8/17/09 Indian River Laggoon fishing & picnic

This past Friday, I was tired. Tired from the heat and tired from cutting the grass & breaking ground on a garden Thursday. The furthest thing from my mind was expending energy in another 95+ deg day, fighting big fish on little sleep. So, Jack didn't give me the 6am wake-up call and came home around 8am from work.
W-E-E-K-E-N-D!!! Well, as you can see from the first photo, it was a beautiful day and the water was like glass. I was game for a picnic on the water if I didn't have to work too hard.

Instead of sandwiches, chips & the usual fishing day cooler foods, I packed fruits, hotdogs, chips & salsa. We didn't even take a fish cooler with us, so there was extra room on board. We put in the ramp just 2 miles from our house which saved us 20 min of driving. That is a power station behind my son's head. He is showing off his gator trout & red fish t-shirt.

We headed a couple miles up the river, sight-seeing along the way. We saw numerous manatees, dolphin, jellyfish and even divers searching for clams.

We parked under the Hwy 405 bridge for shade and because we weren't fighting current. Jack tied us to one of the pilings and we let the kids fish with their kiddie poles.

My oldest was first with a fish. A juvenile whiting. I'm a bad mom for not getting the picture. I really don't have a good excuse except that I was "working" for the kids.

A few minutes later, Little Man hooks something nice but it wrapped itself around the piling and we (meaning, I interferred w/ too much pressure) were cut off from the fish with the sharp barnacles on the piling and Mr. Fishy got to see another day. Probably a keeper gator trout (i.e. large spotted trout's nickname).

Bites were slow but Little Man ended up picking up this juvenile spotted trout. The picture above, you can see him reeling it in and then here, he's holding it. All fish were released today.

After this, we stopped to have our picnic lunch in the partial shade. It sure was nice to have the fruit. I don't usually do that. Our pineapple plant had finally riped its fruit and so I had cut it up that morning. It was so sweet!

Also, in our area, the local legend is that bananas are not allowed on boats for the bad luck. Well, we don't believe in all that but still Jack doesn't let me pack it for offshore trips. (hmmmm?) It has been debunked over and over again. Some think the smell may affect the fish. Whatever, I say. It used to also be bad luck to have women on board ships but I don't buy that for a second either.

We moved up the river another couple bridges north and found this old railroad track bridge. It was loaded with Jack Crevelle which were attacking the glass minnows. Poor things were running to our boat for cover at one point. Unfortunately, none of us got any bites even with all that visual.

As you can see, the wind is picking up a little bit and putting ripples in the water.

As we left that bridge, Jack took a picture of me sitting on the pulpit. Oh, it was so fun to ride up there. I could see all the needlefish darting out of our way.

We had a pair of manatees cross our path right before this picture.

A couple quick miles back to the ramp and we were home. As you can see, it was shallow water (1.6 ft) as we approached the ramp. Jack had to raise up the engine a little to glide on in.

We were home by 2:30pm and in the pool by 3:30. Sometimes I think that we've got live too good. We certainly do make a point to have quality family time and enjoy our lives. We love each other and have found the best family hobby in fishing/boating.

Soon, the boat will be disassembled and painting pictures will begin to appear on the blog. We're still gathering all our materials at this point and watching to see what Hurricane Dean is doing.

Enjoy!

Robin

r.a.dKIDS testing day!

Here is the first video with both boys. Big guy gets to do his kneeing into the mat and then smiles for the camera. Cute ham! Little man then is up and he does some low-back-hammer's to the mat. It's hard to get clarity but you get the idea of what they're doing.



Here is a slightly more close-up version. First little man is blocking hits, then taking a kick on the red mat, then I turn just in time to see big brother hitting Bob with high-hammer fists.



This one is 2 min, but it shows you the overall view of the room & various moves they learned over the course of 3 days. It would be hard for me to describe which 2 are my boys so I won't even try. They are in there.

Here the entire class is posing with Bob. Big guy is on the far left and Little man is right behind Bob's head (blonde).

update on Malachi 3:

Jack came in the door this morning saying a friend at work is giving him a paint sprayer - brand-new, in the box, never used. He's had it for years and didn't see the point of keeping around something he wasn't using. Another friend is loaning Jack a big air compressor. A man at the local marina showed us how to put our boat on blocks for when we get her ready for painting. Things are coming together at a very rapid pace. I'm so excited.

On a separate note, Jack was given 2 free tickets to Universal Studios to celebrate his company's major anniversary. Well, the secretary had 2 extra tickets that somebody else wasn't able to use and gave those to us as well - so we're doing Universal Studios for free in a couple weeks. Another blessing!

God has been so good to us.
Robin

Malachi 3 - God loves boats too!
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.

And so Jack and I test the Lord in this and are teaching our boys this lesson...... Not always is it so tangibly visible in material things but this week it was. Sunday night, after we got back from church, our neighbor came over with a couple hundred dollars worth of clothes and unworn sneakers for the boys. Wonderful blessing.

That night, Jack went in to work and he still had the boat show on the brain. He was mentioning to the parts guy that he decided to paint our boat in the relatively near future. The man says, "This is your lucky day." No... there is no luck about it. It was divine appointment set up by the LORD Almighty. He poured out a $900 blessing's worth of aviation paint, accelerators & something else (I don't know my paints, except I heard something about 3-step linear poly???urythane??). The parts guy ordered all the wrong paint for a jet and was told to dispose of it, which would have cost him money since paint falls under toxic wastes. He just gave it to us. Amazing. It is a nice clean white.
So, Jack tells me that the boat may be down for a while. He's going to work on all the fiberglass cracks and my job (like I need another job) will be to work on restoring the teak wood on the doors & little pieces. It is more labor intensive than costly. Our friend is loaning us the hoist for the boat engine. That will have to be taken off relatively soon in the entire process.

I hope this project isn't near as frustrating as the work we did on the fuel tank; but somehow, I think I shouldn't get my hopes up. Jack's goal is to have this finished up by the time the winter fishing gets cranking up. Don't worry, I'll still have fishy blogs as Jack fishes with other guys.
Happy Fishing,
Robin

Psalm 23:1 "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want."

Central Florida's Hot Summer Boat Show 2007 in Orlando

Prov 7: 19-21 "For the husband is not at home, he is gone a long journey; He hath taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day appointed. With much fair speech she cause him to yield...." (It is so hard not to fall in love with every boat there. The prices were certainly a reality check.)

Big man picked out a cruiser for his favorite ride.
Little man went for the ski boat in lime green.
The world's smallest kitchen. Actually, it isn't small considering it is in a cruiser boat.
This is the one that almost came home with us. 2008 Proline 23ft CC. Honda 4-stroke engine. Sweet! Proverb 4: 25 "Let thy eyes look right on, and let thy eyelids look straight before thee."

Psalm 121: 6 "The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." It was 108 deg when we got in the car and 102 deg after we were driving along the Beach line.

We did have a delicious lunch at Bahama Breeze on International Drive. It was my first time and whoa, was that shrimp linguini delicious! Capt Jack had Jerk Shrimp appetizer (for the meal) that had salsa that was addictive!! I'm not sure who's meal was better.

I tried to catch a picture of the big jumbo jet that crossed our path as we were driving to Orlando. Instead of having the setting on "picture", it was on "movie", so it didn't turn out right.

After dinner, the boys and I went out for an evening swim in the pool. The water was like a hot sauna. What a perfect way to end the evening. Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE living in Florida?

Happy Fishing!

Robin

PS: The seas were beautiful the past 2 days. I'm almost regretful that we didn't fish.

8/3/07 Fishing Report & 8/11/07 Boat show

I didn't have a lot of time to report this week that Jack, Bill and John had gone fishing on Friday. The short story was that they had trouble finding snapper. Lots of sharks were caught & released. They did find some nice black sea bass and triggers. They kept only 3 bsb and 1 large trigger. They went out to 140 ft to start and worked their way back in to port. No rain that day. The heat, as many of you know, was unbearable. We cleaned the fish on Saturday and had fried fish. Yummy.

This weekend, instead of fishing, we're heading to Orlando for the Central Florida boat show , being held at the Convention Center. No, we're not selling or trading in our boat, but we do want to step on the other boats and check prices for a new trailer.

More than 300 boats representing over 50 manufacturers will be on the show floor, ready to be boarded for a closer look, including: Fishing boats, family boats, cruisers, wakeboard boats, sailboats, sportboats and yachts Runabouts, pontoons and deck boats Marine electronics, motors and accessories Personal watercraft and canoes.

The 18th Annual Hot Summer Boat Show has a reputation as being a fun family show. Each year our incredible Kids Zone becomes more elaborate and creative, making the show a great enticement for fun family entertainment, all included in the price of admission

Last night, the shuttle took off and we were preparing for our Team Kids Revival, so we were at church. Many of our early showers also ran out of the church to catch a glimpse of this spectaculuar sight. Captain Jack set his alarm clock and watched it from the driveway and then went back to sleep. It is never something I want to get bored of seeing.

Behind the car, you can barely see a Fire Station. On the roof were 3 firemen. I wish I had had the zoom ability to capture that.

Have a wonderful family weekend,

Robin

PS: I'll have boat show pictures for you next weekend. I'll be sitting on my yacht, of course. ha ha.

Miscellaneous pictures from the week.....


These are from 7/29's fishing trip. While poor Jack had to replace the fuel filter, the kids and I walked the dock and came across this young sea turtle taking a nap. I woke him up to feed him some squid (not w/a hook attached).

Here is Jack in the full Florida heat working on the fuel filter. We were back underway by 10am.

This is the ride back home after some unintentional shark fishing. My eldest is getting a lesson in using & reading the instruments, including the GPS. I think we cruised back in to port approx 31-34 mph.


If you think car miledge stinks, you should try getting 2-4 mpg in a boat. Because of the resistance water gives, boats get NOTHING close to what a car gets on the road.




Somebody turned 11 this week!! I can't believe it. Little brother took the picture.

Celebrate life. Rejoice in all things. God has been good to us.

Robin
PS: Updated on Ashley's World Record. I believe it is a done deal; however, the pictures finally came back and I'm sorry to post how disappointed I am in my "hero". I guess it is another reminder for what a world we live in. If you let a young lady hang out with a bunch of men, all night long, boozing it up while billfish fishing, I suppose you get some very unlady-like behavior. That's all I'm going to say about it.

My Fishing Hero

14-year-old-angler-lands-155-pound-swordfish/

Ashley Spalding is a local Junior Fishing Angler. She is already infamous on the fishing forums as her Dad is her biggest fan. Her catch during the tournament is now in "Pending" status with the IGFA (International Game Fishing Assoc.) as a World Record. She battled the 155 lb Swordfish for 1 hr 45 min. She is a stronger woman than I!!

God bless her. We saw her riding on the bow of her Dad's boat several weeks back and we radioed to her Dad to keep Ashley away from our fish. LOL. They had a good laugh over that.

Girls Rule!
Robin

SHARK WEEK IS NOW!!!

I need to post about our fishing day today but I'm just barely conscious. Anyhow, it hits me that tomorrow is the 29th. Join with me in watching all the great shark shows on Discovery channel.

We had a bit of our own shark week today. We went snapper fishing and ended up catching 7 sharks (total) and 3 small peanut dolphin (mahi mahi) which were in a school under a board 140 ft of water. I didn't get the camera out much but I'll leave you with what pictures I have. These are 3 ft sharp nose sharks which were primarily caught in 140 ft, 125 ft and 58 ft of water (pretty much everywhere). I even caught 1 of the 2 that were in a glass minnow frenzy.

Da-dum...... da dum..........da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum (think JAWS theme)

Robin

THE LADY'S BOUILLABAISSE from
Paula Deen on Food Network

Our day started at 6:30am with hooking up the boat and heading down the road only to u-turn back for home because the clouds threatened early thunderstorms.

By 8:30, we were back on our way out, now to the market to find our ingredients for Paula Deen's Seafood dish - The Lady's Bouillabaisse. We saw it on her show (Food Network) and it reairs on July 30th if you want to see her make it.
A trip to the Seafood Market really should count as a homeschooling field trip because I have to answer dozens of questions about the animals we see there.

For our dish, we needed 4 Blue Crabs. They come LIVE, so watch out!

Kids, don't play with your food!!

We also picked up a pound of white Canaveral shrimp and the recipe calls for 1 pound of mussels but we choose pasta clams since they're my favorite. Our fish monger gave us extra clams incase some didn't open up. THROW AWAY the ones that don't open up! We also thawed out a pack of our snapper caught earlier in the month. We're substituting this for 2 lbs grouper.

This was a fun day for Jack and I. He loves to cook and I'm a good assistant. We put on some Smooth Jazz and flirt around the kitchen. We even had time for a slow dance between one of the steamings. Here he is chopping up the snapper into 1 inch pieces while the blue crab are being boiled. My job is to boil 2 cups of water in a big pot and steam the clams (6-8 min) or until they open.

When the crab are done cooking, you must cut into halves, remove the top shell and remove the poo & lungs. A quick few minutes and the job is done. Rinse to remove shells or poo.

Through the steam, you can barely see my clams are opening up.

Jack finishes up the crab work and I'm off to make the Bouillabaisse .

Heat the oil in a large pot, add the garlic, onions, tomatoes, fennel, saffron, salt and pepper. Add the mussel/clam broth to the pot and 2 tablespoons of butter (we use Smart Balance). Add the 2.5 c boiling water and clam juice.

Bring to a rolling boil, add the crabs and fish, and continue to boil for 6-8 minutes. (keep the lid on)

Add the mussels/ clams along with the shrimp (left unpeeled), and boil for an additional 5 minutes w/ lid on.

Make some garlic bread & broil it. Serve the bouillabaisse in a large individual bowl lined with the bread; pile in the seafood and ladle the broth over it. Paula adds more butter at this point, but we didn't.

Next, call the kids and let them dig in. This is my seafood boy. He loves everything we love to eat.

This one is too young to appreciate seafood, but he is learning. He loves the fish & shrimp & BREAD.

As you can see from the first picture, I got large glasses and filled them with lemonade. My sister went last weekend to Paula's restaurant and she said Paula makes great lemonade too.

Ingredients in the Bouillabaisse sauce:
1/3 c EVOO
1 1/2 Tbl chopped garlic
3/4 c chopped onion
2 cans of Italian whole tomatoes (or 5 Romas peeled & sliced)
1 tsp fennel seed (don't leave out but you can back it down to 1/2 tsp)
Pinch of saffron
1 Tbl, plus 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt (we used Sea Salt)
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbl butter plus more for bread

2 1/2 c boiling water
8 oz clam juice

Lobster Diver Vanishes Off Brevard County Coast
"It wasn't a very deep dive, roughly 75-80 feet," said friend Gary Heidelberg. "He was coming up when we expected him to, but the bubbles just stopped."

http://www.wftv.com/news/13765595/detail.html (the rest of the story is here) Also, check out the video link and you'll see the docks where we put our boat in.

Gary H. is a member of our fishing forum and wrote in twice yesterday about what he saw and did to try to find his friend & diving partner of 12 years.
"Not wasting time to pull on wetsuit top or gloves, I jumped in and made a beeline to the bottom. Pretty quickly I found his net, spear (he used for a tickle stick) and lobster inn lying together on the top of the ledge. I stuck my head under the ledge to see if he was trapped, but he wasn't there. I turned around and saw Blake had jumped in behind me. We had a quick underwater conversation, and started zigzagging back and forth across the ledge going out on the sand in both directions and looking under every ledge. We burned our tanks finding nothing but the lobster gear."

Another two of our forum members were there in their boats, one being No Doubt (in video) to look for Johnny. It has been a very sad day for our local fishing/diving community. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Sandbury family, Gary & the diving partners, the community of divers that participated in the rescue and US Coast Guard as the are still searching for the body.

Rest in Peace John,
Robin

LAGGOONZ
http://www.laggoonz.com/

Ok, I'm really not plugging this place (on US 1 just south of Port St. John) but we eat here often. The food is fantastic. The seafood is always fresh. The waitress knows that my youngest will spill his drink while he's there (Six spill streak). If we get the brunette, they get free ice cream sandwiches. It's one of those quaint, hole-in-the-wall restaurants that the tourists don't know about. Did I mention the atmosphere? They have prized fish pictures on the walls, plus mounts of fish too. My favorite is the Mako shark with an arm sticking out of the mouth.

BUT, that's not what I wanted to write about today......

I wanted to tell you that Jack couldn't wait to get out to the car to tell me something. He overheard the lady at the table next to us tell the waitress that she was going to treat herself today. What do you think she ordered?

Grouper?

Nope.

Mahi Mahi?

Guess again.

Snapper?

Not even close.

Can you say GATOR TAIL??? Yep, she was treating herself to the infamous delicacy of Florida Gator Tail.

We thought that was pretty funny.

Well, that's all I wanted to say about our FL homeschooling lunch break today.
Robin

Happy Birthday Captain!!

May God continue to bless you with large fish and many safe days on the water. May He enlarge your territory with more secret numbers of fishing holes in your GPS. May He keep your freezer full with bounty from the sea to feed the family. And may you always wear a smile on your face like the one you had this day.

Love,

Your wife & fishing partner

Cold Updwelling

This is mostly for my notes (not too interesting for anybody else). It was a blessing to stay home today and not fish. I read three fishing reports on our local forum and all of them told the same story with the same ending. Cold water on the bottom w/ slime on weights, bait hard to find, 86-90 deg on surf temps and current ripping at 4mph = no fish. Unless you were fishing 27 fathoms with 3 lbs of weights, you weren't touching the fish.

I'm glad we didn't waste the gas today. Tomorrow, Jack and I get to attend a wedding just off the beach at sunset. Should be beautiful! Can't wait to dance with my hubby and then have a walk on the beach with my babe.

Robin

Snapper Lunch and Lobster Season

Yesterday, we finally had a moment to cook our snapper from last week. We had vacuum-packed about 9 bags and so we did a quick-thaw in warm water. Note: Not HOT water or else that may cook your fish.

After it is thawed, we like to rinse it, check it once more for bones to be cut out, then put it on a platter and dry the filets. Next, Jack puts on whatever seasonings he is "feeling" that particular day. A week or so ago, I had some Greek-seasoned shrimp from a restaurant, so Jack took that idea and put it onto the Red Snapper. I have to say that I loved it on the shrimp even though it treaded out of my mild comfort zone and was medium in heat. Maybe they added some tabasco.

Next, we take it to the grill and make sure that the first side has a wonderful color & slight crust to it. To the right, you can see that the piece on the right is heavily seasoned and the ones on the left are less seasoned. I'm thinking we cooked at least 3 lbs of meat. These were thick filets. Jack likes to call the local fish market and determine price. Market price for snapper is $14.99/lb. WOW.

Anyhow, I had mine seasoned lightly and that was a big mistake. Jack's piece was much better than mine. Snapper has a good white meat without much oil, which gives the fishy taste. So, while it wasn't seasoned perfectly, it was still very good.

Most days, I pretend to be a vegan.... LOL.... that is, with the exception of my love for fish and seafood. So, to the left, you can see that I have prepared 2 sides. One is a cucumber salad and the other is a tomato/olive salad with cilantro. Why not combine the 2? Dh get bad indigestion with the cukes. I also make the guys whatever sides they also ask for because they are not vegans.

My 2nd part of the post is to mention that July 25-26th is the sport season for Spiny Lobster. Jack has his diver's certification but hasn't dove in quite some time, so we tend to sit this season out. However, one day, I hope that we will all be certified and able to take the boat to the Keys for Lobster season. I don't know who this is..... I only have the picture to show you a Spiny Lobster, aka Florida Lobster. Notice that they do not have claws.

True lobster season opens August 6th for everyone. The 2 day season next week is just for recreational divers.

Also, 1 more reminder......... SHARK WEEK begins July 29th, I believe. I am looking forward to that, as I do every year.

Bon Appetite,

Robin

Christmas in July

Back when I was a kid visiting my grandparents here in Florida, I remember going to the Early Bird Specials and seeing a Christmas tree up in the corner of the room. We would laugh and then Grandma would educate us that they celebrated Christmas in July. Now, I've been a Floridian for several years myself and I have not once come across that same custom here on the East coast. Maybe it was the sales pitch of the day to boost commercialism. Maybe it was a senior citizen-induced holiday since all the grandkids would come visit in the Florida summers. Either way, it's a tradition I had forgotten about until yesterday.

We had another one of those horrible late afternoon thunderstorms. Power flickered multiple times. It rained cats and dogs. And then I heard a noise I was unfamiliar with. I peeked out the windows to see hail! Hail was pelting the porch roof and making little dive bombs into the pool. By the time I thought to get my camera, it was finishing up and so you cannot see any marble-sized balls on the deck. I suppose the decking was so hot that they melted in seconds. So, I had been thinking all day, maybe our summer hail is the reason why they say we have Christmas in July.

Today, we had a high sitting over the center of Florida and so the coastal sea breeze is acting differently. The west coast is getting our storms and we had a perfect day of sunshine and hot temps. We couldn't wait to finish school so we could jump into the pool. The pool has become a big incentive to work diligently.

Anyhow, me and my big guy were out there first. The clarity is perfect across the pool, so I got the idea to take pictures as if I were underwater with him. The trick is to go down with no held breath and hold still for as long as possible. You sink right down and then pose.

We sure did enjoy doing this. He took a couple of me, but I didn't like any of them.

Merry Christmas,

Robin

SNAPPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see, Jack and friend, John C went far east of Port Canaveral and caught their limit of Red Snapper. Jack says the big guy was his first and it nearly gave him a heart-attack to bring up. They limited out on keeper snapper in a very short time and tried trolling but it was some awful weather today.

They left the port entrance approx 7am and came back in at 2pm. Jack said they ran into many 4 ft seas with a 5 footer thrown in once in a while.

John was so nice to share with Jack his favorite snapper hole. Mind you, he did not give us the GPS coordinates, but he led the way with his GPS. Fishermen's secrets usually die with them. A consistant-producing area would be considered gold in these parts.

While Jack hit the port at 2pm, he did not make the house until closer to 4pm. He cleaned fish for an hour!

We had 2 huge popcorn bowls filled with meat from the 4 fish. We always do our best to keep the meat chilled during the whole process.

In the end, we vacuum-packed nine bags of snapper filets for the future. John was kind enough to decline keeping his fish since he already had a freezer full. Now, we do too.

I was rather glad to see the guys come back to port by 2pm because the t-storms rolled in like clockwork. To me, it is very scary to be caught on the water with a big electrical storm near you.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Robin

PS: Jack saw that big tripletail (from last week) in the inlet again today.