish jumping, but they all turned out like this.

Pretty comical actually.  Me holding the pole with my left hand, digging out the camera and trying to catch a ladyfish in mid jump.  I think some of them cleared the water by 5 or 6 feet, but I was always too late timing the shot.

Then, I hooked something bigger than a trout or lady fish.  It's another shark.   (But not as big as the monster from a few days ago.)  I'm able to get this one to the boat, and get a few photos of it.

 

It was pretty easy bringing this shark aboard, so the next one I catch, I slide right up on the side of the boat for more photos.

 

Shortly after taking this last photo, and releasing the shark, I start to hear a hissing sound.  I'm thinking maybe the vent on the gas tank, or perhaps a diet coke in the cooler.  It didn't take long to realize that it was a hole in my rubber boat, and the air was leaking out.  I found the hole (coincidentally, right where the shark had been.)  I put my hand over it like the little boy with his finger in the dike  (Dike like a levee.)  Since I was having such a great day fishing, I thought maybe I could hold one hand over the leak and keep fishing with the other hand.  That proved to be quite cumbersome, and every time I moved my hand over the hole a little, I could feel a puff of air escaping.  Plus, I'm a long way from home, and I wasn't sure just how hard it might be to return across the bay with one side of the dinghy deflated.  So, I reluctantly quit fishing and started for home.  As usual, the wind had increased, and was right on the nose crossing the bay.  I'm trying to hold my hand over the hole, but for each wave I hit, a puff of air escaped.
Obviously, I made it back to the marina, but I wasn't sure there for a while.  I dug out the dinghy patch kit, and stuck on a band aid.  I think I'll throw a roll of duct tape in my dinghy box.  That should slow down any new leaks long enough for me to keep fishing for a while next time.