Life Detox Week - Day 6

(Today I steal excerpts from my father's journal entry and paraphrase others) Friday, March 05, 2010, 6:00 PM:

We were scheduled for a full day with Captain Jesse Barnett. It was really rough on the run out with very high winds and 5-7 foot waves so that even when we were anchored up it was a struggle to keep your footing. Given the conditions we decided to go with a half-day of fishing. Suprisingly, the day was very productive.

We met our captain at 7:30AM and set out. Eric and I took the front seats, sitting on a padded cooler, and were thoroughly drenched by the time we got there.

We anchored up in about 40 feet of water over the reef, and Captain Jesse put out his chum bag while we geared up with 1/2-ounce jigs tipped with whole, live shrimp. Almost immediately we began hooking up with Blue Runners and good sized Mangrove Snappers. In the end we caught a dozen Blue Runners and 20 very good sized 3-5 pound Mangroves. We also took 6 Mutton Snapper, none of which was big enough to keep, though one of them went into the pond at the Marina. The catch included 3 King Mackerel, the largest being a 20-pounder caught by Eric,


and the other two weighing in at 15 and 10 pounds, respectively. Two Cero Mackerel were taken as well, and one Spanish Mackerel, rounded out the Mackerel catch. We kept the Mangroves (I will be taking them home with me on the plane tomorrow, along with the ones he has already frozen from yesterday).

Our last fish of the day was caught with a pin fish on the bottom - and this one was a 150-pound Nurse Shark! It was a painfully long and difficult fight, and Dad's arms and shoulders are still sore some hours later. In the end we cut the line and sent him on his way.


So our last day—half-day, really—brought us 45 fish: 20 Mangroves, 6 Muttons, 12 Blue Runners, 3 Kings, 2 Ceros, 1 Spanish, and a Nurse Shark. Not a bad way to end the 10th annual Boys’ Week.

As a fun addition to the day we met Breck the Irish Setter - the official guard dog of the Captain Hook Marina in Marathon. He was very playful but most importantly we was wonderful at running off pelicans that tried to take our fish as they were being cleaned.


So no more fishing blogs until next year. Sigh. Back to real life tommorrow including frustrating airports, travel annoyances and eventually job stresses all over again. On the UP side - a beautiful wife, 2 fabulous kids, and at leat the temperature is over 40 degrees so I will be happy for the little things.

Life Detox Week - Day 5

No post yesterday as we took a day off due to the high winds. We certainly made up for it today. Total catch was around 60 fish: 33 mangrove snapper, 7 yellow tail snapper, 4 redfish, 8 grouper (black, red and gag), 1 squirrel fish with poisonous fins,


1 bluerunner, 1 30 pound king mackerel, 2 cero mackerel and 2 Spanish mackerel.


The "almost" catch of the day was an 8 foot hammerhead shark.



Our guides today were Cody and Bucko and these two guys are amazing. They can find fish anywhere and catch anything. They saw the hammerhead swimming and stopped the boat, then took a mackerel we had already caught and put it on a huge hook. Then they tossed that near the huge shark, who promptly ate it. Dad took the first shift on fighting this monster, and I took the second shift. We had him on the line for about 15 minutes before he cut the line with his tail. Imagine pulling on a rope attached to a building - that was what it felt like trying to make this shark come towards the boat. He pulled off about 500 feet of line from the rod before he broke the line. It was definitely an amazing (if brief) battle.

We finished the day with a quick trip to Sister's Creek - a small channel with residences on one side and mangroves on the other. We fished much as you would bass fish - toss the bait as close to the shore as possible and you will likely catch something. We were there 30 minutes and caught 4 redfish (first time catching those for both Eric and myself) and another 5-6 mangrove snappers. A very nice way to finish a day of great fishing.

We took the redfish and yellowtail to a new restaurant and had an amazing meal. We were also treated to a beautiful sunset from our waterside table. All in all a wonderful day and while we are really tired we are ready for tomorrow's fishing. One final note - I have a gallon freezer bag full of mangrove snapper to bring home. Yum!

Life Detox Week - Day 3

We were pretty sure there would be no fishing today, as the big storm was supposed to be coming and the winds were predicted at 25-30MPH. Well the storm never really happened and we were able to fish until noon before the winds made the seas too rough to stay out. On the way back in we got very wet but had a good time regardless.

Today's catch was around 40 fish: 25+ Spanish mackerel, 5 or so bluefish, and about 8 ladyfish. Eric caught a Spanish mackerel that was over 7 pounds which is huge for that species - the Florida record is 12 pounds. Keep in mind these fish have a lot of teeth. Not only can they cut thru wire line, but they will gladly cut your hands as well. Our guide took a few nicks to the hands and we lost about 10 rigs (meaning leader, line and hook) to the sharper toothed fish we hooked up today.

It was an interesting day on the Florida Bay. The waves were were about 2-3 feet high and we were anchored to a rock in the middle of the bay. Having your boat sit still and hitting it with waves for 4 hours can be a challenging fishing experience. We did well anyway, but on the ride back the wind picked-up to 25MPH and we were hitting big waves and getting nice and soaked in the process. Eric has mastered his turtle look. Picture him wearing his gortex jacket and pants, then cranking down this hood till only a small circle of his face is visible. It's not pretty but it helps him stay dry.



We postponed tomorrow's charter until Friday because the wind will be blowing even harder so we decided to take a day off. If the dry land events are noteworthy I will blog them tomorrow. Thursday and Friday we will be bluewater fishing and hopefully have a lot of great pictures and beautiful fish to show you.

Life Detox Week - Day 2

We drove up to Hawk's Cay and met up with our favorite guide Jeff Malone. We started out in some sheltered areas because the wind was blowing hard, but after catching a few mangrove snapper we headed out to Florida Bay where we fished at 7-8 wrecks and reefs. In the process we had a wildlife tour and caught around 100 fish.

We saw a little blue heron, white ibises, double-crested cormorants, seagulls, terns and pelicans. We spotted 2 sea turtles, one of which was a green turtle and the other we couldn't see well enough to tell. We then proceeded to catch blue runners, jack crevalles, bluefish, mangrove snappers, black grouper, red grouper, gag grouper, and Spanish mackerel. We kept 9 of the biggest mangrove snapper and had some of them for dinner. They were prepared blackened, fried and lemon caper. Very yummy.

Eric and I may have sunburned our faces, but otherwise it has been a great day. Hoping for more of the same tomorrow but the weather gods do not appear to be our friends. More to come tomorrow.