Tidelines – August 16, 2012
Capt. Robert Schoonmaker, of Carolina Explorer Charters out of Carolina Beach, can babysit my kids anytime. He’s not in the babysitting business. He’s an experienced and respected inshore and nearshore charter boat captain working a 24’ Mako bay boat out of the Carolina Beach municipal docks, but on a recent fishing trip together he showed off another skill set—keeping kids busy, engaged, and having fun.
With the summer winding down, I wanted to go on a fishing trip with my two oldest—Owen (age 6 but celebrating a birthday this week) and James (age 5). If it was just me fishing with Robert, I would have had him take me off the beach for flounder and the gray trout that have been active (and found some of the nicer spanish mackerel that have been hanging around Carolina Beach Inlet), or we could have tried to throw topwaters to red drum back in the Buzzards Bay area, but this fishing trip wasn’t about me. It was about the boys.
Those with kids know that at even very young ages they have strong opinions, so I left the direction of our fishing trip up to them. Their answers were quick and unanimous. They wanted to catch sharks.
I passed this request on to Robert, and Robert set the Hurleys up for shark fishing on a Sunday morning.
Getting the kids to the dock by 7:00 am was just about the end of my work day, though, as once we met Robert at the dock, he quickly took over and let me just as quickly relax.
Robert greeted the kids with a warm handshake, asked questions to get them both to open up and start talking easily about fishing in general and the day’s planned events, stowed our gear, got Owen and James each seated on their own cushion near the bow of the boat, and we were underway.
The wind was already up early in the morning, so our shark fishing was going to be in the Cape Fear River instead of outside Carolina Beach Inlet, and on the way Robert was quick to keep the kids engaged in everything going on around them. Owen was the first to take a turn helping Robert drive the boat, while he kept James interested by pointing out birds and pods of bait disrupting the water’s surface. Then James took over the steering wheel, and Robert kept the kids in conversation about the buoys, the clouds and weather patterns, and other boats either tied up or also headed out for a day’s fishing.
Me? I got to sit back and just enjoy my kids being kids. Instead of my regular role of answering all their questions, I was able to listen to both their questions and Robert’s answers. I was able to pay attention to how my kids’ brains work—how they move from one question to the next.
Here I was on a Sunday morning headed out to catch sharks in the Cape Fear River, traveling under Snows Cut Bridge which I’ve done countless times, and I was seeing these regular haunts through the fresh and excited eyes of my kids. As my role of Publisher of Fisherman’s Post, I get to go on some glamorous fishing trips, but here I was having a great time getting ready to soak cut shrimp on two-hook bottom rigs.
Like I’ve already mentioned, Robert is good at both fishing and working with kids. He had us anchored up out of the wind on the edge of a deeper channel, and we spent some quality time catching pinfish, spot, flounder, croakers, calico bass, and a ray. Each cast was an opportunity for Robert to help them improve their technique, and in doing so increase their confidence. Each fish brought to the boat was a new opportunity to closely examine fins and mouths, feel the texture of skin and scales, as well as celebrate with juice boxes and cheese puffs.
And yes, we did get our sharks—bonnethead and bull.
Catching sharks, however, wasn’t the highlight of our shark fishing trip. The highlight came when Robert had us back at the dock. Owen and James took turns pulling pinfish from a cooler to feed to the waiting pelicans floating off the boat’s stern.
And that highlight was followed by another: Robert let the kids pick through a box of shark teeth and fossils he had on hand (compliments of the local dive boat), so on the entire drive home Owen and James compared their Megalodon teeth and fossilized whalebones.
Thank you, Robert. The Hurleys hope we’ve started a yearly tradition.
