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CORPUS
CHRISTI, Texas - Bill Sheka has the deeply tanned face of an outdoorsman, and
he's a crack shot with a rifle or a pistol, but he didn't look much like a buffalo
hunter. Sheka had just announced that we were about to take part in the great
buffalo hunt of 1997. Heck, there hasn't been a bison in these parts since Capt.
Richard King's sheer force of will transformed the Wild Horse Desert into the
King Ranch...
That
moment we discover the redfish we've been struggling to land actually is a trout
is among the most invigorating thrills in angling. Instantly the fight takes
on greater meaning in our culture. The realization could result in loss of composure
and, as often as not, loss of the fish followed by intense displays of anguish.
It's happened to me several times. I stepped into a live well once and nearly
fell overboard in a frantic scramble not to lose a hefty speck...
Bobbing
above the hot rocks of Baffin's south shore, an angler balances on a bay boat
bow, straining to hear his wife on a cell phone provide updates on the antics
of their two children. Bracing against the waves, he stretches the phone's antenna
above his head, hopeful his static-laced connection to New Braunfels lasts a
few moments longer.
Reception is fading, threatening to cut short this poignant glimpse of the home
life he's missing. "I gotta go honey. You're breaking up," the angler
says, stretching the antenna even higher. "I love you. We'll talk again
soon."
"
Bill
Sheka's missi'n is fishin'. The Corpus Christi, Texas, inshore guide lives,
eats, breathes, sleeps and talks fishing 25 hours each day. And when the chance
to catch seatrout — B-I-G seatrout — is good, he is a person possessed
with piscatorial power. So on a balmy September morning Bill Sheka was hurrying
us into his shallow-draft, center-console Kenner boat...
