Fishin' Franks

I remember a story my dad and brother told me several years ago when they first moved to Florida. They had decided to take up fishing and as any good fishermen would do, they had gone to Wal-Mart to buy their supplies. After that they decided to stop by the local fishing shop, Fishin' Franks to get some bait and find out a little about local fishing.

Mistake !

Frank of Fishin' Franks was not pleased to learn that while they bought all of their gear from Wal-Mart they had come in his store for FREE advice. Needless to say, when it was all over they left with some fishing advice from Frank and their tails between their legs along with an oath to never return to Fishin' Franks.

Well, since I have been here, Joey and I have also decided to take up fishing. Of course Joey has all the gear and a little more expertise since the Fishin' Frank incident. However, one morning when we left particularly early to go fishing we started a conversation about where to get bait. We had found a place the weekend before but we weren't sure of the store hours and we were leaving pretty early. So the debate began.....do we take a chance at that place or do we go to Fishin' Franks which we knew was open early enough.

After weighing the pros and cons, and chastising ourselves for being such wusses when it comes to Fishin' Franks, we decided to go there. As we arrived Joey formulated a plan on what to bring in to get the bait and what to say so that he had a chance to sound like he knew what he was doing to avoid a confrontation with Frank. And I removed my 'Offshore Angler' hat in order to remain low on the Frank radar. As we entered the store, I thought of the Seinfeld episode with the Soup Nazi and hoped we would not hear Frank say : "No shrimp for you !!"

Needless to say, Frank was not there.