11/30/06 Psalm 77 [edited]

v1 I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and he gave ear unto me.
v7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
v11 I will remember the works of the Lord, surely I will remember thy wonder of old.
v16 The waters saw thee, O God, the water saw thee; they were afraid; the depth also were troubled.
v19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are no known.
v20 Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.


Well, it doesn't quite intend to speak about the overwhelming withdrawls of not fishing for almost 3 wks, but it will do for a fishing report when the waves are still over 7 ft for the 2nd week in a row. It will go down to 3 ft waves over the weekend before sky-rocketing back up again. Ugh!

"Luther's Dad" from the fishing forum went to Sebastian Inlet, staying inside the inlet, and found the Southern "doormat" Flounder have arrived. I would love to run down there Saturday and try for some, but Jack will be covering weekend shift.

11/27/06 High Seas!!

What can you do when the seas have been high for over 10 days? Find fishing videoes on YouTube.

This one demonstrates how to catch Mahi mahi off a large sargassum weedline. [The language is clean; however, the guys aren't wearing shirts.]

Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9jUvvRyR54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM4jl9iIffk Here is one off the OuterBanks, NC aboard the boat Godspeed.

11/18/06 A Year of Thanksgiving !!!!

11/17/06 A Christian Snook???

Angler's 12-pound snook has unusual double line

BY BILL SARGENT of Florida Today

In 30 years, angler Brett Hedleston figures he has caught over 1,000 snook, most of them in the fall of the year along the surf near his Cocoa Beach home.
But there was something uncharacteristically different about the 12-pounder he pulled onto the beach last week.
Instead of the single distinct black lateral line that runs along the body of every snook the 32-inch fish had grown a double lateral line at a point midway along its side.
"Where the lines overlap it looks a lot like the Ichchys," said Hedleston, 43, a religious man and member of the non-denominational Club Zion Church.
"I've never seen this before. It's really rare," Hedleston said.
Ichchys is the classical Greek word for fish, and it's also associated with the fish symbol representing Christianity.
Like most of the snook he catches, Hedleston cleaned the catch and gave filets to friends, among them Keith Capizzi, pastor of his church.
"But I've kept the skin so I can show people," he added. "I think it has a special meaning and I'm lucky to have caught it."

9/15/06 Fish cleaning day!

Normally we come in late from fishing and Jack has to get sleep to stay on his schedule, so the task of cleaning fish comes the next morning. We've tried sitting over the top of the cooler but your back starts hurting soon. We moved all the appliances off the one kitchen counter and clean in there, but that's only suitable for smaller fish. Honestly, I felt like I didn't want my whole kitchen contaminated with fish germs. So, it was laid on my heart to take a tall table outside and cover it was plastic and get ready to clean fish outside. When Jack came in from work, he had this mixed emotional look on his face. He sighed saying, "I'm tired of you reading my mind." I had to laugh. I didn't mean to.

Anyhow, everything is bagged up. (Thanks Mom & Dad for the Food Saver last Christmas! )

Left: Snapper with a tag sticking out of the top. We will call in this number and get more info about where this fish was caught before.

We ate our share of the Black Fin Tuna. It was okay. I think we may have cooked it wrong. It was a little dry.

The kids had the Trigger fish filets. It was delicious, as I tried a little bit.

Do you want to know why it is called a trigger?

You see that spike on the top? It will stay in a locked position no matter how much you push on the spike. BUT, if you push that little spike in the back, it will un-trigger the locked spike and both spines lay down in the groove God made for it to sit into.

Cool, huh?

Another interesting fact, Triggers to not have scales like other fish, nor smooth skin. They have these mini-armoured plates with a touch of velcro to them. One way they're smooth. The other way, it is rough but with a stickiness to it. They also have very human-like teeth.

Eat Fresh Fish!!

Robin

11/14/06 Red Snapper, Blk-fin Tuna & more

No report to speak of as the Captain was 2.5 hrs later than expected getting in. He needed to sleep.

I do know that they were getting only sharks the first couple of hours, so then they started to troll in 120 ft of water. That's when they got the little Black Fin Tuna and the 12 lb Bonita.

Bonita is not good to eat, but they are generally kept by fishermen to use as bait when cut-up to troll with later. This is a REALLY large Bonita.

At some point, it was getting towards heading in time and so they were trolling over to our favorite spot, Pelican Flats. Before they could get there, Jack sees the 'honeyhole' loaded with fish on his Fish Finder at 86 ft depth. Every time they drifted the area, they picked up Snapper. Some too small, but 4 big enough to keep. Also, there was one barely short of legal Gag grouper they had to release.

Here is my older son pictured with a Grey Trigger fish. They have some big ol' teeth and tough skin. I am NOT going to clean this fish tomorrow.

The guys took NO pictures because they said there were too busy catching fish. So, when my son and I were rearranging the fish in layers of ice, we snapped these pictures.

Take a kid fishing!!

Robin

11/14/06 On the water again.......

She barely got her "Soft Scrub" and "Clorox-Clean-up" bath and Jack has taken her out again. I'm here homeschooling the boys. When he took some pictures of Saturday into work, the other fishing buddies were showing signs of withdrawls. So, they're going to put in a half-day of fishing and head back to shore by 2pm. These guys are all night-shifters too.

I saw the on fishing forum that many guys were planning to head out tomorrow; however, it looks like the weather is turning worse. 2-3 ft seas, increasing to 3-5 ft in the afternoon. YIKES!! I'm glad my man is in 1.3ft seas (7 sec wave period) and .7 ft wind wave. In other words, it's smooth out there.

I hope to have a late night post with some fishy pictures.

Here is a picture of Jack on Sun am with his Red Grouper from Saturday.

Flat seas!
Robin

11/11/06 Red Grouper, Lane Snapper & Bucket-o-BlkSeaBass!!

I'm knee deep in stuff to do today, but thought I'd post up some teaser photos with editing later to add the stories.

Up at 4am, on the road at 5am, clear the port by 6am, greeted by the most beautiful sunrise. I know it sounds like a Fisherman's Fairytale story beginning, but it looks more like the stampede of Gold Rush miners.

The first few spots around 30 mi offshore and working back towards shore, we pulled up 10 sharks in a row. Not fun when pulling them for 150-228 ft.

This was actually shark #11 caught by son #1. I then proceeded to catch shark #12 before we didn't have another one show up. All sharks were released in great condition, although I *wanted* to kill #12 for popping me in the thigh. Thank goodness he did not chomp me.

This smile says it all. First pass and we hooked up with nice black sea bass (BlkSB), so we stopped and anchored there for a few hours.

Son #1 landed one of the first and it ended up being one of the largest ones in the bunch.

Not to be outdone by his brother, my little man brings up the biggest Lane Snapper of the day. He was happier than this but I should confess this is the 4th picture. All the others had my finger in the picture too.

Double-hookup.

Now, we've got some competition going here (not to mention, some dinner).

The top fish is BlkSB and bottom was a grunt which gets released.

Half-time REPORT

Lots of BlkSB and 3 Lane Snappers

Being the competitive Sports-fishing Mom that I am, I thought I'd win the pot for the largest, most unusual and most difficult to release categories.

Yes, it is a Sea Turtle, hooked in the flipper and then managed to wrap himself up. Yes, the will try to bite you. Yes, they bite at the boat. Yes, I held the flipper. Yes, the hook should fall out in 2 days or less. Yes, he should live a happy, long life.

The passing-by dolphins noticed the turtle struggling and were markedly distressed by the situation. They hung out for a short while, very close to the boat, clicking and doing tail-flaps to show their distress over the situation.

Right at sunset, Jack lands this beautiful Red Grouper and he goes into the box.

About 30 min later, we head home, in the dark. I was a bit unnerved but everything went fine.

This morning's cooler shot.

Nice grouper!

Final tally:

14 BlkSB

4 Lane Snapper

1 Sand Perch

1 Red Grouper

Released:

12 sharks

1 Sand Perch

1 Lizard Fish

1 Turtle

Lots of BlkSB, grunts, 2 short Vermillion Snapper, 1 short Am Red Snapper

PS Those new Saltist reels are fantastic. My arms are sore. All the fish are cleaned. Lunch was fantastic!!

11/10/06 You GO Girl!!!!!!

Lori Davis of Merritt Island(click here) landed this 35-pound redfish in the Indian River...."

"Davis has her sights set on becoming the first woman in the 38-year history of the FSFA to win the championship."

Our family has been preparing our boat today for a big journey offshore tomorrow. We will start out very, very early (dark) and I'm praying that we get a cooler full of fish. I can't wait to try out the new Saltist reels.

Florida Sportsman forums - East Central reports (These are other people's reports. Warning: Some foul language on certain posts.)

Tight lines and following seas!
Robin

VOTING, not Boating 11/7/06

Did you vote today? We did our duty and voted this afternoon. Please, vote your conscience!! (see my banana sticker too?)



Before Jack came in to vote with me, he ended up doing a little Christmas shopping with the guys from work. Are you thinking Penney's? Nope. How about Zales? Nope. Maybe something from Target? Nope. C'mon ladies, this is a fishing blog!! It was Bass Pro Shop in Orlando.

It was pre-arranged with me that our gifts to each other would be new Saltist reels. A His/Her set.

In times past, we opted not to give gifts to each other. When we decided not to buy the house last week, we decided to do gifts this year for the first time in a long while.

I know that you ladies must think it strange for a woman to settle on a reel for a gift, but it's true. That's what I really wanted. Don't underestimate the value either ladies. This definitely is up there with multiple pair of shoes. ha ha We have nice Penn reels, but they seem to fail us when anything big gets on the hook end. They weren't designed for 15+ lb fish. The Saltist is.

Jack couldn't decide [vote] on which one he wanted, so he came home with two types. 50H (high-speed gears) and the 50 (lower torque). Both came highly recommended. Jack put 300 yds of 80lb Powerpro braided line on both reels. (the green stuff)

Quoted from Sport-fishing Magazine:
With gear ratios of 6.4-to-1, these reels can rip in over 47 inches of line with every crank of the handle.
Like other Saltist reels, the new high-speeds are built to handle today's ultrastrong braided lines, starting with their rigid-aluminum alloy frames and sideplates. The combination of rigid drive-train support and gear ratio gives the reels a serious advantage in both torque and speed. Four ball bearings and a roller bearing add efficiency to the drive-train support, with Daiwa's special CRBB anticorrosion ball bearings supporting the spool. The CRBB bearings reportedly last up to 12 times longer in a saltwater environment than ordinary stainless-steel ball bearings.

We found longevity in salt to be another selling point. Buy it once and forget about it.

Seas are currently 7.5 ft but dying down to 2 ft by Friday. It looks like we may get to try out the new reels this weekend.

Merry Christmas to us!
Robin

11/3/06 - We did GREAT at the Fair!!!

There will be no fishing for days, as the wind is blowing over 25 kts today. Seas are anywhere from 9-15 ft. Instead....... I'm going to update you on how we did with our Fair entries.

(In no particular order) Son #1 took 1st place and Best in Division for his Entomology (bug) box. This was SOOOO hard to put together. Catching the bugs is the easy part. Classifying bugs takes hours!

Son #1 took 1st and Best in Section for his Elephant Ear plant.

Son #2 took 2nd place for his Coleus plant (which was dying quickly when we arrived today).

I took 2nd place with my Inch Plant (purple).





Son #2 took 1st and Best in Section with his Gulf Toadfish - labeling fish parts.


Then, he took 1st and Best in Division with his color pencil drawing of a Mahi Mahi. I was very impressed with his improvement in his artistic skill in just a year. I guess it has really helped for him to see and hold a real Mahi Mahi in his hands.

Best in Division awards usually receive monetary awards as well. Both boys are thrilled to be recipients of checks.


Son #1 took 1st and Best in Division with his Oceanic -Queen Red Snapper - Labeling.

He also took 1st place with his Brackish Water - Poster of a Sea Horse.

Unfortunately, his Oceanic - Poster of a Remora did not place.



Here is his 1st place and Best in Section for a Red Drum in the Brackish Water - Labeling category.

Technically, his Snapper beat out his Red Drum for money but this one wins for the best of all the Labeling.

In this case, Adults (I believe) are unable to compete against the kids for "Sections" and for "Best in Show" ribbons. At least I've never seen an adult place in those categories the past 3 years.



Here is my Oceanic - Poster of Pompano in the surf that took 1st place and Best in Division (my age group).

That is also my puffer in the bottom right corner. Because of the lack of entries for adults, sections and divisions are combined. So, my Freshwater - Labeling of a Large Mouth FL bass took 2nd place.

The puffer and marlin - labeling did not place which is confusing that they didn't at least give them 2nd or 3rd place ribbons, but oh well...... no sense in complaining.



My Snook in Brackish - Poster, took 2nd place.

You can also see the puffer and bass a little bit better in this photo.

The judging results seem a little strange (we're missing a 1st place somewhere), but again, I don't complain.




Son #2 took top honors in our family for his photography - digital.

He placed 1st for Scenic (Cedar Key) and then took Best in Division (age) against all the blue ribbons in his age division.

Kudos to my baby!! Jack and I both had beautiful scenic photos entered and got nothing for them. I couldn't be happier to see his expression when he saw the ribbons.


The little guy also took 2nd place for Animals and for Human Interest photos of a Penguin statue at Sea World.

This dolphin was also taken at the Feeding tank at Sea World. My baby took about a dozen photos and we took the best of that grouping.

Don't you just love digital cameras??



Son #1 took 3rd place with his Goat eating his Brother - digital - Animals category. Animal categories are well represented because of our local 4H clubs, so we're blessed to have taken a 3rd place here.

This is our 4H friend's goat from last year's Fair. If you look closely, it looks like the goat is about to eat the child on the fence.

I also had a photo of Manatees from the viewing room of Sea World. It took 3rd place for the Adult Division - Animals.


Not shown - I took 2nd place for an Acrylic painting of a beach scene. It was a bit last minute but paid off in the end with a little ribbon next to it.

Here are the boys' rockets. Tomorrow, they will be judged and then shot up in the air. 1st, 2nd, 3rd places will receive ribbons and money for highest distances. There will also be Newton and Einstein awards to engineering & designing (I think certificates).
Son #1 did a shuttle (white, on the right)
Son #2 did a Blue Angel (blue on left)


Hope you enjoyed seeing our entries and share in our joy.

Until the seas lay down enough to fish.........
Robin

11/1/06 - New Month - New Home

I still have yet to finish the below post about our vacation and here I am starting a new topic. The blog gave me such a fit the past couple times this week and I gave up. So, I'm hoping that it is working properly at the time I hit send today.

1 Peter 4:12-13, "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

While I'm sure that Christ did not intend a mortgage to be a fiery trial, it sure will seem like it the first few months of paying and adjusting to our new mortgage. I quote the above not to you, but for myself to reflect on when I'm wondering what we've gotten ourselves into. It is those times when one is weak and sometimes broke, that Christ is made strong and His glory is revealed.

UPDATE: 11/2/06 We met with our mortgage broker/friend and after re-computing more closing costs and high homeowner's insurance premiums, the bottom line number was sooooo out of our comfort zone and we had to walk away from the deal. Amazingly enough, it was mutual and easy to do. I'm so glad that our friend was able to be so understanding about the whole situation. They are all Christians at their company and gave us hope for trying again in 6 months when some of our debt goes down dramatically. The good news is that we will be able to continue fishing all winter and hope to present some big, beautiful Red Snappers on the blog.