Gone Fishing

To combine Steph's need to get out on the water and Adam's desire to catch fish we decided to join a small fishing charter and try our hands at catching dinner. The boat we chose had 10 passengers, a skipper and a mate. Having never been on a fishing charter I did not know what to expect but found this was the fishing equivalent to a dive boat...meaning, you pay them to go on the trip and they do everything for you except cook you dinner. They gave us poles, bated my hooks, fixed snagged lines, pulled the fish off the hook, and finally filleted the fish once back on shore. It was great.

The seas were a little rough and the boat was small, but it was worth it in the end. There were two different styles of fishing, flat-lining (which is off the stern of the boat and fishing with the current) and drop down, reef fishing (off the side and you just drop the line with a weight all the way to the bottom and wait for the fish to bite. Steph tried flat-lining first with no success. The excitement came when one of the guys caught a 6' shark! He put up a good fight and we were happy to see him staying in the water and not coming aboard the ship. They cut him free. Then, we went on to catch Pork Fish or Porgies. Steph caught one giant and Adam came up with five total. The nice thing at the end of the trip the entire boat got to share everyone's catch. Only four of us wanted the fish in the end so we being two of the four went home with several meals.

We enjoyed this experience so much that we chose to go on a second trip, this time with a twice as many people and half the trip price. We caught Snapper and inedible Grunt fish. It was an unbelievable catch day. We dropped our lines, felt a nibble, reeled them in and generally hooked at least one or two fish. They weren't always the ones we wanted to keep, but it was enjoyable none the less. The difference on this trip was at the end you kept only what you caught, but between the two of us we had five Lane Snappers and one Porgie. We probably threw back at least twenty Grunts (they actually do grunt). That was plenty for the two of us. On the ride back to the dock we benefited from a "sunset cruise" watching the full moon come out and the sun go down. Gorgeous!




Pelican Sunset at Robbie's Pier

  Having our fill of fish for the week, we taste tested three different preparations. We liked the pan fried, lightly floured and citrus spiced fish the best. Go figure the third try was the best one. We also tried butter and fresh garlic fish which was just ok. RV cooking tends to be a scaled down version of regular kitchen cooking, and the number of ingredients seem to be proportional to the amount of counter space available of which we have very little. In the end, I learned some cooking skills from my husband who is my personal cooking school on wheels. He also gives good tips in stable kitchens, but those recipes tend to be much more elaborate. I always like recipes with five or fewer ingredients and this is just my speed.

Next we are heading west, but we are not sure if there is any good fishing left on the Gulf side due to the recent and tragic oil spill. So, I may have had my fishing experience for the near future.