Competition, what Competition?

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in forever. Well, here it is and I'm afraid it's not pretty. We have been fishing in our new boat pretty much every weekend at least one day, sometimes both and our boat is AWESOME!!! We absolutely love it. We've caught a little bit of this and a little bit of that but nothing to get excited about that's for sure. I've been doing some soul searching here recently and I have come to realize that I might be a wee bit competitive about fishing. Andrea refers to it as OCD. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I think that might be a little bit harsh coming from the chick that has gotten up twice in the past month at 2:30 am, on a work morning, to fish from 4:30 am til' dawn with our dear friend Jason. Now I'm not sayin' that I wouldn't like to go, but let's just say that getting up at 2:30 am, for Kim, does a crabby girl make. My attitude by 9:00 am would not be conducive to me keeping my job, fish or no fish.

Anyway, I've decided to straighten up my OCD ass, excuse my French, and just enjoy being on the water in our brand new boat. We're going King fishing with our friend Jason this weekend so hopefully we'll have some good pictures to post. Not that I care if we catch fish or anything. I mean really, I could care less if we even get a nibble. All I care about is being on the water, in our boat with good friends. Fish........ Who needs em'?

Here are some highlights from our most recent fishing trips.

On one of Andrea's pre-dawn fishing excursions she was trying to set up a super long cast and she launched herself right off the front of Jason's flats boat. Yep, she landed right up to her chin in 3 feet of water!!! Fortunately, the only casualty was her cell phone!!

One evening after work we decided to take the boat to one of our favorite little fishing spots (we caught one fish there about a month ago). We turned on the fish finder and it looked like Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. There were thousands of fish, big ones, little ones, groups of them riding on floats waving as they passed under the boat. Alright, I'm exaggerating, but there were a steady stream of fish and do you think we even caught one of them? Noooooooooooo. Andrea was tired and I kept saying, "just one more cast!!" Oh yeah, I got an OCD lecture that night. So we headed for the ramp. As if things weren't already bad enough, there's this little Chinese man waiting at the dock when we pull up. "Dee you catcha de feesh?" What? "Dee you cathca any feesh?" Come again. "Feesh, feesh, de you catcha any feesh, I neeto buy de feesh?" OHHHHHH!!!
No, we don't have any fish!!! Well, Mr. Miagi just wouldn't take no for an answer he kept on and on. I was exhausted, Andrea was in a less than pleasant mood and he talked her ear off the entire time I was gone getting the trailer. When we left he was in the dumpster getting aluminum cans. It was very odd to see a Chinese man collecting aluminum cans. Poor guy.

A couple weekends ago we learned the true meaning of "small craft advisory!!" Our new boat seems like a yacht compared to our Gheenoe. Well, lets just say that Mother Nature knocked us down a rung or two. We definitely have a small craft and it gets considerably smaller in 5 foot swells. All we did was cross the bay to fish the flats on the other side. The ride over was no problem man!! The ride back was like a scene out of, "The Perfect Storm." It was freezing, waves were crashing over the side of the boat, we were soaked to the bone, holding on for dear life and Andrea yells to me. "Kim, why don't you start emptying out the bait well!!" I couldn't move or speak I was frozen solid and paralyzed by fear. After we finally got to the ramp she said she was just trying to take my mind off of things, but honestly, I think she was trying to kill me. I'm going to have to keep an eye on her. I think she's had enough of my OCD.

Some recent catches (while enjoying the boat, water and good friends)

Andrea:
1 Catfish
1 Stingray
1 Nice Red (picture coming soon)
1 lizard Fish
1 Mangrove Snapper

Kim:
2 Lady Fish
1 Huge Catfish
2 Pinfish
2 Mangrove Snapper
1 lizard Fish (Here lizard, lizard, lizard)

Disclaimer: This is in no way an attempt at keeping score as this is NOT a competition. It is quite simply a listing of what's biting in Tampa Bay!!