The Accidental Flounder

Holla!! We really haven't been doing a lot of fishing these past few weekends. It's been rainy AND we're looking for a new boat. OH YEAH!! Our fishing skills have improved in such vast proportions that we feel it's time to invest in something that's a little more than three inches above the water. No disrespect to our little Gheenoe but we're fish n' chicks now. We're even considering entering a few tournaments.

We did take the boat out last weekend for a bit of Snook fishing. We put the boat in the water at 5am it was still pitch, black, dark. Let me tell you that fishing in the bay, in the dark adds a whole new dimension to things. We pulled up to the mangroves and threw out the anchor. The only sound for miles were fish feeding, BIG fish feeding. The only light we had was the light of the moon shining on the water. As beautiful as it was, it really wasn't enough light. Trying to put a pin fish on a hook, in the dark, on a Gheenoe, at 5am, when you're scared shitless, is not an easy task. I was literally scared stiff and my fine motor skills suffered greatly. Oh.......And did I mention that we were trying not to make a sound because Snook get spooked very easily, well so do I by the way.

After about five minutes of trying to quietly chase this slimy, flopping Pin Fish around the boat, I had this overwhelming urge to stomp on it, but that would have made way too much noise. I would tell you what Andrea was doing during all of this, but I couldn't see her, so I really don't know. She could have taken a dip for all I knew. All in all it was an ok time but I don't think we'll be doing that again any time soon. I had a decent bite that felt like it might have been a Snook, but I lost it so I can only speculate. Frankly, after the struggle with the 2 inch Pin Fish, I think it was a blessing that I didn't have to pull it into the boat.

After the sun came up we changed locations which proved to be not such a great idea because the tide was going out. We ended up in pretty shallow water and we had to do a lot of paddling (again) and after being up since 4am, neither one of us was really excited to do that. So, Andrea started to belly ache a bit. First she hollers at me to paddle, then she hollers at me to paddle on the other side, then she says stop paddling, and then she yells, "I could use some help here!!!" So I start paddling and after about five minutes she yells at me because I'm over paddling her. WHATEVER THAT MEANS. At this point I'm thinkin' it's about time to go home.

Now Andrea's hook and shrimp had been just draggin' along in the water during this whole paddle scenario and so she decides to reel it in. Upon meeting some resistance she starts to gripe, "Oh geeze now I'm stick on some grass or something." Yada yada yada. Well as it turns out she's got a good size Flouder on the end of her line. She was so excited!! I was too, because at that moment, I was reminded once again, that there truly is a God, and I promptly thanked him. Up until that point, things were getting pretty ugly in the confined quarters of our 13 foot boat. But we got a picture, threw it back and headed for the shore with no casualties to report.

No matter how much you love your best friend, being hot, tired, hungry and crabby, in a confined space, with oars, is a recipe for disaster in any fishing manual.

All Hail the Puffer King

The saloon style doors clacked loudly against the walls as she slung them open. "Gimme 8 dozen" she says, threading a $20 bill through her fingers. The shifty eyes behind the counter dart quickly from the money in her hand to the dusty tumbleweed rolling by, just outside the window. "I said, gimme 8 dozen," she says again, this time with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Quietly whistling the theme song from Bonanza, he gets busy loading the bucket. He turns on his spurs, sets the bucket of shrimp on the counter and says in a low, raspy voice, "Yer fishin' for em, ain't ya?"

Yup!! We were fishing for em alright. Fishing for the always elusive and highly coveted SNOOK!! The season opened at 12am on Friday morning. Fishing for snook is like mining for gold in these parts. So much so that the legal limit is a mere one fish per person on any given fishing trip. They're big, they're bad and they are the masters at bait stealing, line slicing, and general hocus pocus. So, as you might guess, to catch one, is the ULTIMATE fisherman's prize.

There were no prizes for us this weekend but we sure did have fun trying. Andrea caught her first "keeper," it was a mangrove snapper. She was so excited, reeling like a bat out of hell. I yelled, hurry up and get it in the.......Boat. No sooner did the word boat leave my lips and that fish wiggled right off her hook and belly flopped right back into the water. The face, spoke novels. There were no words, no pleasantries to fill the God forsaken silence. Only mourning, for the one that got away.

A few other quick notes about our trip. My dad, God bless him, went out last week and caught a boat load of bait fish and froze them to try to save us some money. We had a few issues. One, the bait would disappear and you never even felt a bite or anything. I think it just floated off actually. Two, they seemed to attract a lot of puffer fish. I used to catch those like crazy.........When I was five. My dad caught 3 or 4 puffer fish on Sunday, so we crowned him the Puffer King. A title I'm sure he'd rather trade in for the Snook King. I'm after that title though. It will be a fight to the finish to see who catches the first Snook of the season!!! Stay tuned.