He caught it!

  With cousins all gathered together here on the Coast, there has been no end to the gatherings.  We eat together, play together and most importantly fish together.  It has been fun, exhausting but fun.  Those of us who are local have been hosting the others for lunches and dinners which goes back to that "Southern Thing".  We feed people! It matters not how many gather together, we feed them!  

  My sister decided to throw the good ole fish fry/gumbo feast.  Sounded great to me!  She and her husband do not live near the Bayou but still do a good bit of fishing not far from the pier.  Last night she was nigh in a panic!  The fish they had caught earlier and tossed in the freezer seemed ruined.  Each bag was freezer burned making the fish unusable.  "Do you have fish...any kind of fish in the freezer that I can use?" she asked me.  I was sad to tell her that we had just given away all fish to make room for shrimp BUT Mark was going fishing in the morning and if he caught a good number, she could have them.  That sounded like a plan!  

  I informed Mark of the deal and away he went in his boat and away I went to the kitchen to start cooking for a huge crowd that was to make a day of being on the Bayou.  About three hours later, I heard Ms. Ez barking as she was trying to tell me that someone was at the door.  Ahh, yes!  Mark was home!  Now to see that bucket crammed full of mullet!  I opened the door to see nothing in the bucket at all!  "What did you catch?" I asked.  "Only one." he replied.  Hmmm,...well, at least one was a start but what were we going to feed twenty-five or thirty hungry cousins?  

   It was then that he held up the huge redfish!  Yep, he had "one" alright but that one was large enough to feed an army!  It was a monster of a fish!  The fish was thirty-six inches long and weighed in at nineteen pounds!  Yep, I think we just found the fish for the fish fry!  Mark saved the day merely by doing something he loved!  I must say that later in the evening, everyone enjoyed a delightful meal of fried fish and my sister's gumbo!  Wow!  It just does not get any better!