PORTFEST 2010
by Robin

Last weekend, we sold our suv and were going to go looking at a couple used ones on a car lot. We ended up taking a detour when seeing a roadside sign.

I'm glad I brought my camera with me. They had a peeling shrimp contest to raise money & awareness for breast cancer.



A dozen or more folks entered the peel (& NOT eat shrimp because of choking liabilities) shrimp contest.



This man was the winner. He sure was quick. I think he's done this before.

Afterward, we were heading to the car when we ran into our friends who fished at the Middle Grounds. We chatted a while longer and then headed home.

The next day, we found a good beater SUV to haul the boat to the port. Yeah!!

Happy Fishing & be sure to get a Mammogram Lady Anglers!!

KINGFISH DIP
by Robin



It's such a beautiful day outside that I decided to get in the pool to clean it AND I fired up the smoker, filling it with mesquite yummy smells. I have a couple packs of Kingfish meat in the freezer that are thawed and smoking as I type this.

Yum!!

Here is a link to the last time we smoked Kingfish in July.
How we make dip from scratch


Here are my favorite recipes:
Kingfish dip recipes

Happy smokin'!!!!

MORE DELICIOUS FISH DINNERS!!
by Robin

I've lost track of what was on my camera. I'm thinking these are Red Grouper filets. Whatever they were, they were delicious!!




And we harvested a bunch of jalapenos from my garden, filled them with cream cheese and wrapped them with bacon. Oh my heavens!!!!! Threw those on the grill....... (I'll have you know I suffered a fibromyalgia -joint attack because I was so tempted to eat one of these dairy-filled treats.)



I made a big garden salad and put it all together.



Sometimes I feel so incredibly guilty for eating so good and being so blessed by generous friends that give us fish & lobster. Jack also has another friend that has been supplying me with free avacados. Mmmm......

Blessings!!

BEST LUNCHES!!!
by Robin

I cannot remember what date we ate these, but our good friends made a trip out to the Middle Grounds last week (or so) and picked up a few hundred pounds of fish for their coolers. The Middle grounds is in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 80 miles from shore. It is a true test of endurance to run out there, fish, barely sleep, fish and then make the run back in.

I decided to look for a video on UTube to see if I could find something that brings this story to life. I do NOT know these folks, but you can get a 7 min experience of what it is like to be fishing the Middle Grounds like our friends did. It is the land of the giant fish.

Anyhow, we were extremely blessed to receive frozen packages of Red Grouper and Mangrove Snapper. Below is the Mangrove Snapper which were in the 5 -6 lb range. HUGE.



Jack wasted no time in cooking the Mangrove up for us (probably a Monday).


Jack opted out of the gas grill and went straight to charcoal for the sake of the unique flavoring it gives the fish. Oh, it was so worth the wait on the coals.



Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is.




Anyhow, you can find tons of Middle Ground fishing videos on the UTube. I see yellowfin, blackfin, Kingfish, Snapper, Grouper, Amberjack... everything!

Happy Fishing! And good eats!!

FINALLY FISHING AGAIN!!!
by Robin

On Oct 10th, God calmed the seas, created nice weather and gave us a chance to get out and fish!!!

I don't have the pictures ready, but the short of it was that we did not get up at the crack of dawn. I think we may have gotten out to Pelican Flats about 9:30am, pulling right up to the ledge that we like to fish for a variety of reef fish. The anchor goes down, stinky dead shrimp go on the hook and everything goes down to the bottom.

Nibble, nibble.... pull.... reel, reel, reel and up comes a very nice Trigger fish that goes right into the cooler on the first drop.

Send everything back down with another stinky shrimp. Nibble, nibble,.... pull..... tug.... reel, reel, reel and up comes a nice Red Porgy, but it goes back to the ocean because it didn't meet the requirements, by law, for the cooler. Beautiful little guy.

(Sorry no pictures because I was catching everything.) By this time, my eldest has his rig ready and he sends down a stinky dead shrimp. Nibble, yank, pull, yank, wiggle, wiggle, yank... up com a huge red snapper, which is now illegal to keep. Vent & send it back down. We're all high-5-ing each other because we're in 78 ft of water. This means that the snapper population must be thriving with the 10 month closure.

Next couple drops produce a chocolate chip porgy and black sea bass. All very nice edible fish.

We decided to pull anchor and go to another spot, as to not overfish this one ledge.

We head east a little bit until we come across our known Grouper 'hump. We've pulled 25, 35, 40 lb Warsaw Grouper & a 62 lb Cobia off this area in the past. We've got high hopes.

Nibble, nibble, pull, reel, reel, reel screaming as line is peeled off. Oh, I'm so excited that I've got something nice on. Reel, reel, reel and....... it's a 4 ft shark. Infact, we all took turns pulling in 4 ft sharks.

Sadly, the rest of the day produced no other edible fish. We did see an incredible pod? school? gathering? flock? of jellyfish. AMAZING. Literally, there were hundreds, if not thousands in the area we were fishing for grouper. That may be why we never caught anything but sharks off the bottom.

We headed back home by 4pm and cleaned fish. We enjoyed a nice dinner of fried Porgy & Triggerfish, suggested by our youngest. He loves my version of Long Jonz Slivers. LOL.

Happy Fishing!! Pictures to come eventually on that day.

BANANA RIVER CRUISE - 9/26/10
by Robin

It's been way too long since I've updated here, but we've actually had several cool things going on with our lives, relating to the ocean. So, all week, I will attempt to keep everyone updated on our seafood meals & fishing. Please check back daily to see what's new.

The weekend of the 19th, I had a massive cornea infection, cracking the entire bottom part of my iris. At the same time, I had a gall bladder attack through the night. So, I immediately went into fasting in order to do a cleansing on that organ a couple days later. (passing stones)

It was a miserable few days where I hallucinated somewhere between wanting death and having my eyeball removed so I could look like a pirate. I had to stay in the darkness, as I was light sensitive. I had multiple visits to doctors & specialists and all is well now. (It really helps to have a correct diagnosis on my eye issues.)

So, the next weekend, Jack and I were needing some sun and relaxation. After church, we readied the boat for the river and put her through her paces. The boys were happy about getting to stay home, too.

I cannot tell you how good it felt to bask in the sun's rays and be thankful to God for better health. God delivered a splendor of blue & puffy white clouds - all for me.



The camera simply does not do the rippling effect any justice. It was majestic.



It was a quick hour or so, but the winds picked up. The engine had been exercised. We headed back to the local ramp that is known for many engine-less, wind-powered rentals. Many locals like this area because it is shallow, virtually boat-free and seems to attract much wind.


I caught this photo with my zoom lens of a wind surfer as we were in the slow zone. I put an impressionist touch photoshopped onto it.




It's hard to believe that was a month already.

Blessings!