Getting ready to leave the dock and head out.
The highlight of our trip was our deep sea fishing excursion. It was so overwhelming beautiful being on the water with three great people that are just doing what they love. Chris was our captain and Shawn was our fishing guru. These two led us to the fish, baited our hooks, told us when to cast off, when to reel it in, when to step over and under other poles when we got tangled up, and made the day so enjoyable.
Shawn getting the poles all ready.
We were also lucky to have Chris' fiance', Amanda join us. It was nice talking with her and nice to have another female along to fish.
When we got on the water, it was so incrediably calm. The boys kept commenting on how lucky we were going to be to be on calm water. The pictures that I have from that day are breathtaking but being there in real life was more.
There are no words. I am always awed by nature and when we go on trips, it becomes even more apparent. But this trip was different. This was overwhelming for me at times. The beauty that is out there on the open water and the feeling of having the air all around you as you glide over the water is amazing. I was brought to tears a few times in just how blessed I was to be there at that moment and to be experiencing that day with those people.
We went out quite a ways and then the fish started to show up. We watched for signs like the birds actually sitting on the water picking at fish or anything floating. While we were looking for those signs, we got to see a small pod of pilot whales. Just amazing.
When the first pod of Mahi showed up, it was incrediable. We would cast our line in and within seconds of it hitting the water we had a bite.
We had to take turns letting Shawn get our catches in the boat so we would just hang out, letting the mahi swim along (really being pulled along) our boat.
The mahi would all hang around so we would just keep catching and then casting again, only to catch again. And to see these beautiful fish swim around freely in the ocean was beautiful. They are both beautiful and delicious!
We happened to catch a Barracuda. Nasty little thing!
After catching close to our limit, we decided to try for some Red Snapper.
Letting my line drop down.
These fish were a little different to catch. We first had to get some shallower water. The mahi were in about 800 feet deep water, the snapper were at about 300. Snapper are towards the bottom, so we had to cast our line out and let the 20lb weight pull it down to the bottom. ONce your line started to do it's dance, you had to reel. And reeling something up 300 feet is not easy, AT ALL. It takes forever and some massive arm strength. But we both managed to get them up.
After we caught a few of those we were going to try to catch an Amberjack. I have never seen one of these fish but anything that uses a huge fish as bait, has got to be big. We had one bait fish to use so it was a one time shot. And guess who's turn it was. Yep, mine. We cast it out, let it sink, and waited. As it started to dance I started to reel it up. Man, was this fish heavy. The boys helped me learn how to correctly get this up without breaking their pole. When it surfaced I was shocked. It was HUGE! It turns out it wasn't an Amberjack but a Grouper, which the boys seemed to be just as happy with. This fish looked silly and they told us that as soon as it gets about 50 feet off the bottom of the ocean, its stomach inflates. This is why it has that sticking out of its mouth. I was so proud of myself for sticking with this and felt so good that I caught it.
The trip back into the dock was so relaxing. We both just sat back and made those poor boys do all the work. And man do they ever work hard.
Running your own fishing boat is not easy. We were so amazed at how much work it was and tipped our hats to both of them. Later, as we talked with them, we realized that they were so young and doing a great job owning their own business. They are the best in Key Largo!
We had the best time with them and out on the water. Thank you Chris, Shawn, and Amanda for a fabulous day!
And this is what happens in Key Largo. You carry your catch of the day into any of their restaurants and they cook it for you. Awesome!
Grouper - Jerked and delish
Mahi Tacos - Prepared by me at our condo - simply delish!
No comments:
Post a Comment