Kids and Fishing

March, 2018

I like to read a variety of boating and fishing magazines. Who would have guessed, right? Somehow or another, these magazines have found me as they continue to send me free issues.  I'm really not sure what I have done to warrant free magazines, but hey, I like free stuff.  In fact, my two favorite types of beer are: free and cold.

In one of the articles in this month's magazine of  Power & MotorYacht, the publisher, Daniel Harding Jr, talks about the dearth of young people who fish.  Apparently, only old guys (like me) are fishing. According to the article's author, most young people aren't getting outside as much and tend to spend more time inside with their phones and video games.  Since I have children of my own, it is very difficult for me to argue with that logic. The author challenged us old guys to make an effort to take these "outdoor-challenged" kids out fishing.

So a few months ago, when a friend of mine from volleyball, Dave, called me and said his teenage daughter really wanted to go offshore fishing, I was more than happy to schedule a special trip for them.  Her 16th birthday was in March, thus we selected a March weekend for our trip.  March tends to be windy out there, so the odds were against us to succeed.  Nonetheless, we picked a weekend and hoped for the best.  That weekend was last weekend.

Sam brought SJ ("Sam Jr - who has grown a foot since last year"), so I had crew members to assist.  It is always nice to have experienced crew on the boat.

We left the dock promptly at 8 a.m.  Forecast was sunny and calling for 2-3 ft seas.  Not bad.  I have learned from experience though that I should double the sea forecast.  So I am actually expecting seas between 4-6 ft.  Trust me - this practice is more accurate then not.  Our destination:  V Tower - 42 miles offshore.  Absolutely EVERY DAMN SPECIES is closed, so we can't keep a single fish we catch.  (Don't get me started) on the ridiculous fish rules.

On the way out, I decided to do a quick run across Oar Reef since we go right over it anyway.  We are only trolling for about two minutes, when the birthday girl "Meagan" catches this nice gag grouper:

26 inches.  Great looking fish.  Man, that would make an excellent dinner!  (Don't get me started).  Back in he goes.

We keep heading farther offshore.  An hour later, we reach V Tower.  There is one other boat out here - so we do have company.  They seem to be having fun catching fish also knowing that they can't keep anything.  Well, at least I am assuming they aren't keeping anything.  I'm not sure everyone plays by the rules.  Still, the fines for NOT playing by the rules are pretty steep - steeper for me as I would lose my license.  We watch them throw back all the snapper and Amberjack they catch.  So apparently, they are also playing by the messed-up rules. (Don't get me started)

For the first 20 minutes, we don't catch anything.  This is frustrating since the boat quite near us is catching fish.  Since I have now fished V Tower numerous times, I actually do have a favorite "spot" near the tower.  It isn't far from where we are fishing, probably only 75 yards, but nonetheless, I decide to drift over there.  We start fishing again.

Um, yeah.  For the next couple of hours, we kill it.  First up, some small snappers, groupers and AmberJacks.  We don't take pictures of every single fish, but here are a few:

 Samia with a nice, small AmberJack. 
(I called her "CE"/ pronounced SEE cause she has such cool eyes - get it?)

 SJ with a nice red snapper . We caught LOTS of those.  They are everywhere.

 Oh, we caught more Gag Groupers also.  Here is smiling Sasha with a small and colorful one. 

(I called her Sasha cause that is her name).

CE with another AmberJack. 

I should also mention that she was the best-dressed on the boat as her "matching fishing ensemble" was quite impressive.

Red Snapper for everyone.  Sam doesn't like them looking at him.  No CE ums. :-)

Sam, as always, does a wonderful job all day helping the kids/teenagers and instructing.  I can't thank him enough for being such a great friend and crew member.

Back in the Gulf they ALL go.  (Don't get me started.)

Everyone is having a great time catching fish snapper and gag grouper.  Then things get a little more interesting.  Drum roll, please.  

The birthday girl catches the biggest AmberJack that has ever been on my boat - and I have had a LOT of AmberJack on my vessel.  We measured it at 39 inches.  That is a big damn AmberJack.  I didn't time her, but it took her at least twenty minutes to get this monster into the boat.  Bless her heart, she was so exhausted from bringing this fish in that she was shaking like a leaf as she tried to hold it up.  Here it is:

Happy Birthday Meagan!  Nice fish dear.  35 pounds.  I hope you get this picture framed.  If you do, make sure you also use the Capt'n Hook logo! :-)  Sorry, no, we don't get to keep him.  Back in he goes.  (Don't get me started.)

Now I have bad news for the birthday girl.  It, apparently, is Sasha's turn.   Just a few minutes after Meagan brings in her huge Amber and although Sasha did not fight this fish quite as long as Meagan did, I have analyzed the photos and I know that this fish was 40 inches at 40 pounds.  Um, very sorry, but this is now the LARGEST AmberJack on the Capt'n Hook vessel:

Monster AmberJack!

As you can see, even Sam is having trouble holding on to this whale of a fish - and he is a Marine.  This fish is a MONSTER!  40 pounds.  So sorry birthday girl, but Sasha currently holds the record for bringing in the largest AmberJack.  But hey, who is counting right?!  Personally, I am not very competitive.  I don't care WHO wins when I compete.  :-).  Stop rolling your eyes Cameron!  I can hear you do it even though you are reading this in Jacksonville.

Nice job cutting his tail off in this picture - Dave!  Although getting V Tower in the background is a nice touch.  Also glad you got both Sam and Sasha in it.

We continue fishing (and catching) for a while and Sam continues to assist and instruct.  (You can see in the background that Sasha has another fish on):

SJ with a nice AmberJack.  Back in he goes.  (Don't get me started)

Meagan fighting her big AmberJack - or possibly some other large fish.  She was a busy girl.

The last story I will share with you:

Sam gets a Goliath Grouper on his line.  How do I/we know?  Well, because he has caught a couple of them at V Tower now.  We can tell because unlike AmberJack who race all over the place and snapper who are much smaller, Goliath just sit on the bottom for the first 30 minutes and refuse to move.  Bringing them up is like bringing up a barge. He fights it for about 20 minutes, makes almost no progress with getting this ancient fish off the sea bottom.  After 20 minutes, tension eases and he is able to reel.  He reels very quickly.  No Goliath, but in comes a huge red Snapper.  He and I look at each other.  WTF?  Then we both figure it out simultaneously when we see that most of the snapper's scales are missing. The Goliath had the red snapper in his mouth and simply held onto it in it's mouth for 20 minutes.  When it got tired of playing with Sam, it simply spit it out.  Normally, I would say that Sam would be disappointed but as he had another 50-60 minutes of severe back strain ahead of him, I'm pretty sure he wasn't exactly devastated to lose the Goliath.  That is now the 4th Goliath we have had on the line at V Tower.  They really should consider opening this species up to limited fishing - but they won't. (don't get me started.)

Bottom line:  As intended, it was LOTS of fun catching big fish for a few hours, but the winds have really picked up now.  Seas are now a solid 4 ft with crashing white caps.  Time to head back to the marina.

We troll away from V Tower and take a few more pictures:

The Captain apparently trying to look serious.  I wasn't aware I was being photographed.

This last picture is one of my personal favorites.  (Thanks Dave, btw, for taking all these great photos).  Sam and I simply love to fish; we love being on the water.  He is great with the kids (and all my guests) and like I said, I couldn't ask for a better friend.  I thank God for putting him into my life.  We don't even mind that we are in 5 ft seas.  Our smiles are as genuine as they get - we absolutely love being out here!

We eventually pull in the trolling rods and head back.

Somewhere during the trip, I let SJ drive.  I need to make a mental note to let him do that more often.  Not too sure about the Crimson Tide shirt.  We will need to work on that.

On the way out, I was able to haul-butt at 40 mph, but now I have a following sea and I can only get back in at 28 mph.  How are the teenagers doing?

Um, yeah.  They are all dead asleep.  :-).  If you had any doubts, I can assure you that offshore fishing is exhausting.  Just taking the long ride out and back in rough seas is challenging, but catching HUGE AmberJacks really does you in.  Those fish are strong fighters!  In fact, some of the strongest in the Gulf.   Well, I'm not that tired, I suppose.  I just drive the boat these days.  The teenagers did wake up at least once when we hit a rogue 7-ft wave which crashed over the bow and soaked everyone from bow to stern.  I must admit, that particular wave caught me off-guard.  I didn't see it coming.  It was definitely rough coming back in.  In a smaller vessel, I would have been pretty worried, but in my boat?  Yeah, not so much.  Steering in a following sea can also get challenging as the stern can, and does, broach.  While it definitely did that a few times, fortunately it was only 5-6 ft seas and my boat is very heavy.  That said, I still found steering challenging, and stressful at times.

So glad Dave (our photographer for the day), made it into a photo.

Two hours later, we arrive safely back at the dock.  I thank God each time for that one also.  Time for one last picture (above).  Although we caught over 200 pounds of fish, there are no fish to clean, (don't get me started), but it IS time to have a few beers at Mad Anthony's.

Thank you Dave for my gift certificates signed by you and all the girls.  That was very thoughtful of you.

Once again, another great (and safe) adventure. Happy birthday Meagan.  Get your fish picture framed!  I look forward to my next fishing trip which will be the 2nd week of April.  Well, I am going bass fishing at Lake Cue this weekend, but that doesn't count, right?

See everyone soon.  Thanks for reading.  All three of you.  Actually, 14,170 site page views now.  Man, you three readers are hitting the refresh button - a LOT!

Jackson, when are you coming fishing with me?

Hello Caroline.

Tight lines everyone.

Resolutions

January, 2018

For you crazy, obviously very bored readers who like it when I create LONG posts, you will like this one.  So go grab your cup of coffee and a danish and we will get started.

In regards to the new year, I don't really like the word "Resolution".  It seems a little too daunting.  I do like the word "Goals" though. One of my 2018 goals is to be: "More Adventurous"; especially on the water.  Another goal is to be less inappropriate, but obviously I will never accomplish that in this lifetime.

I don't typically fish much in January or February, and if I/when I do, I usually keep it pretty close to shore for safety reasons.  The weather can change pretty quickly offshore in the winter.  But the forecast for Sunday, Jan 21, looks like this:

  

Bottom line:  71 degrees as the high with 1 to 2 foot seas.  Yeah, I gotta fish. So I sent an email to my growing group of friends to determine who can go with me.  I have about 30 people on that list.  Typically, I get about 3 people who respond with a "Yes".  At least, that is what I was hoping for -  since it IS January.  However, I had about 18 people respond with "Yes".  Holy smokes!  Does everyone have cabin-fever or what?  My apologies to those of you who I had to turn down.  That never happens.  Next time...

And returning to the goal "Adventurous", there is no way I am staying near shore.  We are definitely headed to V Tower which is 45 miles offshore.  Apparently, AmberJack are open for 26 days this year.  Jan 1 - Jan 26.  They were closed for almost ALL of last year.  And, they increased the size to 34" at the tail fork.  Trust me, that is a LARGE AmberJack.  So yes, I understand that "they" are making it almost impossible for us to actually keep a fish, but no matter, we are determined to seek AmberJack at V Tower.

On the boat today are:  Sam, Mike, Ely (Leadership Tallahassee 35 Class), her son "GM" (my nickname for him), Paul, his son Lucas, and Bill Oliver (LT 35 Class).  Ely's son is only seven and Paul's son is twelve.

As we head out, smooth seas, although admittedly, a bit chilly at 47 degrees.  Brrr.  Why did I wear shorts again?  Honestly, I never really got cold all day, except for when we finally returned to the channel after a long day - I got a little chill.  It passed quickly.

A short speech about safety and adventure before we head out:

Boys ready for an adventure.  I'm sure they're thinking, how do my parents know this Capt'n Hook character?

Pretty smooth seas until we reach K Tower (20 miles out), then the seas start to increase to 3-4 ft.  Getting a little bumpy out here - especially at 40 mph.  I have a few people on the bow who are kind of getting beat up.  I'm starting to 2nd-guess myself with our trip out here.  Chilly and windy and there are ABSOLUTELY no other boats out here.  I haven't seen a single vessel since we left the dock.  Nice and sunny though!  The temperature has gone up to 45 degrees.

Without major incident, we approach V Tower.  I am still a few miles away (1st picture below) when I see a small spec on the horizon near the tower.  Over the years, and as a game/challenge, I try to guess the sizes (and type) of vessels from as far away as possible.  I have improved somewhat, so from a distance, I'm guessing this vessel is 18-20 ft without a T-Top.  That can't be possible though because that would just be plum crazy.  It's probably time to get my prescription sunglasses updated.  

We get closer....  See the spec on the right now?  Yes, that is a boat.

Hey, a 20 ft boat with no T-Top!  I guessed Key West, but it is a Cape Horn:

Worth repeating, uh, yeah:  20 ft vessel, 45 miles offshore, by himself, 4 ft seas, January.  God bless him!  I like this guy.  So much for thinking I am adventurous.  I'm not even close.  THIS guy truly understands the meaning of the word.

To prove my point, let's compare his boat to my boat:

While we were out there, and after a couple hours of fishing, we actually meet this guy and he gives us some of the plastic jigs that he is crushing the AmberJack with.  What a great guy!  His name was Dan.

He found me on the web and sent me an email that same evening. (So I know he made it back safely).  Here is my reply to him:

Hey Dan: 

When we next meet, I will assuredly NOT call you "Dan".  Forever moving forward, I will always call you "BA", which obviously stands for "Bad-Ass".  4 ft seas, 20 ft boat, 42 miles offshore, by yourself, catching Amber after Amber at V Tower.  Yeah, definitely 'bad-ass'.  

An inspirational story:

I had two young boys on the boat; before we left the dock, I gave them a speech about "Adventure".  I explained that we were going FAR offshore and no matter what happens, good or bad, they will remember this adventure for a very long time.  As fishermen, we may have grown more comfortable with it, but not too many people have ever been 40-50 miles offshore in a boat.  It scares the crap out of most adults.  Between K and V, as you know, the seas picked up to 3-4 ft.  I had a few people on the bow getting knocked around.  One of the boys (7 year-old who was with his Mom) got pretty worried.  My app said the seas were supposed to increase, not decrease, so I figured it might be a long day for him.  The entire drive out, I hadn't seen another boat, but as I approached V Tower, I saw, to my amazement, what appeared to be a small vessel with just a single person on it.  I'm speculating that you are tied up to the tower, possibly in trouble, and have gotten stuck out there without VHF.  As we approach, you have a large Amber on, and you simply wave.  I smiled and said to everyone, "Now that guy is a Bad-Ass"! As I kept talking about the differences between our vessels and how brave (crazy?) you are, that 7-year-old’s confidence immediately increased.  His actions on the boat went from timid (wouldn’t leave his Mom) to confident:  (“Excuse me sir, can I borrow that rod if you are done with it?”).   I'm telling you dude, you inspired him.  That kid was determined to figure out jigging on his own (he did) and he ended up catching AmberJack and Snapper all day.  He fell in love with offshore fishing yesterday - and your actions gave him the confidence to do it.  At the end of the day, I kept hearing, "Mr. Paul, can we go again?  Captain, are you gonna email my Mom again?  Mr. Paul, when are you going out again?"  😊  Although we fished apart all day on different vessels, you and I made a positive difference in that kid's life yesterday. (Or, we created a monster for his Mom)

Unfortunately, we didn't have any live bait (we tried), so we were forced to use diamond jigs and vertical jigs.  "Jigging" is the art of dropping a heavy lure that looks like a knife blade to the bottom and then start yanking and reeling like crazy.  Sometimes (not all the time), the flash and jerkiness gets the AmberJacks attention and it strikes.  It is very tiring.  I have had people do this for hours on my boat and catch nothing - and question my experience with these things.  I have had people jig once or twice and catch a big Amber.  It just depends.  I think the fish do tend to figure it out after an hour or so.  They definitely get smarter.

But today.... we sley them (Both Amberjacks and Snapper and...wait for it...).

Great job Ely on all the pictures and videos.

For the most part (not all fish are pictured), here is our busy and productive day at V Tower:

 Bill enjoys catching the "smaller" Amberjack: (I don't know why).  In all fairness, he did have a HUGE AmberJack on, but the line snapped.  That was my fault as it was related to my knot.  Even though I have had to pass tests at Sea School for knot-tying, mine still suck.

Ely and GM staying warm on the bow:

Come on Bill, they must be MUCH bigger than that:

That's more like it!:

Selfie time:

Paul and Lucas relaxing:

V Tower in the sunshine:

Capt'n Hook looking "geeky" as always:

Sam looking "studly", as always:  (Helps that he is a Marine).

Except for the ride out, this kid never stopped smiling:

One of MANY snappers caught throughout the day.  They gotta go back in though:

Mike struggling with something:

Slaying em and having some fun:

 

After much determined practice, Gabe "GM" really got the hang of jigging.  It takes practice to improve. I like tenacious kids!  Not only did he catch AmberJack, but he also caught big Snapper:  (As always, thanks Mike and Sam, for all your assistance).

I'm certain that kid fell asleep with that smile on his face.  That is a 27" AmberJack.  It is NOT easy to bring that in to the boat.  At times, they had to hold GM down so that he didn't fly off the boat.  His feet came off the deck several times fighting this fish!  AmberJack are STRONG fighters!  Their nicknames are "Reef Donkeys" cause when you catch one, it feels like they are trying to buck you.

Huge snapper are ALSO not easy to bring in.  Still smiling though.  He has the fever!  :-)

This one probably needs to get framed:

 Nice fish gentlemen:   Bill's is bigger:

 Look at those white legs!  Man, I am ready for summer:

Finally, Sam hooks into something that simply doesn't move.  For the first twenty minutes, Sam really doesn't make any progress with this thing.  He moves around the entire boat.  At one point, we thought he might have bottom, but every now and then the pole twitches.  Sam is a strong dude, but he is clearly struggling.  After 45 minutes, we of course, start making fun of him:

An hour later, this beast finally surfaces:

The pictures really don't do this beast justice.  This is now the 3rd Goliath grouper I have caught at V Tower.  I think they are becoming thick as thieves out there.  However, this one was the biggest, by far.  I'm guessing around 300 lbs. Could be heavier. Too bad we can't keep him.  I would be eating Grouper for a year!  Also too bad we can't pick him up to take a picture, but there is no way we are getting this guy into the boat without a crane.

Videos are tricky on this blog:  (Here they are, if they work in your browser)

As we leave V Tower, we are all pretty darn tired (okay, I'm not, although steering the boat is very stressful sometimes on my left pinky finger), so we troll for a 1/2 hour until we get to Bryson reef.  We don't catch anything trolling, but honestly, we are somewhat okay with that.  V Tower tired everyone out.  (Except Dan on the other boat!)

Beautiful drive back.  The seas did NOT increase, they actually subsided to zero, so the LONG ride back was quite nice.  Love it when that happens. Safely back at the marina!  Boat all cleaned up.  Time for a couple of beers at Mad Anthony's to finish out the day.  

Thanks everyone.  Awesome January day!  I'm now ready for work tomorrow.

I gotta admit, I like my new 2018 goal of being adventurous.  What is your goal?  Looking forward to seeing more of you on my boat this year; that would be a good goal for you.

And I admit, I am jumping the gun....  In 2017, I put the necessary time in at Sea School and passed the test, but the Coast Guard has not sent me my new "Master Captain" credentials yet.  If they don't promote me, I will have to change my logo back.  Dang it.  For now though (in limbo and patiently waiting), I like the way it looks.  :-)