SEAFOOD FESTIVAL - Mom and Dad style
by Robin

I might have mentioned a couple of times that my parents were coming this week. When they do, we go all-out on the seafood. I have a LOT of great pictures so the only way I think I'm going to be able to tackle this project is to divide it up over the weekend.

Today's pictures are the prep of the food. Tomorrow, I hope to bring you it fully cooked.

Any good seafood festival starts off with Jack being the chef. He's the BEST!! Growing up in Key West, this is how his family cooked regularly. They had conch, fish, shellfish, along with citrus regularly. So, he's my man in the kitchen!!!


We are passing along the tradition to this generation too. Here is our eldest getting the snow crab legs out. I don't know the poundage, but there were 3 big bags, at least.


My Dad also bought the scallops and calamari rings. LOOK at the size of both those items. It was all very fresh. Ignore the dry seasonings & flour.


Here's a close-up. (Renee....... don't puke)


Here is the calamari rings in the mixture. I'll have to check with Jack if anybody wants the recipe. I believe it was primarily one of those bag mixtures with a little help from Jack.


Here is a way to destroy your kitchen in minutes. Those are empty jars of marinara. We dipped the rings into the marinara - yum.


As soon as the water & Old Bay was boiling, Jack put in the snow crab legs.


Here, you can see they were still frozen but they sure did warm up nicely between the pot & some butter (Smart Balance for those of you who don't know me better.). You can see the Cool Daddy fryer in the background waiting for those rings to be dropped in.


Jack then proceeded to heat up the grill and begin cooking these delicious Florentine Salmon treats I bought at BJ's wholesale. Salmon isn't my favorite fish, but it still was pretty good. I think I could eat florentine anything, except it has mayo which my body did not appreciate.


Stay tuned for tomorrow when you see it all cooked. Oh..... and we have some Royal Red and Rock shrimp on the way too.

NEW RECORD STINGRAY (771 lbs)
by Robin


http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/92308/?fp=1

She's pregnant too!! She was released unharmed after some samples were taken.

MORE PICS
by Robin

Well, I couldn't leave well-enough alone. These pics are too fabulous not to share with the world. This would be one of the main reasons I upgrade cameras in another year or two.

Life is too short not to take great pictures like this. LOL






I must say that there is a law that says you aren't to get within 500 ft of a Right Whale but we have had some swim over by us. If you happen to go to the FSFA forum to look for these pictures, you will see that somebody has a whale calf right off the back corner of his boat. It's one thing to have this accidentally happen but I sure wouldn't go inviting trouble by posting it up. He/She should be very glad that Mama whale didn't see the boat as a threat.

(I'm down in Melbourne today.) See y'all later.

NORTHERN RIGHT WHALES
by Robin



It looks like we have missed the N. Right Whales migrating up the Atlantic coast. Last couple weeks, the fishermen out of Jacksonville (Mayport) have been posting up pictures left and right of whales. One of them (Mark of Middleburg) took this wonderful picture which I am borrowing to show here. He has a great series of pics on the Florida Sportsman Fishing Forum (NE fishing reports). Great photography.

Anyhow, I hope that we still get to see one or two before spring/summer arrives. I missed last year's migration too because we were still completing the boat restoration.

The seas have been kicked up to 3-5 ft last week and this upcoming week. My parents are coming into town tomorrow night but I think the weather is going to prevent us from doing any offshore fishing. We'll be lucky if we even get a river ride. What we do intend on doing besides visiting with each other is eating SEAFOOD. Yum.

I will post up some delicious dinners here next week. I believe Snow crab, clams, shrimp, fish, crabcakes and lots of limes are on the menu. (I bought a whole sack of limes & two tubs of Smart Balance.)

Must run and complete a lot of laundry & tidying up the guest room before they get here.

Happy Fishing if you can safely get your craft offshore!
(Pompano are still running the Canaveral National Seashore)

Edited to add: Lowrance did get the new fishfinder here on time and .......... be surprised.... it works!

Not a Happy Camper
by Robin


Well, on the homefront, I'm pretty good, but as far as fishing-related stuff....... I'm not happy. Neither is Capt. Jack.

We received our new Lowrance fish finder in the mail after waiting 5 weeks for them to not fix the old one and replace it. Jack was so excited that he got off of work *on time* and couldn't wait to pop it in and turn it on.

It ran for all of 4 minutes and then the screen went gray, essentially dying. Can you say, "Blood Pressure Medication?" No seriously, I dialed Lowrance and Jack made the long 30 min wait to get to a human.

In short, Lowrance has 48 hrs to get a new machine shipped overnight to us before I say more. My parents are coming this weekend and we need a depth reader for the river ride we intend to take.

For now, I'm going to sit outside and school the kids so I can absorb in every sunshine ray that I can before we get another cold wave this weekend.

Happy Fishing!
Robin

Happy Valentine's Day

....... to my Sweetie.

I'm yours.... hook, line and sinker.

Love,

Robin

WHEN is COBIA SEASON??
by Robin


Well, that is a good question and there are some signs that can help you to determine when to start heading out to hunt for your cobia out of Port Canaveral.

(Jack with his 43 lb cobia in 2007)


While we have cobia here close to year-round, mostly those caught in the "off" season are taken while bottom fishing off of nice ledges or wrecks. Many times, we get a nice bonus cobia in January or May because they've hung around our area, but are staying warm with the water temps at the sea floor. That is how Jack and I caught my big 60+ lb cobia last May while snapper fishing.

However, sight-fishing for cobia is a lot of fun. You don't have to get up at the crack of dawn. The days are warm and you need a lot of sun to find the fish. The water is usually flat or waves come in gentle swells. Our family always enjoys the all-to-short season when I hop on top of the cuddy cabin and spot cobia for Jack to cast to. I enjoy being the spotter and he's a waaaay better caster.



Sight-fishing for cobia can be broken down into two ways. One is obvious, you see them free swimming either alone or with small groupings. Sometimes they spook if they've seen too many fishermen already that day or sometimes they will hang around because they're curious.

The other fun way to find your cobia is when they're hanging around other marine life. I've heard you can find them under turtles but we haven't had that pleasure yet.

(Small manta with no cobia on the back, right below our bow - pic taken in 2006)


BUT, we have the most fun chasing down manta rays and checking their backs for cobia hitching a ride. This is so much fun and yet frustrating because those mantas get wise to boats following them and they dive down for a while and might pop up several hundred feet away. If you're stealthy enough, you can slowly cruise up behind or beside the mantas without disturbing their "flight" and cast ahead of them. This gives the cobia time to swim off their backs, take the jig and then you be in a good fight while the manta swims off totally unharmed and unphased.

(Here is a pair of mantas with cobia--you can barely see the brown blip above the right cobia's shoulders)


Many years ago, I tried my best to cast in front of a manta and ended up not moving the jig fast enough before the manta swam into it. I thought I had a fantastic cobia on the end of my jig but all that excitement disappeared when we realized we were being dragged out to sea by my catching a manta instead of a cobia. Oh no. Jack had to recover as much line as possible and then cut it once we got close to the manta.

How do you know when to start sight-fishing for cobia? One of the old fisherman's saying is to watch for the azaleas to bloom.




I've had a couple bloom in the yard this week.

Secondly, we watch the sea surface temps to rise up to the magic number of 70 (give or take a degree). Here is a sea surface chart from last week. See how right below the Cape, you'll see more of a blue/green look?


You're waiting for that to turn yellow/orange. We're getting closer but still not there today. I believer we're going to have an early cobia run this year.


Once that happens, get the boat gassed up and dust off your chartreusse jig. You're ready for cobia season.

Happy Fishing!!
Robin

FAMILY DAY @ THE BEACH......
...ending in a fish fry!!!

by Robin


After this past month's hard freezes, we really need a day in the sun. I don't think we made it up to the 70's but it sure felt good to be in the sun and not in the house. This is the way we got to the beach without getting all sorts of sand in our shoes & car!



We let our eldest drive out of the Port all the time while Jack and I do the setting up of equipment. There wasn't too much for me to do this time, so I took some pictures.

Little man went to the front of the boat and kept an eye out for surface fish, pelagics. Also, we had a perfect view out of the port of a shrimp boat with its arms extended out.


Once out of Port Canaveral, we made a hard right turn down the beaches and headed towards Patrick Airforce Base beaches. We were hoping to see some manta rays or cobia, but dolphin are an exciting thing to see as well. Sorry for the graininess. The dolphins were at a distance and I cropped the photo so you could even tell what they are.


They were probably traveling in a pod of a dozen or more. I missed the big "money shot" closer to the boat. Sigh. He jumped slightly out of the water. I was not prepared --shame on me.

My sons told me I should have has the movie setting on and then I could have caught something better than above, but not quite like this stampede in the video below.



We anchored up once we arrived to Patrick AFB and got our shrimp out.


Hooks in! My eldest caught the first fish, a whiting. (Little man is below)


We changed up spots because we were basically getting nothing here. We moved up a couple miles to the Indiatlantic beach. Jack got us a little closer in to the beach. We were right behind the first wave break. It took about 30 minutes of casting for one of us to find the exact place of the underwater trough and then we all started catching fish. As you can see, I found the trough first. It paid off with a small, but delicious pompano. We also caught so many whiting that we ended up throwing a bunch back.


At one point, I thought I had this huge fish (maybe shark) on my line and enjoyed a good fight on light tackle. Unfortunately, it was this rather large Southern Stingray who tried his best to whip Jack as he pulled the hook.


I began to get nauseated from the wave action and begged the family to please head home. Good thing we already had enough for our fish fry last night.


The guys were so good to do most the boat cleaning while I put up stuff. By this point, my nausea was completely gone and hunger set in.


I know this is a Foodie Nightmare, but we had cornmeal coated fish (think catfish dinner), with cornbread and corn for sides. Thank goodness for applesauce, right? (Oh, for those of you who know I do my best to follow veganism plus fish & eggs.... the cornbread is made with Dream rice milk & vegan Smart Balance.) Either way, it was delicious and I stuffed myself silly.


The other report is that we did not see a sign of whales, cobia or manta rays. The waves were low, but wind wave kicked up pretty good as the day went along. Beach water is always green & stirred up. Lots of rip currents. I was hoping for a lot of warmth, but the wind was still cold. The kids have pink cheeks though.


Happy Fishing (or Going to the Beach!)
Robin

EXPLORING
by Robin

Heading out in a few minutes with some sandwiches. Looking for whales, cobia, mantas and tripletails.

I'll report back if we find anything cool.

PICTURES OF THE WEEK
by Robin

My friend Pam took these at the end of last month. We were heading over to Grills for dinner and came across a dive boat coming off the water. The divers were nice enough to let my kids pose with their spectacular catch.

These are NICE spiny lobsters.

OVERVIEW in CIVICS on WEDNESDAY
by Robin

As soon as lunch was over, I got showered and dressed nicely for heading over to the Doubletree Hotel to listen to the discussion over our S. Atlantic fishery. My boys warned me that I didn't need a shower. Afterall, it was just "a bunch of fishermen". Out of the mouthes of babes.......

How smart are my children!! Here I was thinking of making a good first impression, almost job interview-like in my thinking. Then, reality started kicking in not long after fishermen started pouring in the door. We were early so we had a seat in an inner lobby area so escape the bitter cool air at the sliding doors. When I came back around to pick up my paperwork (attendance & agenda stuff), there was a line nearly out the door of men with plaid shirts, jeans with holes, worker rubber boots, wind-blown, salty hair and faces that hadn't seen a razor blade in 48 hrs. It was a little scary. At one point, a little brunette woman peaked through the shoulders of men and we instantly smiled as if to have a sigh of relief that the othe was not alone in this sea of stinky fishermen.

One man stood out in the crowd and I did end up pegging him right as "Dave" from our favorite fishing forum. He was clean-cut and well-dressed and while he had a beard, it didn't seem to have lunch in it. LOL. I also could see Jack's coworker heading for the door. John C was part of the husband/wife team that we buddy-boated with several months ago (Aug, I believe). We chit-chatted for a while but I knew that his goal wasn't to hang around with a woman with two kids in tow. So, after a while, I was on my own.

One of the seminars about Catch Limits started to begin and the lobby grew quieter. I grabbed up the kids, paperwork, books and pencils and we headed for the back of that room where they could lay across the floor completing 5-digit multiplication and reading. Can you say awkward? These guys literally stepped off the boat and here I walk in with kids, all cleaned up. I felt a little bit like that Jimmy Buffet song, "Sharks to the left, Sharks to the right, and you're the only bait in town." Honestly, though, nobody hit on me or even took a 2nd look but they must have wondered what in the world was I doing there. I had a couple read my pink cap that read, "Offshore Fishing".

I was amazed at the knowledge and arguments out of one of the older gentlemen. If I had seen him on the street, I would have pegged him for a begger with the bare bones reading skills, BUT, I was SOOOOOOOO wrong. Shame on me for judging his outside first. He was citing research and naming names. He held his own against the young, clean-cut somebody (councilman?) who was giving the talking points lecture. Earlier in the day, I had read Psalm 131 which spoke on not having a haughty heart nor lofty eyes. I decided to keep my mouth shut and just learn from the ol' salts. Most of them were crabbers & kingfishermen, some I had seen come into the docks in recent months.

When I realized the speaker was nearing the end of his PowerPoint presentation, I gathered my crew and we stepped out quietly. I ran into Dave and John C once again in the lobby. I was sitting on the fence about giving any sort of testimony in another room down the hallway. Dave reassured me that I would be in & out of there in two minutes if I simple read the outline he had created to simplify the amendment challenges and changes. I grabbed a copy, place the boys in the chairs in the hallway and then walked the "green mile" to the room where I took a seat quietly.

There were 4 other people in there. A room attendant working the recorder & laptop of info. The councilman who came with his very own name plate reading George Geiger. Then, there was a very quiet, unassuming young lady in the back corner of the room who listened intently and took notes occasionally. I'm taking a wild guess but possibly she was some sort of newspaper reporter. In the "hot seat" with the microphone on was an internet friend & fishing buddy of Jack's, JohnB. I had only briefly seen him at the docks once but knew his face from pictures of fish in his hands. He is the owner, or benevolent dictator as he likes to joke, of the fishing forum that we enjoy so much. JohnB and George G have met before today. They have a bit of a history and from my take of it, not a favorable one.

JohnB and Dave (fishing friends) journeyed all the way to N. Carolina to fight the SAFMC & George G a couple months ago. They had had rounds and rounds of words before. This day was nothing more than another round where neither contender had won, nor had they given in. The other JohnC and Dave joined in at some point at the back of the room. At one point, the mic was turned off and direct questions were asked. The gloves were off. Veins popped out. Blood pressures rose. It was a bit nerve-wracking for me as I contemplating digging a hole in the proverbial sand and sticking not just my whole head in but body too.

What was I doing here? What was I thinking? Reading bullet points? Ummm, I didn't stand a chance. I didn't have a speck of knowledge at the level these two were professionally arguing. I was the coyote amongst two roadrunners and the ACME anvil was falling fast. What do I do? Slither out in front of my husband's fishing friends and coworker making a fool of myself. Or stay there, trying to speak about something over my head and make a fool out of myself. Either way, I feel like I was going to make a fool of myself and probably be watercooler fodder by next morning.

What did I do?? Close my eyes.

Yep, I closed my eyes and cried out within the confines of my soul for the Father's wisdom. Simple. Yep, simple came to mind. The title to Psalm 131 from earlier that morning. "Simple Trust in the Lord." Ok.... that was my plan. Keep it simple Robin. Wait. Simple what? "God, simple what?? You need to give me more than that." So, I took a deep breath as if to fake patience and peace. Then, He planted another thought in my mind. Months and months ago, I took a Contagious Christian class where one week we focused on telling "your story" in a couple minutes or less. The simple message of that week was the nobody can ever argue with your testimony-- your story. If Christ changed your life and you're a living testimony, then people can't seem to argue with that (as opposed to hitting them over the head with 100 Bible verses). I took that and applied that to fishing. I obviously couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper bag, so I was going to give my story, my eye-witness testimony and a little bit of Mama's common sense to the councilman.

After all three gentlemen were finished and thoroughly satisfied with agreeing to disagree and something about "you can have my seat in 2 years", I was up next. Fortunately, both Johns and Dave left the room together, leaving me with George G. Oh and unfortunately, a small gathering of other waiters had now filled the seats. I was still out of my comfort zone even with a game plan. How smart were they? How many would think I was stupid? Who would stereotype me as __________? (fill in the blank with whatever they wanted to think) I was stuck now. All eyes were on me and the microphone was turned on.

I had Dave's cheat-sheets in front of me and I began to follow them as if I couldn't remember how to state my own name and number of years that I had fished the East Coast. "Simple, Robin" kept running through my head. I started humbly noting that I didn't come nearly as prepared as the man before me. I didn't have facts and statistics, but what I was WAS "the wife of a fishermen, daughter of a fishermen and mom of two fishermen. I came to speak mostly on behalf of my children so they might have a future fishing." I skipped a point about Golden tilefish since I've never caught one. I object to black sea bass pots, saying something about it being good common sense that it was more harmful than good. I gave my story about how I had seen Red Snapper go from 15"-18" regularly to getting keepers regularly. I reminded him that in his previous argument, he admitted the data they use to make regulations is 5 years old, at best. I wanted to tell him that we're seeing an increase in size and numbers of fish. They need better and more accurate data, which was another amendment challenge.

I skipped a page on another amendment and didn't bother to argue coral and so forth. Most of those things, nobody had arguments about. I did want to touch on the last page that was filled with bag limits, size limits, area closings and seasonal closings. I went through most the basic points that were on the cheat sheet but felt I had lost the interest of the councilman, so I went back to speaking from the heart. We didn't abuse the fishing stocks. We don't use longlines (which need to be illegal for indescriminate killing), or nets (killing juvenile offshore fish while looking for shrimp) or pots (which kill indescrimately everything from other reef species to entangling whales & shark). We follow regulations and feel the recreational angler is being punished because we have the smaller voice & couldn't compete against the deep pockets of the commercial fishery. If we had to follow stricter rules, I wanted the commercial folks to be limited too. Otherwise, we were being punished for no good reason.

Afterwards, George thanked me for coming and my time was over. No arguments and no snarls. Just over. No applause and no movie will be made of my testimony. It really lacked the climatic ending I can only dream about in hindsight, but it was done. I did what I came for. The courage of a mother showed up in order to preserve a future for her children. Now that was something I could walk away proud for doing. I can only hope that one day my children will read the archives of this blog on some dusty external hard drive and see a woman who fought for her rights because she believed in something.

Thank you if you even made it this far in reading this. I don't expect many will, but then again, that wasn't the point of my writing this.

Happy Fishing!
Tomorrow will be a great day on the water, but I'll be singing for God.
Robin

PS: We're still waiting on a fish finder anyhow. :o(

CIVICS CLASS 101

by Robin

Teach your kids to fight for their rights!! especially if it involves fishing!!

In a few hours, the boys and I will be amongst hundred of recreational fishermen in a heated public hearing & scoping meeting with the South Atlantic Fisheries Marine Council.

I never once thought I'd ever be the activist type when I was growing up. But here I am, at 41 yrs of age, fighting for many causes. I fight for the unborn & child protection laws. I fight against Congress at times (signed a petition yesterday). I fight for my right to homeschool. I fight against filthy commercials that can be seen by children. And now, I can add to my list, fighting for the recreational angler's right to fish. We don't have lobbyists. We don't have deep pockets like some commercial folks or "green"-type organizations that don't want anything killed. We have to use our presence & voices to make ourselves known.

Please say a prayer for us, as a family and as a community.

Happy Fishing!

Robin

SAFMC MEETING!!!! - speak up!!

Wednesday, Februar y 4th- Cocoa Beach - 3pm to 7pmDoubletree Hotel2080 N. Atlantic Avenue (A1A)Cocoa Beach, FL321-783-9222


The 100 Fathom Fishing Club is planning on having several representatives at each meeting. It will be interesting to have the chance to pin down the traitorous George Geiger, the voting SAFMC Council member who supposedly represents Florida recreational fishermen interests on the council.


Try to make it to one of these meetings to make your opinions known.
You also have until 5pm, February 6th to fax your opinions to SAFMC World Galactic Headquarters in Charleston, SC. The fax number is 843-769-4520

HUNT FOR BIG FISH
by Robin

(double-posting day)

Last night, Jack and I discovered a new channel with a new show. Versus County (#151 for Dish Network folks) is playing a program called, "Hunt for Big Fish" with Larry Dahlberg. We watched one on sailfishing in Guatemala, Columbia Peacock bass and another on Marlin fishing.

Well, it was great because anything offshore fishing is nice to see (for us). However, I will say there are spots in the show, especially the offshore ones, where the guy is just reeling and reeling. No commentary. No music. Then, a deckhand rushes in and cuts the line. You barely get to see the fish. Now, this is great for the fish, don't get me wrong. But, it doesn't make great tv. We were also unimpressed that he said, "Dumb fish" while reeling in a big sailfish. I don't think I've heard Jose' Wejebe (Spanish Fly) say something like that.

The had some fantastic underwater footage of a sailfish about to take a bait and then they cut away from it to show a top of the water shot. Ugh.... we were both disappointed. We'd really like to see what it looks like from below-- but that's just our 2 cents.

When I googled to see if I could find out more about this channel and show, all the links come up, "This may harm your computer." What's that about?

http://www.versuscountry.com/showpage.aspx?sid=53 Here is a good link that will show you various video footage of his shows.

I'll probably watch more shows but I'd like to know what others think of this new show.

ALERT, ALERT
by Robin

The SAFMC is trying to close fisheries down again. It is a big deal to recreational fishermen because we already have such strict limitations on our catches. We have seen several species come back with good fishery management. If you're a recreational fishermen and see this link, please click on it. Our friend, JohnB, owns the Deep-Blue-Sea forum and has provided all the necessary information & wording (if necessary) for those who want to fish this type of unnecessary legislation. Mostly, they just need people to write in & give them some basic info about your port & fishing preferences. John has done the rest of the work and then it gets sent to several SAFMC board members and Gov Charlie Crist.

Thanks for your time. - Robin

Please forward this link to your fellow anglers

http://www.deep-blue-sea.org:8080/examples/servlet/SAFMC_Comments

Any questions regarding this site or further information on SAFMC actions may be forwarded to SAFMC@Deep-Blue-Sea.org

Tight Lines and smooth seas From Deep-Blue-Sea.org

GRILLED WARSAW GROUPER
by Robin

Many times, I like to take you from fish to plate. Today is no different.

Back in early August, Jack, the kids and I went buddy boating with a coworker, John and his wife. Buddy boating is when we keep tabs on each other's whereabouts but don't fish on top of each other. We met up a couple times that day when each of us had found some fish.

We had a blast catching our first sailfish, some dolphin and then headed deep (225 ft) where Jack almost had a heart attack bringing in this Warsaw Grouper. I can't remember the exact weight, but I think it was roughly 25 lbs.





Well, we were hungry for fish and it was time to eat up some older frozen stuff before it went bad. I love cooking as a family. I worked on the veggies and other sides while Jack and our eldest seasoned the grouper & took it to the grill.



Here is a close-up of those steaks (fish). Oh yum!! Jack tried a new Cajun spice on there and while the guys loved it, it was a sinus-thrill for me. When grilling, it is important to get a little crunchy outside which holds in the moisture but also enhances the experience (our opinion!).


Now, be sure that your fish is flakey white and not raw on the inside. These were thick steaks so we had to take our time to cook thoroughly yet not char the outside. Jack is a great griller.

The guys had other starchy sides but I'm trying to stick better to my veggies, hence the asparagus and salad. I couldn't resist one biscuit with honey on top. It's my guilty pleasure. LOL


I hope you've enjoyed this post. I'm hoping that soon we'll be out fishing again. We have free Mondays the 2nd and 9th if the weather will cooperate with us. (pray)

Happy Fishing!!

On Hold.....

with Lowrance. I have got to complain that they have the WORST customer service I've ever seen. If you go on their website, they make it hard for you to get their phone number. Once you get the number and push the button for technical, you get a message that says they'll call you back in 48 hrs. Then, I called again and am waiting to speak with a representative. It's only been 15 minutes so far. If it is anything like Jack's wait a couple weeks ago, I've got 45 minutes to go.

By the way, you cannot send anything into the factory without calling them first and getting the precious RA #. Supposedly, you can get one on the website but it's down for "technical servicing". Call the number, it's the recording. This STINKS!!

While we like the Lowrance product, I'm not sure we'd buy another one just based on their terrible customer service.

E'nuf said........ Happy Fishing for those of you who aren't freezing.
Robin

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY
by Robin

Only because I don't think I could stand to see the fish finder pic up another day.

May 08 - Me and Little Man, our 1st Sea Trial post makeover.




Summer 08 - Big boy learning to filet a Black Sea Bass

FISH FINDER - Explained
by Robin



It occurred to me last night that I may have left a few of you hanging. I posted up this display of fish on the fish finder. Gee, I expect you to be able to read that like I am able to read Chinese symbols. First let me start by explaining that the bottom is the red/yellow at the bottom of the screen. I'll explain the broken stuff below. The depth of the water it 78.6 ft deep. Water temperature is 75.2 at the water's surface. That's pretty warm for winter in Florida. Sometimes water temps at the bottom can greatly vary. When it becomes super-cold on the bottom, but warm on top, that's called a Thermocline. Many fishermen grab their sinkers to determine cold temps to check for this.

Anyhow, Jack sat down and explained more of it to me last night because afterall, nothing looks just like it does in the manual. Some things need to be passed down by mouth rather than ink & paper. First, let me post up the same picture but with text & arrows to help explain.


This particular bottom, we see all the regular fish are here, but we were only picking up black sea bass and 1 trigger. For whatever reason, we were unble to pull in those bigger snapper. I do think I picked up a couple smaller snapper, but nothing legal to keep. A bigger fish will sometimes display an arch which is a reading of their swim bladder. I don't have a picture of that, but will do my best once we get our new fish finder to take some more photos of bottom & fish. We'll hold another class in the future. Stay tuned.

I rummaged through old photos and found a great example of a Black Sea bass the my son caught. They are voracious eaters and taste great because of their white tender filets. (Did you notice the nice saltist bottom reel? Just seeing if you're paying attention.)



Here is our son holding up his recent legal snapper catch from last week.


Does that help?

Happy Fishing y'all!

OUR ARSENAL
by Robin

Not many people actually ask us what type of gear we fish with but I was noticing that I receive a lot of google hits for different types of fishing gear that I mention. So, I'm going to make a collective, fairly boring, blog of what we are using, more as a reference.

Being offshore fishermen, we need heavy-duty equipment to withstand saltwater, sun and torture from large fish. Our unspoke goal is to bring in fish of 5 lbs or greater into the boat. Sure, we catch a lot that aren't that, but our target species generally range from 5 - 60 lbs. That's a pretty big range, I understand. I guess that is why we have a wide range of rod/reel combos that we put on the boat each time we head out.

First, let's start with the kids' poles. We have about 3 different kids poles. Two are Zebco's (Tiger & Cobalt Blue Firebird) which work really nice for inshore or smaller reef fish. This is primarily little man's territory. We did invest in a better light spinner for our eldest this winter. It's called a WAVE 4000. Nice light action pole about 6.5 ft. This is our back-up for tripletail. I can't recall but I'm guessing they're loaded with 12 or 20 lb monofilament.


Next, we have the big boys - Shimano Baitrunners 6500. These are very nice spinners even though they look beat up. We have caught many nice mahi, cobia & tripletail on these. These reels sit on 6 ft. Shakespeare Tidewater poles. We've recently respooled these with Trilene 30 lbs in dark green. Shimano makes a nice 4500 that we've seen a lot of in fishing pictures.



When we bottom fish for snapper or grouper, we like the Daiwa Saltists. We have the Torque and High Speed types and I love them both. Our life got much easier when we switched over to these. These can double for trolling reels, but they best perform when used for bottom fishing. We've got these sitting on 6 ft Shakespeare Sturdy sticks - Heavy duty.



Again, you can see the Trilene, 30 lbs. We replaced last year's PowerPro braid because we really weren't happy with the number of break-offs we were having during trolling season. Braid has pros & cons. Love the strength, hate the lack of stretch that you sometimes need to keep from losing a fish.

Here is our older rod/reel combo - Daiwa Sealine.

It has been beat-up badly over the years but I still like it. When the guys were fishing the Powerpro on the Saltists, I was enjoying the monofilament on my Sealine. That also helped us make the decision to go back to monofilament.


Today, we invested in a new trolling rod/reel combo. It was an impulse buy but something that we were beginning to research and decided we would need to invest in at some time in the future. There it was. Calling our name. I knew we wouldn't walk out of that store without it. As money allows, we're going to pick up its twin sister. (ha ha)


Trolling rods! Trolling rods are important because they have rollers. Rollers allow that line to zip off easily as the wahoo or tuna makes a run. We officially have our first Blue Diamond roller rod, 6 ft. It looks wonderful and we hope to see it pay off on the ocean. Attached to it is the Okuma Titus Lever Drag - T30. This is a bad boy!!! (By that, I mean really awesome.) We loaded it with 500 yds, Trilene, 30 lbs, dark green (sound familiar?).


Whatever you do, if you go offshore fishing, do not forget your gaff for big fish. Be careful!! They're meant to pierce through flesh with ease!



And if you're going cobia fishing, don't forget a small bat for ..........well........ I hate to say it in a public setting, but....... for quickly killing your fish. I never really thought it was necessary until we brought in our 60 lb cobia in May 08. Sixty pounds of fury on your boat is no fun and it is downright dangerous. These fish save their fight for once they are IN the boat with you. Jack did his best to sever the spinal cord with a knife but the knife broke (and the blade went flinging). Not good. The best we could try to do is grab the tail with a rope and Jack keep the gaff in the shoulders before trying to put him into the cooler. Ummm, the only problem was that the tail was much faster than my eyes and I got tail-slapped twice. In the mouth. (Stop that. Stop laughing! It's not funny. It hurt.) I can only tell you that it would have been much more humane to put him and ME out of our misery.



So, that is our arsenal of gear to pull in our fish that you see on this blog. When I was a teenager, my parents warned me about being "horse poor". My horse would end up taking all my money and I'd be penniless. Well, they were so wrong. It's not horses that I spend my money on. It's fishing and fishing gear and boats and bait and ............

Happy Fishing!
Robin