Capt Marty's Bait Bucket

Last September I felt the need for a new Bait Bucket.... So I built one. A nice one. Unfortunately, my operation can not run on the little yellow bucket with the spring loaded door 95% of you are familiar with. Nope, my bait bucket's are customized 5 gallon or even a 10 gallon bucket that has 75-100 holes drilled into it, the lid is wire-tied on, and some sort of hatch is made into the lid.... These buckets are capable of holding 40-70 finger mullets.... So anyway, last September I made a brand new bucket and named it the "Mullet Hilton"..... I loaded it with Finger Mullets and tied it off on the North end of Ocracoke Island..... Then at some point, the metal handle backed out of the holes that were made into the original 5 gallon bucket.... And it drifted away. We came into the Ferry Basin just in time to see it "turn the corner" and head for Hatteras Inlet. I was pissed off because #1 lots of work went into building the "Mullet Hilton", #2 tons of hapless Mullets were doomed to slowly starve as they drifted out to sea..... That was it, that was the end of it.....

Move ahead 12 months, and last week Jennifer and I was riding the Beach and just happened to have about 40 lbs of Mullet that I had castnetted the day before.... Out at Hatteras Inlet, I asked a fisherman if he needed any bait? Sure he said, and he followed Jennifer and I back to my truck. He helped himself to all the fresh Mullet he wanted.... Evidently, he remembered my name from the side of my truck. Later he and his wife were talking about me. My name must've seemed vaguely familiar..... See last year, the found a bait bucket in the surf up Cape Point at Buxton. It had "Mullet Hilton" and "Marty Moore" written lightly on the lid. So a couple days later, Nancy from Pennsylvania called me up and said "Did you lose a bait bucket last year?"..... I had honestly forgot, but quickly remembered..... Anyhow, Nancy and Tom dropped off my bucket at the Ferry Dock Monday afternoon and me and the "Mullet Hilton" have been reunited.... Amazing, that bucket drifted 10-12 miles east before hitting the Point. Then, the folks that found it were the same folks that I ran into by chance, a year later. Small and Crazy World..... Something strange? Miracle? Good Things are starting to Happen? The Tide is Turning? Things are starting to Go My Way?

 I'm starting to believe that I might just catch a big Flounder, a big Sheepshead, or a Pompano this week....