Hooked Up Designs Magazine December 2016 | Page 47

By: John Theriault

A

s the sun rose on Monday morning, I
grabbed my bag and got ready to head
out the door. I called my mom, who
would be joining me, and told her to meet me
at Publix before we head over to Burnt Store
Marina. On our way to meet our guide, Capt.
Johnny Riggs, we talk about how cool it is to
have a mother-son day and what we hope to
catch. Without a split second passing, my mom
says, “I’ve lived here for so long and have yet to
catch a snook!” Admittedly in shock to learn
this, she reminds me how every time we go out,
it’s everyone else but her that lands one.
It’s about eight in the morning when we arrive at the marina. Capt. Johnny is waiting and
has our bait prepped in the live well. He and my
mom jump to talking about his family and try
to quickly catch up. She is a teacher at his kid’s
school and gets to see his child regularly. As they
finish up, we go over what we want to do and
what Johnny has planned. Johnny, grinning, tells
us to be patient. First we need to “black out the
wells” and then we will see how the winds behaving and make a plan.
On the way out, I start to think about how
awesome my mother is and how times are these
days. Something I’d been realizing is that in today’s society, we never get to treat our parents to
special times while we are young adults. We are
so wrapped up in going out with friends, working
for that paycheck to cover rent, or well, spending time with the new families that we’ve created.
So, this trip was going to be something special. A
time when I get to treat my mom to a day of us,
to talk, catch up, and just relax - something I’ve
learned mothers never do unless they are with
their children or family. So, with that, I am out
to make sure she has a special day on the water
with her first son.
As we get to the flats to chum some bait, we
start talking to our captain. Johnny has, one can
say, an impressive previous employer: our US
Military. With over 15 tours over seas, Johnny
has been everywhere protecting and serving our
great nation. With some crazy stories I wish I
could tell you… but you know how
that goes, if I tell you, well… I
guess I’ll have to delete some
emails. After some time,
and about seven or eight
tosses of the cast net, we
take to the phones to check
winds, tides, and a few numbers Johnny has saved just for
times like this.

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D

EC E M B E R

2016

HOOKED UP

47