MONDAY AFTERNOON
by Robin

(Jack with a fish that decided to "rock up" and would not budge.)


As I mentioned a couple posts ago, our fish finder had died just as we were pulling in a keeper snapper and we made a few unsuccessful passes over similar ground but probably not great bottom. Here is a little sand perch that was caught & released. I love his colors.


So, our stomachs made the decision to eat a little lunch while cruising a short distance over to deeper water and set out the trolling rods.


Trolling....... now there's something I love to do on a hot day, lots of sun on the back and having my favorite view of a flat ocean. I love standing on my cuddy cabin and looking down into the ocean. Sometimes I look back and see my guys having Father/Son bonding. This time, I also had little man who was passed out (avoidance of nausea) at my feet.


I do think he would feel better if he fished more and quit laying down while on the sea. Unfortunately, as hard as we tried, we only saw 1 small peanut dolphin who didn't bite at our ballyhoo being dragged behind the boat.


We had found a nice rip current that was carrying some scattered weeds (above white line in pic above) & debris. We went up & down both sides of it and didn't see much life. Even little tiny bait fish seem to be missing in the whole equation. About the only thing we saw consistently were the Man-O-War jellyfish. (see arrow)


So, we eventually pulled off of that and headed back west toward our former fishing area: Snap 85 and Gilson 89 (our nicknames for them). About the time we turned west for bottom fishing again, Jack spots a nice sunfish on top of the water. Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I get my camera out, it takes a dive down. No picture... sorry. It had a nice little remora stuck to its side. I did manage to put Jack on a couple floating pieces of wood but they weren't holding any fish under them.



A few seconds later, our fish finder pops back on. It's still acting up (flashing), but at least it is reading bottom and the loud alarm stopped working. So, a few miles later, Jack puts us back over our two spots. This is not the best picture of the drifts we made but it gives you an idea of the bottom.


You can see the bottom is filled up with fish.

One of the spots has twice produced grouper but for us........ nothing but black sea bass this trip out. I love these fish but what we brought up was too small to want to filet. Our eldest son brought up a small trigger too. It just wasn't our day to fill the cooler but it had been an interesting none-the-less. Lots of released fish. We only had 1 shark the entire day. It managed to tangle Jack and my lines up.

We opted to come home an hour or so earlier than planned and get all our chores done and enjoy the night together.

Today, Jack put in a new hatch in the cockpit floor to make easy access to the back of the fuel tank. I have pictures but will upload them later. We had a small leak one day when the fuel tank was nearly on full. We could smell fumes and so Jack wanted to take care of that. Secondly, we spoke with Lowrance (fish finders) and they no longer fix our model 107C, so they made the offer to send us a new one, same model, for a highly discounted price. I'm guessing this is surplus they didn't sell before they started marketing something else. Anyhow, we took the discount and will wait patiently for our new fish finder. We were looking at a couple weeks of down time anyhow because Jack has some upcoming dental work on his days off. Oh joy!! I say rejoice, always, rejoice....... ("yeah, right" says Jack).

It won't be long and we'll be into some great spring fishing.
Happy Fishing,
Robin

SORRY
by Robin

I haven't forgotten that I left off in the middle of the fishing day (Monday). I was about to tell you about our trolling day. I'll have to continue that later.

I wanted to update that our broken fish finder will be going back to the factory to be repaired. We wish it Godspeed & safe travels while we await for it to come back home. This will in no way affect our cobia hunting & whale watching come early March. I hope it will be able to come back home in 6 wks or less.

Last, but not least, we went to Bass Pro Shop- Orlando today after church. Ahhh.... all the goodies there. I came home with a nice grouper jig and Jack got a couple things to troll for himself. We also priced future trolling rod/reel combos and looked at snorkeling gear. Yep folks, we're going this summer to Crystal River & Homosassa Springs to scallop dive and fish. None of us can hardly wait for our vacation.

Be back later to finish the story.

1/5/09 - RED SNAPPER for our SON!!!!
by Robin

The alarm clock went off at 5:30 and it wasn't too hard to get up. Everything & everybody was loaded, fed, hitched and on the road by 7am. Thank goodness, we had already gassed up the boat and only needed to buy 5 lbs of squid and 5 lbs of cigar minnows before dunking it in the water at 7:25 because we managed to just beat the line-up of boats that arrived at 7:30 am.

It looked like the Kentucky Derby of offshore boats on the way out of the inlet as the sun started to rise and burn off the night's lingering fog. As soon as the fleet hit the jetty rocks, we begin full power and push beyond the inlet's mouth. Some turned left, heading north to 9A looking for kingfish or bait. Some right, I'm sure to head to Patrick AFB beaches in search of sailfish. But the majority of us were heading due east or SE in search of 21F & 27F ledges or wrecks. Red Snapper dreams have filled the minds of fishermen the entire month, as we all waited for seas & gas prices to go down. Yep, it certainly was a derby and we came no where close to winning the roses.

As it turned out, even though the seas were not all that high, the period between the waves was such that we had to cut our speed in half to avoid losing fillings in our teeth. LOL. It took a little while and as we passed by Pelican Flats, 20 mi from shore, there must have been nearly a dozen boats already making their passes or anchored up. Pelican Flats is a long area of good natural bottom that attracts many fish all year long. It tends to be broken up into North, Central and South regions. We went past the entire Flats onto our new GPS# where we picked up the 3 snapper last month.

We made a couple drifting passes and picked up the usual culprits like short snapper, black sea bass and grunts. I kept a couple grunts because my objective this trip was to try various new methods in order to pick up larger fish. I wanted to work with livies and jigs. I sent one of those grunts down while Jack and our son continued to use cigar minnows. Next thing I know, I'm getting no bites and our son is sitting on the end of the rod and using the gunnel for leverage while his pole tip is nearly hitting the water. He had a keeper something and the rest of us were very excited for him.

I brought up my livie (live grunt) about the same time he got his catch up to the side of the boat. Jack, at this time, helps him lift the fish over the side. I look over for my grunt and see 2 cobia following it up. They are very curious animals, so I left my grunt, half-dead, in the water. At this point, I feel somewhat regretful at this point. Our son's fish was definitely legal but with the opportunity of cobia coming to us, we had no time to rejoice in that for long or help him throw it in the cooler. All three of us stood looking over my side of the boat at the two cobia who were literally staring at the grunt. Not swimming, staring totally still as if to decide was it worth it or not. They were definitely hesitant. One was definitely legal size!

Ok, so they weren't excited about a half-dead grunt, so I put that bottom pole in a pole holder, but left the fish & the new circle hook in the water. Jack grabs the spinner with a chartreusse jig on it. I grabbed another spinner with a glass minnow-looking jig on it. The cobia both followed the minnow a few times but poor Jack had some terrible issues with the bail-release on his spinner. (That will have to be remedied before cobia migration season starts!) I tried everything from slowing it down to speeding it up to build excitement. I couldn't buy a bite. When I brought the jig in, I realized it still had the protective plastic sleeve over the hook and even if the fish had taken a bite. D'oh. What a rookie mistake! I threw the rod & reel combo back, helped take the hook out of the snapper while Jack contemplated free-gaffing the cobia. What's free-gaffing? That's when the fish is so curious that he swims right to you and you are able to sink the gaff into his side without him even having a hook in his mouth. Sure enough, the larger one of the two cobia decided to swim alongside the boat, in eeeeasy gaffing range. I'm not sure what noise I made on the far side of the boat or if he was keen to Jack's swift movement but the fish turned quickly as the gaff was being pulled up and it glanced off the side of the fish. It was a gutsy move and oh well, it didn't pan out. Next, I grabbed the kids' light spinner with a 3/0 J- hook on it. I was desperate. I grabbed another pinfish from the livewell and sent it down about 6 ft. The water was dirty green so we kept losing sight when it went further. Then, the most amazing thing happened, 3 of the 4 of us were able to witness him attack the live fish. Wow! The first time this happened, I pulled it out of his mouth too fast. The 2nd time, I let him take it downward for a few feet then tried to set the hook. Again, the cobia opened his mouth and released the fish. The third time, I simply left the fish in the water, put the pole in a pole holder and put almost not drag on the reel.

At this point, we all refocused on our son's legal snapper and did the ceremonial high-5's and picture taking. It was truly something to rejoice over since he had prayed for at least one legal fish and he got it. He didn't even need help pulling the 7 lber, 23.5" fish up 90 feet of water.



About the time I took this photo, I became totally distracted as I heard the spinner begin to sing to me. Round and round it went as the cobia was probably taking off with the pinfish again. I no sooner put the camera down and the reel was silenced. No extra cobia in the box. We never even saw them again. We set up for the next drift or two and our fish finder machine died on us. Jack was a true professional about that. He knew approximately where our starting and finishing drifts were so he kept on another 45 min with trying to put us over that good bottom to catch another keeper snapper. As God would have it, we could only raise small black sea bass.

At 11:50, we cut our losses and opted for trolling the beautiful, flat ocean while eating our lunches. Stay tuned for more stories about our afternoon.

John 21:5-7

He (Jesus) called out to them, "Friends, haven't you any fish?"

"No," they answered.

He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some." When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, "It is the Lord," he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water.

by Robin

What a beautiful illustration of going from being OUT of God's will to being IN God's will. The disciples were suppose to wait but they grew tired of that and went out fishing instead. Because they did not obey what Jesus had told them, they caught no fish all night long.

As soon as they obeyed Jesus' words even without really recognizing His face, they had more fish than they could haul into the boat. It is a sign that He alone is the true giver of all things. Even fish obey Him. And as if it wasn't already a great story, for a fisherman, I think it gets better.

There is nothing more that a fisherman wishes for than that day when they catch a huge load of fish. They limit out on numbers, ability to contain, ability to manipulate and ability to bring aboard, much like these men. But, the story takes on new meaning when we see Simon Peter jump into the water to see Jesus. Oh, how their love for Jesus was far greater than their love for that "catch of a lifetime". I do not know many, if any, fishermen that would leave a boat like that for a person. Perhaps many wouldn't even leave their boats for Jesus.

Can I tell you a secret? Our boat would be empty on the best of fishing days if we saw Jesus on the shore. There is something so wonderful about walking, talking & living with Jesus in your life. Fishing is wonderful and we have a lot of great memories. But those memories are fleeting compared to the everlasting joy that we have found and will always have in heaven with Jesus. We take pictures, we post them up, we filet the fish, we eat the fish, but then..... it is all gone. There is nothing sustaining about the joy of fishing. It's more like a drug and the high is not satisfying enough. You've always got to get a bigger fish or a different fish or larger catch. With Jesus, we're just happy FOR fish. LOL. Like Paul said in Philippians 4:12, we've learned to be happy with a little or happy with a lot. The important thing is to put Christ first.

Happy Fishing! We'll be offshore Monday.
Robin

We are a GO!!!!!!! for Monday!!!!!!

Wind 5-10 kts out of the West.

Seas 1 ft

Finally, God is merciful in our favor for good seas. Now, if he will only bring the fishies to us that would be spectacular.

Actually, the seas are going to be great from Sun - Tues with 2 ft seas. Oh and I hate to mention this but we'll be 79-82 deg all weekend.

We started back to school yesterday & today, so I'm looking forward to some R&R offshore with the sun beating down on me. I have many northern friends who do not like the heat and insist they live in the better climate zone. I think the misunderstanding is that they lived in places of stagnant heat when they were in the south, which is different than living in the sub-tropics where you have humid heat & constant coastal breeze. I don't think I've ever heard people complain about Hawaii or the Bahamas like I hear them complain about Florida. My guess is because they spend too much time on the asphalt over at Disney, Universal or Sea World. They really need to visit coastal Florida and I'm convinced they'd change their minds. Originally, I was the biggest skeptic when it came to moving to Florida. Now, you couldn't budge me. How could anybody live without fishing, sun & a salty breeze? It's simply the best.

Happy Fishing!

Robin

CANCELLED, FINISHED, DONE.......2008
by Robin

It seems as though it is not our week to go fishing. Trust me, it was not from the lack of want and willing on my part. Sometimes God blocks things that we really want.

Our Monday trip was cancelled because our fishing partner & friends' daughter suffered 3rd degree burns on her leg from a dirt bike fall- accident. We couldn't fish together since she had to be at a Burn Unit for medical care. We stayed home. It turns out that is was a beautiful fishing day and we had stayed home to clean the back porch. Wednesday looked like the next opportunity to fish.

I did my best to prepare almost all day yesterday since I didn't have to homeschool the boys. I added a gallon of oil, washed the suburban (had to do that regardless), sorted fishing gear & loaded it on the boat, replaced rusty hooks and added new, sharp ones on the poles, shopped for fishing food, including pringles, doughnuts and beef jerky and made 6 hoagies. Oh, I made blocks of ice with old jugs and had them ready in our new deep freeze and bought what bait I could find available. I cleaned off the camera and charged the batteries in hopes of taking photos for the blog and for our own memories. We were in prayer for safety. Our eldest prayed for a keeper snapper and I selfishly prayed for my first mutton snapper. I'm sure Jack prayed for catching a limit of Red Snapper. We all went to bed early with hopes of fish filling the cooler.

BUT, the wind would not cooperate. The front arrived here quicker than predicted originally. Seas have gone from 2.6 ft to almost 4 ft with a short period between waves. It's a washing machine out there this moment and expected to rise to 6 ft waves by nighttime. It is a blessing that Jack had the wisdom to call off the trip. None of want to risk injury and safety for a fish.

We have learned to cut our losses while eating ham & cheese (or tomato & lettuce for me) subs for lunch. The boys even made their own breakfast of white powdered doughnuts while Jack and I slept in a little. Later, Jack decided to pull some overtime at work and I crept back into bed to watch fishing videos with chihuahuas on my side. Yep, it is one of those lazy days, which is perfect for ending a year and anticipating marathon tv watching until we hit 2009. I might even go finish reading my book.

We will ring in the new year with chiming glasses full of sparkling cidar & cheese from a can on crackers, as we hope for better fishing days ahead. There is always Monday, right? We fishermen live by the forecast. Right? LOL

May God bless you and yours in the New Year. Remember, the best peace comes from God.
Robin

More "Economic Downturn" News

http://www.ibimagazine.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20081006135907ibinews.html

Two quotes from the article linked above:
Tracker Marine is closing its Mako Marine International boatbuilding plant in Forest City, North Carolina by the end the year. According to local news sources, the closure will result in 125 job cut.

Tracker will keep its plant operational until January 1, so its workers could keep making money through the holidays.

IRON CHEF secret ingredient- Cobia!

by Robin

http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/6104/cobia-on-the-menu-and-on-tv

"The farm-raised Cobia, developed through a joint venture of MariCal of Portland, Maine and Blue Ridge Aquaculture of Martinsville, Virginia, was selected by Food Network to be the “secret ingredient” on the Iron Chef America episode where British chef Jamie Oliver competed against series regular Iron Chef Mario Batali in Kitchen Stadium."

Cobia have only been "farm-raised" since May 2007.

It is a good thing those were farm-raised fish because I was highly mad when I saw them take undersized cobia from those tanks. In the Atlantic Ocean, our cobia have to be over 33" at the fork to be harvest. Those fish ranged between 18-24".

Oh and as for the one chef's big stink about the scales........um........... I've caught, cleaned, cooked and eaten cobia for the past 6 years. They have SKIN. I have never seen a single scale come off a cobia. I guarantee you, the very next cobia I get my hands on, I will be going over its skin to search for any area that would have scales. I will report it back here ASAP.

(Btw, this cobia was 60+ lbs and wouldn't have fit in that Iron Chef tank.)

PS: Fishing trip has been moved from Mon to Wed. Pray for "S",10 yo fishing girl, 3rd degree burns to her leg from a dirt bike's exhaust pipe falling on her. This is our fishing buddy Mike's daugher, so we may fish out of our own boat, depending on what's going on for their family, hospital, doctors, etc.

GRILLING LESSON with SNAPPER
by Robin

As long as I'm on a cooking posting spree for both my blogs, I might as well post up the pictures I took about 2 wks ago. This was the snapper we caught from our last outing the day after Thanksgiving

Our basic way of marinating involves an olive oil rub, salt, pepper, garlic powder, sometimes Old Bay and I believe this time Jack threw on some Montreal Seasonings, which accounts for those chunky spices. Treat your fish like you would a great steak. At $14.99/ lb (at our local markets), treat it better than steak, treat it like GOLD! Let it sit for 30 min if possible (in a frig). Look at this beautiful filet. It nearly fills the entire plate. All 4 of us ate from this one side of a fish.


Take it out to the grill. Our secret for keeping the fish from sticking to the grill grates is to lightly & carefully put a little cooking spray across the top. Also, don't leave the fish unattended for too long because of flare-ups. Now, most our fish is not fatty, so the flare-up isn't from grease drippings. What it usually is a result of is the butter that Jack puts on top. When that rolls off, YIKES! Be careful. The butter (or Smart Balance) enhances the flavor but increases the odds of a flame.


Here's the butter..... yum. Also, I like to spritz the fish with lime. I make my love for lime no secret. It is to me what butter is to Paula Deen. Enuf said! LOL.


Now, go eat a healthy piece of fish and soak in all those Omega-3- fatty somethings, acids?..... whatever. I only know that it is much better than tryptophan from turkey.

(let me google......) Did you know that Omega-3-fatty acids reduce ADHD symptoms in children? It also slows the buildup of plaque in the heart, lowers blood pressure, reduces the risk of death, heart attack, abnormal heart rhythms, strokes and may benefit brain, joint and digestive health.

We try to have fish weekly, but not much more than that because of the mercury levels in certain fish. Mahi mahi - I'm sure you could eat daily with no harm, but slower growing fish like the cobia, have higher levels.

Happy Fishing! Sunday, we'll be in God's house and Monday, we'll probably be offshore.

TRADITIONAL FOOD
by Robin

Every family has their own traditions for what they like to eat for the holidays. The past few years, our tradition has been to skip the ham & turkey and head right for the seafood. We have a favorite seafood market, Seafood Atlantic, which carries the freshest fish, clams, claws and tails. Yum!

We picked up all the ingredients & seafood on Christmas Eve. Oh and fresh citus fruit is falling from the trees. I love our local oranges & tangerines. I never did use the eggplant. Maybe Friday, I'll fry some thinly breaded eggplant slices.


On the way home, we decided we could make the 5 lbs of snow crabs & almost 3 lbs of shrimp, 8 crab cakes, etc. last over 2 days. We sure did buy a lot of food.

So, we decided to make Shrimp Pasta & Shrimp Cocktail on Christmas Eve. Don't forget to ice your boiled shrimp right away if you want to save some for shrimp cocktail appetizers.




Years ago, Jack had a fastastic recipe he created for the shrimp sauce to go over the pasta. I can't recall the exact ingredients in it, but I know that he put in a lot of Smart Balance (fake butter) and cooking Sherry (or white wine). I prefer the sherry for the sweetness. He adds some spices and in years past, before my joints hated dairy, a lot of parmesian cheese was in the mixture too. Ahhhh.......we're still working on the healthy version of it. (Those were the days back when we could eat unlimited butter, wine & parmesian cheese. I'm popping ant-acids every hour tonight. )



Anyhow, you can see we kept it simple. Use Angel hair because it cooks fast and well.......we like it. Basic Greek salad & garlic bread for a side. The guys had shrimp cocktail as well.


We also like to buy fresh limes even though I keep jugs of the juice in the frig at ALL TIMES! I don't think I used them much this holiday but the kids like to suck on them and I like to put them in my drink.


For Christmas Day, Jack makes a wonderful crab boil broth in the steamer. Again, I don't know what all he does while I'm making the salad & setting the table. I think there is a lot of Old Bay involved. Yesterday's leftover pasta is rewarmed in a sauce pan and more liquid is added. Don't skimp with hitting some microwave buttons. Use real heat!


Speaking of setting the table, we've accrued quite the crab-killing arsenal. Those red things are the bomb and keep your forks from getting destroyed (you know,that one prong that goes out to the side?). We discovered them at a Crab Shack in Green Cove but I think we bought these at Target or something like that.


Jack steams the snow crab legs for a "while". When they are steaming, he makes a buttery/lemon dipping sauce. (My mouth is salvating just typing about it.)


I made another batch of garlic bread........... which we totally forgot to eat after breaking all those crab legs.


Here are the guys digging into the food after grace. That blue bowl in the middle is set up for exoskeletons -LOL. Quick clean-up,too.


Here is a closeup of Christmas Dinner. I also have another salad, fresh avacados in lime juice, and a Pico de gallo for sides.


Traditionally, all seafood meals at this house should be followed by a healthy slice of KeyLime pie. I'm not going to tell you that I make that from scratch. Buy Edwards.......its just as good. Anyhow, we never did get it thawed in time, plus we were stuffed.......again.

And, as if this weren't enough to blog about tonight.......I want to add that we're probably trolling for tuna on Monday with our friends Mike and Helen. Yeah!!

Praying for smooth seas, plenty of tuna steaks (or sushi) and a very Happy Birthday to my Lord & Savior-Jesus,
Robin & family

BLACKFIN TUNA
by Robin

They're here!!! I'm starting to see the first fishing reports come in with blackfin tuna in the pics. While nowhere near the size or as popular as their yellowfin cousins, they still eat just fine in our books. Some mahi are showing back up as they travel back down the coast to warmer waters for the winter. This is all reverse of what happens in the spring.

The N.Right whales have also passed through the area, followed by the cobia. Now, the mahi and blkfin tuna are here. Yipee.

As weather & holidays permit, we'd like to make our next trip primarily a trolling one and try to land some tuna.

Here is a link to some stats on the Blackfin Tuna which are generally in the under 20 lb class.

http://www.centralfloridafishingreport.com/FishProfile/66.html

I have never caught one of these before, but it is time to check them off my list of things to catch. The 2 pictured below were caught in mid-Nov of 2006 by Jack & some friends. They're rather small but still a legal catch in our waters.

Tuesday, we'll be adjusting the new trailer to the Mako's specifics measurements at the river docks. I hope the weather will warm up a bit more in the afternoon. It's getting cold tonight. (Florida cold, that is)



Florida pompano have also been showing up on the beaches all month long. The reason why I haven't gotten any for Christmas dinner is because you have to be fishing as the sun rises, on the cold, windy beach, with a bag full of clams. Between the eye issues, winter cold air and cold symptoms going around each family member, we've not had time to take advantage of this awesome dinner fare.
(Pic from 2004 - Christmas pompano)

Maybe I can talk Jack into it on Christmas Eve. On the way home, we can stop off at Atlantic Seafood Market and pick up the rest of our Christmas feast of snow crab legs, clams & shrimp.


Happy Fishing and most of all, Merry Christmas!!
Robin

NEW TRAILER!!!!
by Robin

Thank you God, Loadmaster, East Coast Trailers, Steve and Lisa.

403 LBS!!! (older news but still remarkable)

We have caught Warsaw grouper before from the 25-40 lbs range. I think I even blogged that they were pretty small, relatively speaking. Well, here's why I called ours small. Here's a big one caught by a spear fisherman. WOW!! I'll let him tell it in his own words. (And to think that Goliath- Jew fish can be double this size!)

Happy Fishing - Robin

Story from Dan McMahon "Head Hunter" on http://www.spearboard.com/. "Do I shoot or do I run?" Pg 9. 6/21/05. You may want to skip the first 8 pages of colorful remarks if you follow the link. That is why I cut/paste for you.

Heres the story on the big warsaw first. Last year, SpearTen, Steve Simkins and I did a dive in 415' on a pinnacle in the 72 Fathom Peaks area. The mission was to finally get the big Warsaw I've wanted all my life. The dive basically sucked, 4 feet of viz and darker than midnight.I spent the last year plotting and planning. New and better equipment, lots of designing and testing of everything. Finally got it all done, planned the trip out and we loaded down HeadHunter with 60 tanks, 10 stage bottles, 4 O2 bottles, 400 gallons of diesel, 3000 lbs of ice and about 5 million pounds of misc equipment. Hell, Kmoose's food and drinks weighed 100 LBS!Along on the trip were myself, Spearten, SimplyScuba, Jazzien, BucketOne and the Moose. We left port Wednesday evening and SpearTen and I did the 425' dive around 11:00 Friday morning. It was a neap tide and I prayed for fish, viz and low current. We got to the wreck, a huge freighter that stood 50 feet high in 425 feet. It had a great fish show on it and we all just kinda stared at the color screen. Kevin Bruington had made me one of his custom buoys (thanks Kev) and we pitched it to the wreck with 32 Lbs of lead. Direct hit! Great! SpearTen and I geared up, 5 tanks, 5 regs and all the other tech gear the dive required. We rolled and began the 3 minute descent. On a deep ocean dive like this, you never know what water conditions are until you descend as they can change every few feet. Perfect conditions!!! Perfect! The wreck came into view around 250 feet and we touched down at 375' on the deck. With no BS, I've never dove in any clearer water anywhere at anytime. You could see 150 feet plus in any direction and it was light and blue, no lights needed.There were a half dozen Warsaws in the 40-100 Lb range close to us when I spotted the monster facing me about 100 feet away. I got my bouyancy trimmed out and he came charging down the wreck towards me. Time began to slow down as many years of effort and dreams all came down to a few seconds. He went into an aggressive mode, changed colors and threw up his dorsal fin. Awesome. Just frigging awesome.I had made a couple of barbless shafts up, sharpened to a 2 inch long needle point. I pointed my 52 inch SS Hornet and slammed a free shaft into the sweet spot. OMG, I almost rolled him. He started shaking back and forth and I slammed shaft number two into his head. I swam over and grabbed him and was thinking OK now WTF. We crashed into the wreck at 397' and I had my hands full. He was still moving around a little and I decided that I didn't want my 46 year old ass tied to this fish at this depth. I put a PH on my kill spike and slammed into his head. I'm not sure now whether it was neccessary or not, but at the time it seemed like the prudent thing to do.

I had been planning on lift bagging him up, but decided to pump air into his mouth and swim him up a few feet. 20 feet up and 10 seconds of pumped air later, he took off and I watched him blast towards the surface. Awesome.I turned and watched SpearTen slam a spear into a 73 Lb Warsaws head and stone it. Great shot! We were a minute under our planned bottom time and decided to head on up. We met Jazzien(our first support diver) at 170 feet and I said "Did you get him?" and he answered that he had watched it blast by him and it should be on the surface. Bucket came free diving down to a hundred feet (thats insane) and wrote out 400 LBS on my slate. We finished up our lenghtly deco as we watched large Wahoo swimming around us in the 84 degree water. Unreal.It took all four of the guys and a block and tackle to get the fish on the boat. We took some pics and headed toward some shallower water. Awesome. What an awesome dive. Theres just too few moments like this in ones life.

I'd like to thank all the guys for their support and efforts to make this happen. A special thanks to Zeagle and Spearfishing Specialities for making the gear that made this possible.A final and very special thanks to my brother-in-law SpearTen, for all his help and work towards making this happen. It takes a lot of guts to roll off a perfectly good boat in 425' with 200 Lbs of steel strapped to your back. I owe you bro.

SANTA APPROVED!!!
by Robin

Well, actually, God & the banks approved. East Coast Trailers (here) is building us a trailer to meet our boat specs and we'll get to pick it up next Monday in St. Petersburg. This picture below is essentially what we're getting.



We are very excited about the prospects of trailering the boat around Florida to new locations. It is a dream that might come true to fish the Keys in our own boat.

Coincidentally, Jack found our exact same boat for sale and it happens to be sitting on the same exact trailer that we're purchasing. So, you'll get to see pretty much what we'll see live in another week.



Btw, this boat would be an excellent purchase for anyone looking to buy our exact set-up and start offshore fishing. I'm going to link you to the owner & pictures here .

There were many reasons for getting a new trailer. Our old one is 21 yrs old. It is falling apart piece by piece.



We had to remove the fenders, which in turn, the tires now send dirt & rocks up into the sides of the boat. Not good... especially after doing the makeover.

God knew that we needed all 4 wheels to have those special brakes in case of emergency braking. This will help save the transmission on our new suburban as well. I'm sure that is what hurt our former transmission, or at least contributed to its downfall.

God also knew that I was beginning to lose faith in our winch. Last time we were out fishing, I had a near-accident happen at the ramp where the boat & winch didn't work right and through a blessing of God, my arm was not in the way of a free-flowing winch crank that could have broke my hand or arm. And as if by miracle of an angel, the winch locked itself at one point during the incident. I cannot explain it away so I won't even try. It's just a miracle how it all happened. I'm happy to be having new equipment.

Last, but not least, we were blessed with a dealer price because fishermen help out one another, especially when they have to move inventory. Thank you Steve, "FishOn", for your fantastic offer. (If you ever happen to see this blog.)

The seas are still high so you'll have to suffer through trailer instead of fishing pictures this week. Now, when our seas are high, we can head south or over to the Gulf and still be able to fish.

Happy Fishing!

WIND DELAY - SEA TURTLES
by Robin

Just to let you know that seas have been building all week. By first of next week, we're looking at 6-9 ft seas!!!

In the meanwhile, I thought that I would mention an article on the deaths of Loggerhead sea turtles.

http://tampabay.com/news/environment/water/article871640.ece

Here are some clips of that article to pique your interest.

"The numbers are pretty alarming," said Tom Wheatley of the Marine Fish Conservation Network. "This is definitely an issue that will require action."Most of the grouper landed in Florida are caught by boats that lay miles of monofilament fishing line, baited with thousands of hooks, across the sea bottom. This fishing method is effective but controversial.

During the study, which lasted a year and a half, federal observers went along on 34 fishing trips and documented 18 hooked sea turtles.

About 90 percent of the world's loggerhead sea turtles nest on Florida's beaches. But in recent years, the number of documented sea turtle nests has steadily declined.


Isn't this awful??!!!

"Longlines are adding to the problem," Witherington added. "The number of loggerhead sea turtles killed in fisheries is significant enough to affect population trends, and lo and behold, we are seeing declining numbers of sea turtle nests. It is a smoking gun, and we have a dead body."

I can tell you from my own experience with fishing off the Atlantic coast that we sometimes come across dead, floating sea turtles. It is a very sombering thing to witness because we know many of these are old veterans who have survived decades, only to be killed by commercial nets or long lines. We are no fans of longlining, so we are happy to see the new findings causing some changes. FYI - Many times, longliners off the Atlantic coasts aren't even American boats. If you've ever watched Whale Wars, you'll read between the lines and figure out who's doing it. Why don't they go to their own waters and rape their side of the ocean. We're doing what we can to save our oceans and then people like this come along and kill indescriminately. It makes me mad and sick at the same time.

Getting off my soapbox.
Robin

FISHERMAN'S CHRISTMAS WISH LIST
by Robin

I'm not sure if we were naughty or nice, but Santa is checking his list. TWICE!!

It has something round on it.

It's long.

It's shiney.

We will just have to see if Santa puts it under the tree.....er the boat for Christmas or not.

RECREATIONAL FISHERMEN VS SAFMC
by Robin

I haven't had time to sit down and write this out before today but it is big news. Fishermen up & down the S,E. Atlantic coast have been doing battle over the holidays to keep the American Red Snapper fisheries open all year-round. The SAFMC (S. Atlantic Fisheries Mgmt Council, I think) had decided to propose closing Snapper fishing January 1st for 4 months, in the Atlantic ocean. If they had gotten this control, then they'd be able to close the entire fishery for 180 days. There are protected species like the Goliath and Nassau groupers but many of us feel like the Snapper stock numbers are not down. This is not necessary. We're already regulated to take only fish over 20" and only 2 per person. That's not many compared to what we throw back each trip.

We are members of a private fishing forum which asked us to please write to the SAFMC about our opinions on their proposal. Between the forum, CFOA and FSFA fishing clubs, we were able to make a big difference. Infact, we have a temporary VICTORY!!!!

The council has decided to let things lie the way they are and revisit the topic again in March. We need your comments!!

Ø What can you do? Go to http://samfc.deep-blue-sea.org/ and tell the SAFMC and your elected officials what you think. It will take less than 5 minutes.

Ø Does it really matter? Public comments regarding this closure were key to the SAFMC tabling this closure at the last meeting. If access to this fishery is important to you, then it really does matter.

Ø Is this really going to happen? Below is the text directly from the SAFMC web site, you read and decide. You can find more information on Red Snapper and the SAFMC at http://SAFMC.deep-blue-sea.org/SAFMC/snapper.htm..

The Council’s intent is to have the interim rule effective by January 1, 2009”. http://www.safmc.net/News/NewsReleases/NewsReleaseSeptember232008/tabid/582/Default.aspx.

Even though these links are older, we still need support for the upcoming March meeting.

Btw, my opinion is also that the Goliath fishery closing should be revisited. I do believe that those numbers are up again and could use some thinning out, possibily seasonally.

Please take a moment to fill out the form.
Happy Fishing!

CEDAR KEY - Part 2
by Robin

I thought that maybe now I had a minute to continue pictures from our Cedar Key trip.

Here is Jack that first night. I love the silhouette.


Day 2 (our only full day), it was very cold. We did have to burn off some boy energy though. We walked half the town and let the boys ride their scooters and play at the playground.


We ended up watching a lot of History Channel's Modern Marvels that afternoon and took naps. We did a little fishing but no fish wanted to move or eat in the cold weather. Here is the view from our window. This is the Brand Spankin' New Cedar Key Pier
.


So, we got ready to hit the Rusty Rim for dinner and get the best seat IN the building to view the sunset. Given these horrid economic times, it wasn't like there was a fight for the best table in town.


Some people chose to sit outside and watch the sunset.


After dinner, I captured this picture from the back deck. I love the star at the top. Something about it reminds me of Bethlehem & a manger.


Here is a picture of the Rusty Rim & bar below, taken from our walk back to our room. Oh, did I mention that we had to walk a full 50 ft to get from restaurant to motel? Sheesh..... how lazy can you be, right? Notice the little dolphin Christmas light on the post? Some places do candles & angels. Cedar Key does dolphins & clams.


On the way back out of town the next morning, I had Jack pull over so I could show why this town was/is such a properous fishing & shellfish town. Here are some oyster beds. Very cool. My Mom bought clams in Atlanta that came from Cedar Key, FL. It's what they do and trust me, they're very sweet tasting.