Russian Roulette

Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which a "player" places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against their head, and pulls the trigger. "Russian" refers to the supposed country of origin, and roulette to the element of risk-taking and the spinning of the revolver's cylinder being reminiscent of spinning a roulette wheel.

July 3. 2014

Hello everyone.  Happy 4th of July.

Hurricane Arther is directly off the Florida east coast.

Bullet #1.

Hurricane Arther is being upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane and blowing at about 100 mph. It should hit the N.C. coast in a few hours.  Sucks to be them. 

One of the outer bands has been pushing severe weather into the Tallahassee area.

Bullet #2.

At 4:00 a.m. this morning, my entire family is awoken, in the hotel room, from severe lightning, wind and thunder.  We are spending the night in the Wakulla Best Western hotel.  (What can I say, nothing but the best for my family).   We go back to sleep.  However, it IS our intent (okay, my intent) to wake up at 5:50 a.m. and head 20 miles offshore to K Tower for BIG fish.  The "family" is tired of me bringing "big fish" pictures home.  They want to "experience the excitement" of offshore fishing.

In retrospect.  That's funny.

I wish I would have remembered to take a screen shot of my phone at 5:50 a.m. this morning.  From a safety perspective, that is funny.  But I didn't.  However, at about 6 p.m. this evening, I did take a phone screen shot:

See all that red stuff on Tallahassee?  Yeah, well, this morning, it was all at the coast. 

Bullet #3

I know.......  You are thinking what I am, right?

 

TAKE THE FAMILY FISHING!

I'm pretty sure Cameron Paul isn't awake yet.  Delaney Paul, I must say, is being a trooper.  She is better in the morning than Cameron - takes after her Mom. 

So.... family on board.....Wind blowing kinda hard.  Hurricane nearby...... Very hazy... Lightning visible nearby....  Perfect fishing conditions for a bay boat.  What could go wrong?    

Bullet #4

We head out with confidence!  Delaney is learning how to be Captain.  She takes the helm.  Not bad Delaney.  I wish Cameron had taken a picture of you at the wheel.  Being an offshore Captain is difficult.  Taking direction from me (your father) is even more difficult.  I'll give you credit.  You stuck with it.  Nice job.  For those of you don't know her, Delaney is wicked smart.

We head to Trout hole. Terri is immediately on fire.  She catches everything that moves:  Trout, shark (good sized shark), dogfish, mudfish, she kind of catches everything there.

The sun comes out.  Who knew?  I'm thinking we are in the hurricane eye :-)  The wind is still with us, but heck, I like the sun.  Where's the sunscreen?  Lets bring up the lines and head for Rotary Reef about 8 miles offshore.  Screw the weather.  Time to go deeper.  The hurricane can bite me.

We arrive at Rotary Reef.  Damn.  Terri is still on fire.  Who taught Terri how to fish?  Here she is with a Cobia on light tackle:

Obviously, because of the wind and weather, we don't make it to K Tower.   Believe it or not, I am not that much of an idiot.  Its all about safety for my family, right?  For those of you still reading:  I know, you call bullshit... 

Bullet #5. 

We were fishing with small tackle, yet I forgot to tell the hungry, large Cobia that.  Oops.  Sorry family!  "Yes, the rod is supposed to be close to breaking..."  At least there are no water spouts visible like when I took Caroline and Jared fishing. 

Hurricanes are overrated.  I know what I'm doing, right?

We kind of tore up the Cobia (with live bait).  Cameron Paul and I shared this dude:

You can't really see it, but 5 minutes before this photo was taken, Cameron got blood all over him from trying to release a Ladyfish that his Mom caught. Teaches him not to wear white shorts on the boat.  Nice of him to help his Mom though.  Crew members have responsibilities on my boat!  Cameron is good crew.

 I have Cobia scars/punctures on my left arm from this little bastard (the fish, not Cameron).  Wait a minute, is my 17 year old son bigger than me?  Damn.



Perhaps it was the hurricane, perhaps the fish were just swimming around confused from all the wind and lightning, but whatever it was, I must say, that I have never seen such a variety of species caught in a two hour period.  It was Cameron's job to keep track of everything we caught on Rotary Reef, but here is my attempt (and trust me, I may be forgetting a few):

1. Cobia (obviously), we were killing them.

2. Gag grouper (very small, but still....)

3. Ladyfish

4. Mudfish

5. Key West Grunts

6. Shovelhead Sharks (Terri)

7. Pilot fish (the ones that stick on sharks)

8. Salmon (are you really that gullible?  Just wanted to see if you are still reading)

9. Some weird species between a grouper and a grunt (now that is actual fact)

10. White Trout

We returned to Mad Anthony's at the dock, where we had a very nice lunch in the pouring rain and lightning.  We learned that a water spout, the night before at 2 am, had taken out part of their roof, and all the tables had been smashed up against the windows.  Like I said, it was a hell of a storm and... hurricanes are overrated.. And, Captain Hook knows what he is doing....

Have you been keeping track?

In typical, revolver style Russian Roulette, I have one bullet left!

As a family, we managed to safely catch an amazing number of fish amongst high seas, high wind, lightning, rain, a water spout, a nearby hurricane and return to the dock with only superficial scars.

What are you waiting for???  Come fish with me soon. 

I have one bullet left.  :-)

Happy 4th of July, everyone.  Thanks for reading.

Capt'n Hook