Nothing could have prepared me for the excitement and chaos that breaks loose when the trolling reel starts clicking loudly and everyone starts shouting "HOOK UP!" It's a mad dash to fish a live bait out of the bait tank and get your line in the water.
When I was 14 or 15, I went on a 2-day boat out of San Diego with my Grandpa Jay. We left the docks at 11 pm and motored out to sea all night. The engines were loud below decks and the anticipation was high.
On that trip, I caught my first Yellowfin Tuna and Dorado... memories I will hold dear for the rest of my life.
This past weekend, I visited my Grandpa and gave him a flag. We were trying to figure out what year that trip was, so we could mark the date and approximate location on the back of the flag.
It was a small gesture for all the experiences my Grandpa made possible for me as a young man, but it was a special thing to be able to take a memory like that and turn it into a physical keepsake.
See our whole line of new fish flag mementos.
