Holy Mackerel!!

Out to the reef on Saturday afternoon
after Football and Pizza at the local
Sports Pub.

Nothing beats Food, Football, and Fishing!
Well....Almost nothing. Keepin' it clean.

We found the reef on the first try,
of course it did help that there was
another boat sitting on it.

Honestly though, we really didn't notice
until we got there. Really.

What an absolutely beautiful day,
lots of sunshine and a wonderful breeze.

Not a lot of fish biting, but I guess
we can't have everything.

We got enough good bites to keep us happy.
I caught a Spanish Mackerel (check out those
teeth) and Andrea caught a little tiny Grouper.

She wouldn't let me take a picture because
she wanted to get it back into the water quickly.
It was so cute.

We did some flats fishing as the sun started
to set and we got into a school of Lady Fish.


They're a pain when we're targeting Snook
and Reds, because they cause such a ruckus,
but they're a lot of fun when not much
else is biting.


Lady Fish are also called poor man's Tarpon
because they come flying out of the water
and shake their heads furiously trying
to throw the hook, just like Tarpon do.

The sunset was gorgeous but the boat
ramp was a fluster cuck, as usual.

News flash people, common courtesy makes
things run so much more smoothly. Geeeeez.

Peace, Love, and Lady Fish!

A Picture Really is Worth 1000 Words!!

The Middle Grounds

Hello!! Just checking in. We haven't been doing a whole lot of fishing lately, as you might have noticed. We did get out weekend before last though. We went out to the Port Tampa Reef. It's a man made reef of concrete blocks that was dumped there to create a habitat for fish and a fishing spot for us fishing junkies.

The weather was absolutely beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day. It was a bit windy but the wind was out of the North so the Tampa Bay waters were protected. The reef is located right, smack, dab in the middle of Tampa Bay. It's right in between Port Tampa and the Wheeden Island Power Plant. I've named it "The Middle Grounds." What's kind of funny about that is that the real Middle Grounds is about 100 miles off shore and if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know how likely it is that we would EVER go 100 miles off shore in our boat. Ha.

We found the reef some time ago and we marked it on our GPS system. We really thought we were big time that day. The only problem was that we marked about 9 other spots on our GPS that day too and they were all named spot #1, spot #2, spot #3.......You get the idea. The long and short of it was, we should have named the spots and we didn't and it took us about an hour to locate the reef, AGAIN.

Rare, I know, but Andrea was starting to get a little bit cranky. I was certain that the reef was at spot #10 and we kept going and going until we reached spot #10. One problem, spot #10 was located in water that was about 2 feet deep. Now I'm no rocket scientist but I do know that reefs are supposed to be a deep water thing. I wonder what the hell we marked that spot for. Who knows, but we should have named it, "don't dive in head first here!!"

Anyway, after about an hour or so we located the reef. The next issue was how to stay on it because the wind was blowing so hard. We threw out the anchor and I tried to calculate how fast the wind was blowing and from what direction, I then divided that by the number of nautical miles that I thought we had traveled before the anchor caught ground. I came up with absolutely nothing scientific so we just started casting in different directions until we got a bite. LOL.

Andrea caught the first fish!! A beautiful Sheepshead. We love to catch those. it was a big one too. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture because some unprepared boob forgot to change the batteries in the camera. The names were changed here to protect the innocent. Oh fine!!! It was me again!

I caught three Puffer Fish throughout the day. I just love to catch those (NOT), they make me feel like I'm 5 again. On the upside though, I did catch a Black Sea Bass and a Key West Grunt!!! It's funny how we always end up with pictures of the unprepared boob. Oh well, what can I say. Obviously Andrea doesn't hang around for my organizational skills. ;)

It really was an awesome day though. It's days like these that make all the hard work of owning a boat seem worth while!! Fishing Chicks we are.

Peace, Love, and Puffer Fish!!

Up in the Morning

Up in the morning
hop out of bed
Andrea Harless
caught her a Red!!

New York, New York

I know this is a little late but these are some pictures from our trip to New York. For those of you who don't know, I was chosen to attend a Melissa Etheridge concert in NYC at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was in celebration of the release of her new CD "The Awakening." We had an absolutely awesome time. It was our first time in NYC and we were only there for about 36 hours but we made the most of it. We saw Times Square (that's where the Hard Rock Cafe was), we canoodled with the secret service guys (well we just asked one for directions), we took a historic harbor tour on the Hudson River, we visited Ground Zero and St. Paul's Cathedral, we rode the Subway, and even paid a visit to east Harlem (that was an accident). Our hotel was a very old Brownstone on 31st street, appropriately named Hotel 31. The hotel manager Iggy was about as old as the Brownstone but he was hilarious. He said, "keep your door locked at all times ladies, you're not in Florida anymore." Obviously he hasn't been to Florida recently......Hello? They film CSI Miami there!! We asked him if he knew where the Hard Rock Cafe was and he looked at us like we had three heads. We ended up asking the front desk clerk and he gave us directions, wrong ones, unbeknownst to us, but off we went. It was absolutely crazy fun. There were motorcades and secret service all over the place because the President of Iran and a bunch of other political crooks.....er dignitaries were in town for a conference at the United Nations. They even had part of the Harbor closed off. There were people and cars everywhere hustling and bustling all around us. Sensory overload I'll tell ya. We got totally lost trying to find the Hard Rock so we stopped and asked this well dressed gentleman for directions. We chose him partly because he was well dressed but mostly because he was really one of the only people around that was actually standing still. Well, like with everything in life, there was a reason for that. While Andrea was chatting away in her Southern drawl I happened to notice that he was wearing one of those official looking, loopy ear piece things. My eyes followed his suit jacket down to his belt where I saw a gun in a holster and a badge that said "Secret Service." Andrea was still cackling away a mile a minute and I nudged her with my shoulder and motioned down toward his badge with my head. We promptly thanked him and joined the rest of the hustlers on our way to Times Square. Can't you just see the two of us being hauled in for questioning for trying to distract a Secret Service Agent. "But really sir, we were just trying to get to a Melissa Etheridge Concert." Our faces would be on CNN, we'd be interviewed by Nancy Grace. What would our families think? We finally made it to the Hard Rock, it was smack dab in the middle of Times Square. We turned a 10 minute walk into an hour long hike. Oh well, we got a lot of sightseeing in. Tired and hungry we went in and had some lunch and then got in line for the concert. Melissa was fantabulous in concert as she always is and we were joined at the concert by Al and Tipper Gore, Kelli O'Donnell, and Frank Zappa just to name a few. It was an absolutely magical night. We rode a rickshaw bicycle taxi back to our hotel after the concert. I thought he was going to ride on the sidewalk, silly me. We were in the middle of New York traffic whizzing by Madison Square Garden at 11:00 at night. It was absolutely surreal. We are so very blessed. The visit to Ground Zero and the Cathedral was such an emotional experience. It felt eerily comforting in a way. I've said so many prayers for the victims and their loved ones but none felt quite as powerful as the ones I said in that Cathedral. There was a strong energy in those prayers, you could feel it. Most emotional for me was the view of the skyline from the water. Seeing where the towers had been. It reminded me of a big smile that was missing two front teeth. I felt a sense of great loss for New York City and our country as a whole. What a sad day, 911. We laughed, we cried and we were tired but we will always remember and cherish our first trip to NYC!

The Latest Propaganda

I have been getting requests from a certain knock kneed golfer for a new propaganda sheet, so here it is, in all it's glory. We have had about 3 fishing outings over the past few weeks. The first one was just Andrea and I on an evening fishing excursion after work. We saw this fishing guide using "poppers" on TV, not to be confused with "poopers" (that would be Andrea) and we decided we wanted to give them a try. Anyway, poppers are basically floats on a straight piece of wire with beads on it. You suspend your bait underneath the popper and ever so often yank up on the line to create a popping sound. I think it's supposed to simulate the sound of a big fish feeding on a little fish. For someone who is accustomed to being quiet when they fish, it seems to create a lot of ruckus but the Trout seem to like it........A lot.





We caught quite a few good sized trout, with Andrea taking the prize for the most caught, she was a poppin' fool out there!! I caught a few too many Catfish, I hate those things. The highlight of that trip was the 2 foot Bonnet Head Shark that I caught. It is becoming ever more apparent to me that Andrea is trying to kill me or at the very least maim me so I won't be able to out fish her. She insists on getting a picture of the shark, well that's fine. I'm holding it out over the side of the boat and she's yelling, "Keeum, bring it closer to you, it ain't gonna hurt ya, just hold it up by the belly" She must not remember that I watched Shark Week on the Discovery Channel or that I am OCD about the thought of getting a cut on my hand, much less LOSING A FINGER!!! God help me!



Our second outing was on a Friday afternoon with my Dad. He called me at work and told me to grab Andrea and meet him at the boat ramp. He was goin' Snook fishing. He had made some chum and was heading out to catch some Pin Fish. Oh yeah!!



Sadly, this story ends without a lot of action. I caught two Snook and a Jack and my dad and Andrea caught well.........Nothing. I kept telling them how bad I felt that they didn't catch anything but I don't think they really appreciated my repeated apologies. Hey, what can I say? Sometimes the jerk's just on the wrong end of the line. LOL In all fairness, I must say that the first Snook I caught, I didn't actually land so technically it doesn't count but since I'm writing the blog......:)

Outing number three was a day on the water with good friends. Our friends Donna and Zelma were in town from North Carolina. We promised to take them fishing. The day was overcast and a little bit windy but it wasn't hot and we were all thankful for that.

Donna and I fished, Andrea kept the poles rigged and Zelma was our cheerleader!! Donna out fished me big time. She caught a blow fish and a good sized Mangrove Snapper. About mid way though the trip I dropped my bottle of sprite on Zelma's foot then picked it up and opened it and it sprayed all over her. Nothing like good ole' southern hospitality!! It's a good thing they weren't paying for a guided fishing trip, I would certainly have to refund their money after that!! Sorry Zelma!

We certainly weren't hauling in the fish but we laughed a lot and laughing is good!! Laughter is a funny thing, well literally it is, but I have found that you have to be careful because if you laugh too much too often then people start to think you're high on something. Donna............;) It really is possible to be high on life, really!

We made two long trips out to Caspersen Beach to hunt for sharks teeth and we found a ton of them and had a lot of fun. Again, a lot of laughing and a lot of driving. I hope you all enjoy the pictures from our adventures. Holla back ya'll!!

Finally, Here's the Bleepin' Video

OK, hopefully this is the video of me fighting my Tarpon. I have mastered uploading pictures, however, I am obviously challenged when it comes to video. We should have made a video of me trying to upload the video, now that would be some entertainment. Every other word would have to be bleeped out. It would go something like this.

(Kim sitting at the computer, looking frazzled) "This bleep bleepin' video, I have tried to get this thing working 15 bleepity bleep bleep times. Maybe if I had some bleepin bleep help, I could get this bleepin' thing to work. But nooooooooooo Andrea is just sittin on her bleep bleep sofa watching bleep Survivor while I've been working on this bleepin' blog. She bleepin' calls me every bleepin' five minutes." (Andrea, sitting on her sofa, remote control and cell phone in hand) "Keeum, Lisa sent me an e-mail, she can't watch the bleepin' video. Keeum, Juanita sent me an e-mail, she can't watch the bleepin' video either. Keeum, what in the bleep are you doin' over there, everyone keeps e-mailing me about the bleepin' video. It's just a bleepin' blog, why the bleep can't you get it up and running? Bleep." (Kim slams the phone down, but Andrea is still on the line) "Keeum? Keeum? Are you there Keeum?" (The screen fades to black and credits begin to roll)

Enjoy!!
edited.

The Tarpon God

Let me start out by saying that this blog took me a couple of days to finish because I had to regain the use of my upper extremities. Keep reading, that will make more sense in a minute.

In our lives we meet people every day, but very few of them leave a lasting impression. Every now and again we are lucky enough to come across one of those rare gems that leave a "Joe Has Been Here" sign hanging from our hearts. The Joe I'm speaking of is, in my book, the Tarpon God, also known as Captain Joe.

Joe is a fishing guide with over 50 years of experience. His specialty is Tarpon, but if you ask him he'll tell you that he fishes for anything with fins and a tail. He very generously offered to take us Tarpon fishing and after thinking it over for about 2.5 seconds we said, "OK!!" He seems to think that Andrea did something nice for his wife, personally I think he's suffering from a case of mistaken identity but not being one to look a gift tarpon in the gills, I kept my mouth shut. ;)

We started the morning out catching some Pin Fish for bait. We caught them the old fashioned way with a rod and reel. I was looking around for the cast net and Captain Joe pulls out two small rods with tiny little hooks on them. I thought, "holy cow, this is gonna take us a week!!" When we went out with Captain Rachel, she must have caught 3,000 Green Backs before we started fishing, of course she was using a cast net. By the size of the Pin Fish we were pulling in, I was starting to realize that we weren't in Kansas anymore. This was some serious fishing we were about to do. :o Gulp.

Although Andrea's fishing skills have vastly improved, the poor girl still suffers from a case of premature jerkulation. The minute a fish even looks at her hook she jerks it out of the water. Captain Joe brought me to my knees when he told her that the first rule of fishing was making sure that the jerk was on the right end of the line!! I knew right then I was gonna love this guy. Between his quick witted humor and the fact that he used fishing line to hold his hat and sun glasses on, I knew that we were going to have a great time even if we didn't catch a Tarpon.

After we caught 10 or so Pin Fish we headed out to the spot to start fishing for Tarpon. I probably should mention that I have never fished for Tarpon and until today I had never even seen a Tarpon except on fishing shows. Andrea went out with Jason a few months ago and saw quite a few but she had never caught one either, and she really wanted to. It wasn't at all like I expected. We just put the huge Pin Fish on these huge hooks that were tied on to these huge polls.....can you see where this is going? Anyway, we just threw them in the water under bobbers and waited.

Now I had been hearing some rumors that this guy Joe was one of the best Tarpon fisherman around these parts but after he tried to club a 2 inch Cat Fish and it ended up sticking him in the hand, I started to get a little bit nervous. He assured us that it would only burn for a couple of weeks or so. But honestly, what's a fishing trip without a Cat Fish incident anyway? Casualties were still at a minimum so it was all good.

With our bait in the water we watched and waited for our bobbers to go under, well actually to disappear, never to be seen again until the predator that had taken hold of the line started to get tired. Speaking of bobbers, one of Captain Joe's friends, appropriately named Bob was fishing for Tarpon near by and they were keeping in contact via radio. I never got to meet him but I heard him cheering for me when I was fighting my Tarpon so I can only assume that he was a really nice guy. Poor guy was fishing in the same spots we were and didn't get a thing, so we deemed him our honorary good luck charm for the day. Thanks Bob, maybe we'll meet again in a Mr. Donut somewhere!! ;)

Well I guess I let the cat out of the bag, I caught a Tarpon!! Where in the hell did that stupid saying come from? You get clawed and scratched to death trying to get a cat in a bag, so why would you want to turn around and let them out? Unless it was an accident. I digress.

Anyway, I had been standing in front of my huge pole for only about 3 minutes and all of a sudden it doubles over. I grabbed it and immediately felt the power of this incredibly huge fish. It was at that moment I realized why the huge Pin Fish, huge hook, and huge pole. It was also at that moment I started to wonder what in the world Captain Joe was trying to tie around my waist. What an inappropriate time to measure me for my custom Tarpon fishing outfit. Then I thought, oh thank God, he's tying me to the boat so I don't get pulled out. Actually, it was a belt that had a place to rest the butt of the rod so that you could use your body weight as leverage. For the record though, I would still like to have a custom Tarpon fishing outfit. Just sayin'.

This fish was so awesome, it jumped high into the air several times. It looked to be about 3 to 4 feet long and Captain Joe said it was about 100 pounder. It took me about 45 minutes and every ounce of strength and determination that I had to land it but I did it, all by myself. All hail the Silver King!! It was an absolutely amazing experience that I will never forget. Like your first true love, you never forget your first Tarpon. Apparently this Captain Joe really did know what he was doing!! The rumors must have been true!!

Poor Andrea was all to pieces because I brought a different camera that she wasn't used to and the whole time I was fighting the Tarpon she was muttering to herself about the camera and how she hated that camera and then she walks up to me and says in a really soft and calm voice, "Keeum, I know your kind of busy right now but I cain't see anything through this camera." I unintentionally ignored her, because I think I was in shock, so she just started snapping pictures even though she couldn't see a thing.

As it turned out, the problem was that the batteries in the camera were going dead. Another thing that annoys Andrea beyond belief. Ooops, my bad. I remembered to clear the memory card, I just forgot to change the batteries. Sheesh, I can't remember everything!!!

Ok, on to Andrea's Tarpon. Captain Joe said it was about 75 pounds but it looked every bit as big as the first one. I can't really remember how much time lapsed before Andrea hooked it but it wasn't too long at all. I remember watching Captain Joe baiting up both polls and thinking to myself, "dear God please don't give me another one right now." Bob yelled congratulations to me from his boat and I could barely lift my arm to wave thank you.

For some reason, Andrea's Tarpon didn't jump as much as Tarpon usually do, at least that's what Captain Joe said. Actually, it only jumped once. She did an absolutely awesome job of fighting it. A couple of passers by even stopped their boat to watch her. She stayed calm and cool and kept the jerk on the right end of the line. LOL! I had changed the batteries in the camera by that time and I got some good pictures of her and her Tarpon. Captain Joe did some video taping as well.

Andrea got her fish to the boat a bit quicker than I did so it was still pretty frisky when Captain Joe went to grab the leader. All three of us ended up getting a big splash as the fish slapped it's tail against the water in protest. It felt great but caught us totally by surprise. Joe was soaked and so was his camera.

We actually hooked a third Tarpon as well but it jumped very aggressively three times in rapid succession and snapped the line. It was an incredible show though. We were most definitely members of the Tarpon club now!!

It was an absolutely spectacular day, one that we will cherish always. Honestly, I don't know which was more fun, catching the Tarpon or spending the day with Captain Joe. His hilarious stories and quick wit make him quite the charmer. Not to mention the fact that he is an encyclopedia of knowledge about all things fishing!!

Thank you Captain for one of the most memorable days in our lives, and thank you Bob for being our good luck charm. Until we meet again, remember to keep the jerk on the right end of the line!! I know, I'm wearing that saying out, but it just kills me!!

Pictures are coming soon, I promise. We are experiencing some minor technical difficulties but please stay tuned.

Peace, Love, and Tarpon!!

It's Always Something

It seems that lately I'm getting quite a bit of practice "just enjoying being out on the water with friends." Although I will say that I am getting very good at catching bait. Bait that we have to end up letting go because we don't get enough bites to use it, but it's FUN. Real fun. Speaking of bait, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Andrea's huge faux pas (pronounced foe pa, unless you're Andrea and then it's pronounced poo pa). Either way it was a really big poo pa.

We stopped at the bait store, like we usually do. We bought way too much bait, like we usually do. We got 4 dozen regular shrimp, 2 dozen large shrimp and 1 dozen pin fish. That may not sound like a lot but it was 5 o'clock in the afternoon and we get scared after it gets dark, but I was payin' today so I was callin' the shots. More is better, that's my motto. After last night I'm thinkin' I might change my motto. But anyway, Andrea put our $20 worth of bait in the bait well and off to the boat ramp we went.

There was not a wave to be seen for miles!!! We were so psyched!! The water was as smooth as glass, really shallow glass as we soon found out. The tide was low, very low and we get scared, very scared that we're going to get stuck on a sand bar and have to spend the night out there waiting for the tide to come in. Don't laugh, it happens!!! Is anyone else noticing a common thread here? IT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING!!!!!

We never actually got to our intended fishing destination since it took us 30 minutes to travel a quarter of a mile we decided that it was time to stop and fish. I threw out an artificial top water lure and Andrea started straightening up the boat, she does that a lot. After about 15 minutes, the relaxing silence was broken by Andrea yelling, "Oh no I forgot to turn on the bait well!" followed by, "Oh no their all day-ed!" And finally, the sound of the bait well turning on. O...........K........Turning the bait well on seemed to be kind a moot point to me, but I guess that was her last ditch attempt at CPR. "My bad," she says sheepishly.

With the bait well looking like a scene out of the movie Dooms Day, I decided that I better throw out some chum and get ready to throw the cast net. I caught a bunch more pin fish, and some weird looking little fish with yellow tails that kept trying to bite Andrea. The word must have gotten around quickly that she was harboring a weapon of mass destruction. It's not pretty when bait fish attack. Her finger was bleeding!!! : O

Honestly, that was about all the excitement for the evening. Actually we didn't even get a bite, unless you count the fish that bit Andrea's finger, of course. Oh, I almost forgot, I did catch the teeniest tiny little trout in the cast night. It was about as long as my index finger and had all the markings of a full grown trout. It was soooooooo cute.

Sorry guys, no pictures this time. I will be posting some pictures from our trip out to the Skyway with my dad a few weeks ago though. Check back!!

Peace, Love, and Bait Fish!!

Tug Boat Stir

Ok, let me start out by explaining the picture up there. Andrea is always saying that I purposely post ONLY good pictures of myself and that I post all bad pictures of her. So.........To prove that I do no such thing, here is the absolute worst picture of myself that I have ever seen. It was taken on July 21, 2007, on Scott's Birthday, at his favorite Chinese Buffet. Happy Now Andrea?

Fishing today was uneventful, for the most part. We were so ready to get out on the water after all this rain that we totally neglected to check the wind. We got the boat hooked up without a hitch. Well actually, we had a hitch, we just didn't have a hitch getting the boat on the hitch. Alright, now I'm confused. We got the boat hooked up with no problem. We got gas and bait no problem. Launched the boat, still no problem. When we got to the open water at the end of the canal, problem. Waves, big ones, bigger than our boat ones.

We did make it over to the flats to try to catch some bait, with my new chum recipe that includes a can of Jack Mackeral. We caught some Pin Fish but quickly realized that we really weren't going to need that much bait if we were going to have to stay in the canal. So, off we went, back to the canal. We have this little spot that we like to call the corner. It's located, as you might guess, right on the "corner" of the canal. We've had some pretty good luck there. But today, as luck would have it, there was a very large barge parked almost directly in front of our spot. Crap!

We managed to shimmy our way in between the barge and our spot then threw out the anchor. Andrea's watching the anchor rope quickly disappear and she says, "man it's really deep here!!" To which I reply, "news flash, barges don't usually dock in 3 feet of water, Andrea!!" I don't think she appreciated my tone.

We fished for an hour or so and had not one bite. Well, Andrea thought she had a couple bites but it turned out she baited her hook with this really large Pin Fish and it was just trying to swim against the current.

We were anchored pretty close to the barge and Andrea noticed that there was a door on the back end of it. I took note too and kept on fishing. About 15 minutes later this gentleman comes out wearing a hair net or something on his head. He may have been the barge cook or something, I don't know. Anyway, he proceeds to ask us how we're doing. I smile and say, "oh fine thank you, how are you?" Before the poor guy even has a chance to respond Andrea yells, "no we're not doing fine, we haven't caught one thing!!!" Now she was right, we hadn't caught a thing, but our boat wasn't sinking, so I figured we were pretty darn fine. Whatever. All the poor guy wanted to do was tell us that a big tug boat was going to be pulling up and docking right behind the barge and it might cause quite a stir in the water. I don't know if you've ever seen the waves that a tug boat makes but a "stir" is a bit of an under statement. We thanked the nice man in the hair net, pulled up our anchor and left.

It was still pretty windy so we headed back up the channel to a big dock where there are usually yachts docked, but there were no yachts there today so we decided to fish there for a while. After we were there for about 10 minutes, sure enough, we saw the tug boat that Mr. Hairnet warned us about. It pulled into the channel, honked it's big tug boat horn and started backing in behind the barge. As we're watching the tug boat Andrea decides that being a tug boat captain would be a really great job for me!! She says, "Keeeum, that's what you should do, drive a tug boat!!! You'd get to fish off the boat, honk the horn, and you wouldn't have to worry about anything because you'd be protected by all that rubber around the boat." Good God, there wouldn't be a channel marker left standing if I got behind the wheel of a tug boat. Ask Andrea to tell you the John Boat story.

The long and short of our second spot is that we didn't catch anything there either, but we laughed a lot. Andrea gets a little bit annoyed with the fact that I leave things laying around sometimes, ok most of the time. Anyway, she gets most annoyed at the way that I take the top off of a water or gatorade bottle and then end up losing the top because I don't put it back on the bottle. So I'm fishing and she's straightening up the boat (she does that a lot) and she says, "I swear I think you eat the tops to these water bottles and since you do maybe you'd like to tear into this Jack Mackeral can that you left sitting over here!!" Always the smart ass, that Andrea. But she does make me laugh and you know they say that laughter IS the best medicine. Although I prefer Valium myself. JUST KIDDING.


We actually did get some bites at the yacht basin but we never did pull anything in. I had what felt like a pretty good size fish on my line but it made a bee line back toward the bridge and cut me off on some barnacles. We ended up having to put up our bimini top because the sun was getting so hot. The sudden shade must have reminded Andrea of being on a picnic or something because I turned around to find her all stretched out on the back boat seat just chillin' out. She would sit up every now and again to re-cast her line and each time she would tell her shrimp, "alright now, you be good and don't get eaten." Now, scary thing number one is she's talking to a freakin' shrimp, but even scarier thing number two is that I was losing shrimp right and left and she must have had that same shrimp on her line for an hour. I'm thinking that she could start her own shrimp training show at Seaworld. Can't you just see the little shrimp doing flips and jumps like the dolphin!! "'Focus your binoculars at the center of the pool for this amazing arial shrimp display!!! Don't blink or you'll miss it!!"

Oh My God. I think I may have gotten overheated. Maybe I should have stayed in the shade too.

Peace, Love, and Tug Boats

Shark Week!!!

One of my patients recently asked me, "what's the biggest risk that you've taken lately?" I didn't exactly know how to answer that until I watched Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. Now I know it was SCALLOPING!!! Hoooooly Cooooooow!!!




I have no earthly clue what makes me watch these things. Maybe I just don't realize how bad it's going to be until I start watching it. Well, let me see, the name of the show was "Top 5 Eaten Alive!" Hmmmm Sounds harmless enough!!
LOL!! Well, now that the rain has stopped we're going to take out the ark and see if we can't catch some fish. Stand by for some really great stories!!!

Scallops in Steinhatchee!!!

What an absolutely wonderful weekend!!! I haven't had so much fun in a long time. I've always loved to hunt for hidden treasures and I would say that adequately describes scalloping. With an added bonus of seeing some other really cool creatures (starfish, sea urchins, and fish).

Steinhatchee is the scalloping capital of the state. People come from everywhere to search for these beautiful and delicious little creatures. It takes about 2 hours to get there from Tampa. Lets just say, it took us a lot longer than that. It was our first long trip with the boat and well.....Have you ever seen that bumper sticker, "Honk if parts fly off"? We lost 2 nets, and a bungee cord on the expressway and we almost lost our console cover. Yet another lesson learned.

We stayed at a place called Paradise Suites that I found online in April. Come to find out it was a miracle that anything was available at all during scallop season. Apparently people have to book rooms over a year in advance since scallop season only runs from July 1 through September 10.


Paradise Suites is run by a little boat captain named Ed. The rooms are bare bones sleeping and eating quarters for the avid fishperson and scalloper. Captain Ed is the owner and sole employee of Paradise Suites, he runs the front desk, cleans the rooms, does all his own maintenance and looks out for each and every one of his guests.


When you arrive, a welcome sign with your name on it is hannging on the door of your room (there's only 4) and the key is inside sitting on the kitchen table. No deposit is required, no check in is required, you are on your honor from the moment you arrive until the moment you leave. What a wonderful little place. Andrea was ready to reserve the room for the next 30 years when we found out that Captain Ed is planning on retiring in November and will be tearing down his little cottages and planting a garden. Wonderful for him but kind of a bummer for us.

Our first trip out for scallops we spent about 45 minutes searching for schools of scallops propelling through the water like little packmen. We were thinking that we were going to be really fast to catch them. I used a stick and poked around in the grass to try to get them to run out. They never did. Then Andrea says, "maybe we have to get into the water to see them!"

Even though I knew that we would ultimately have to get into the water, I really wasn't super keen on the idea. I was the kid who wouldn't even take a bath after I saw the movie Jaws and I'm the adult who would sooner drag my best friend behind a jet ski than fall in the water trying to get her back on. But that's a different story. Andrea will be more than happy to tell you about it.

After a few minor injuries getting out of the boat Andrea was out in the water sans her snorkeling gear and scallop bag. After about 5 minutes in the water she shoots up, waving her scallop bag in the air and yelling "Keeeeum, Keeeeum, I found one Keeeeum!!!!" She was so brave to get into that water. I was so impressed.

I very slowly put on my own snorkel gear so as to let any sharks circling the area to clear out and then I took the plunge. I have to admit I was quite terrified at first, but after I found my first scallop I didn't think of anything else but what a wonderful adventure this was.

I will say, however, that the experience was incredibly different than what we expected it to be. First of all, the scallops aren't in big groups, actually the most we ever found together was 3 and second, they really don't try to get away from you. They just sit in the seagrass like little easter eggs waiting to be found.

A few tips if YOU ever decide to go snorkeling for scallops:

1. Don't get so busy looking for scallops that you forget where you are going and run into the side of your boat. It hurts.


2. A ladder for getting in and out of the boat is a necessity NOT a luxury.


3. Make sure that the top of your snorkel is pointing up, not parallel with the water. Salt water really makes you choke, or strangle as Andrea would say.


4. Scallops look much larger underwater than they actually are, so don't make fun of your buddies haul only to lift yours out of the water and find they are exactly the same size.


5. No matter how cute they look, scallops will bite and spit on occasion.


When all was said and done we got about 5 gallons of unshucked scallops. That equals about a pint or so once you take them out of the shell but it really is worth it. It is so much fun and I would do it again in a minute!!


We met some really nice people who gave us some great tips for cleaning the scallops. They used a small shop vac to pull the membrane off of the scallop. What a great idea, it cut an hour long process in half.






I hope you all enjoy the pictures. We really love sharing our adventures with all of you. Peace, Love, and Scallops!!