Galveston Run

The trip started in the predawn as the Sea-U-Lator headed gulfward with my fishing buddies Greg, Jim, Cris and the crew of Main Event. It was our first time to waters about 40 miles off the coast of Galveston, and even though our target fish were red snapper and the hard hitting king fish, I had always dreampt of catching one of those gorgeous, high flying acrobats known as mahi-mahi.

It was also the first real test for my deep sea adaptive equipment. With a Jerry Rice football glove sewn with velcro, I had a

custom designed aluminum plate made that I clamped to the rod with hose clamps. On the back of the plate, receiving velcro was glued. And after I wrap the glove around the plate, I further secure my hand with velcro straps. I also took a fighting belt and placed in flat on the cushion with my legs over it so the holder sits right in between. I planned on sinking the rod butt in there when I hooked up against something big.

Our first stop were the rigs. At about the 20 mile mark, we cruised up to some of Capt. Brad's best snapper holes and dropped sardines. It wasn't as easy as I thought. Learning just how to set the hook was tricky, but we managed our limits of five a piece after 5 or 6 stops. Off to deep water we went.

The water out there was so blue that it looked almost black. We idled up and tied off to a shrimper and started pitching chum. As soon as it hit, kings were bustin' water. I think we all had fish on in about two minutes, and man what a fight we had.

Kings hit hard and ran fast. Drags were smokin' as we landed about twenty of these baracuda like fish.

And then it happened. My date with destiny. After tying off to a shrimper and a good hour of hooking king mackerel, this beauty just showed up right in front of me. I flipped out a sardine and she 180'ed and nailed it. I clicked open the bail in a panic and fed her line for a good three seconds like I was told to. 1... 2... 3... and wham. The steel hung and she was off to the races. Three jumps later a little stripped line and I had her next to the boat. What a magnificent fish. I went flush the when the gaff missed and she took off into an eight foot somersault right in my face, but I still had her on when she landed and smoked another twenty yards of line off my reel one last time. Now I see her everyday on my wall.

The guys from Main Event were fully prepared to handle wheelchair fisherman, and as you can see, there was plenty of room even with two of them in the back at once. Oh yeah, and they know how to get on the fish as well.

I'll get some details of my offshore fishing equipment in a couple of weeks, but it isn't as hard as you might think.

This was the trip that got me hooked on offshore adventures.