One of my favorite places is to fish is on the shore at Ocean City, Maryland. The beach is about an hour and 15 minutes away from my house in Carroll County, Maryland. Ever since I was little, I would frequently visit the beach. I loved how many different things there were. Some of the things I did when coming down for a day is fish, boogie board, dig for sand crabs, surf, or play soccer on the beach. All of these activities are great, but surf fishing for sharks around five in the evening, is my favorite in the middle of summer. As I show up at the beach and pick a secluded spot.
After I finish unloading all my gear and get everything set up, I wade out to about thigh high water, and cast out the line. The next step is to prop my rod up in the pipe stand, and adjust my line so I can see when a shark takes the bait. I sit back and wait in the sand. I marveled at the view around, and realized there is nothing like sitting at the ocean, with a line cast out in the water as dusk falls. I begin to notice the environment around me as I sit there. I can taste the salty air. I can hear the waves continuously hitting, and receding from the shore.
Also, the kids playing on the beach, and the bustling of the people on boardwalk, can be heard off in the background. Seeing the expansive ocean without any sight of land is an amazing sight. As the light orange sun falls down, and reflects on the water it looks truly awesome. During this time, all I do is stare out at the ocean, and watch as the sun slowly sets in the distance. As this happens all my worries and stressful problems recede away. I can only marvel at those who live off the ocean, simply by fishing for their food, and living such a simple life.
They only have to worry about catching food and not much else. Every year, whenever I visit the ocean I always meet other guys, that share this common interest. Even though it has been two hours, I realize that all my worries fade away. I am just living life as it goes by. However out of nowhere, the tip of the pole swivels and bobs up and down, showing something is on the line. I grab the pole and start to reel in the shark. Whenever the shark began to fight back I gave it some slack, and then reeled it back in to tire it out.
This continuous cycle of will power, continues for four minutes or so. Eventually the 8 foot shark was brought to land. After recasting my line, I began to realize how life is like fishing. The awesome part of this was how surreal and calm fishing is, like how life can be easy going at times. However, whenever a challenge or goal is on the line, no matter how hard it fights and seems like it is going to get away, I shouldn’t give up; instead, I should keep fighting for the reward which can be great.
