My Birthday Present Fishing with Captain Rachel

What an awesome time!!! There is nothing like hanging with a pro, doing what you love to do for your birthday. Maybe turning 40 isn't so bad after all.

We were up at 4:00am this morning so we could travel to Palmetto and be on the water with Captain Rachel by 6:00am. We went with her to get bait. Just watching her work was enough for me. If I never picked up a pole today I would have been perfectly happy. I just wanted to drink in as much of her knowledge as I could. She was absolutely amazing. She had everything under control. She put the boat on the bait, anchored, chummed, threw the cast net and dealt with all the little unexpected things that happen on a boat, all at the same time and all by herself. On top of that, she's 8 weeks pregnant. Who says women can't have it all!!??

After the bait well was full we headed out to catch some Snook. And that is EXACTLY what we did. We caught at least 15 Snook of all sizes. She showed us the best way to hook the bait, cast the bait, and chum the bait to find the fish (sending out the search dogs she calls it). It was truly a dream come true.

I wasn't sure that anything could top last weeks tournament win but I think I can speak for both of us when I say that today may have done it!!! Yeah, I'm 40, but I plan to have many more adventures like this one over the next 40 years!! Lots of fishing and lots of fun!! Peace Love and Fish!!

Old Salt Women's Fishing Tournament

Oh my gosh! I don't even know where to start? What a magical weekend. It all started at the Captain's meeting on Thursday night. The Captain's meeting is where you register for the tournament, learn the rules, and just party a bit. They raffle off a bunch of prizes too! One of the prizes was this awesome custom, hot pink, fishing rod by Ocean Girl. I turned to Andrea and said, "I LOVE THAT ROD!!." Sure enough, the next number called was mine!!! I could't believe it. It's a beautiful rod worth about $160!!!

Fast forward to Friday night. Andrea came over and we got the boat all ready to go and all of our rods set up. We rigged up a bunch of hooks, oiled our reels, and gased up the boat. We were so excited because we were really feeling like we had a chance in this tournament with all the knowledge that we had aquired over the past year and a half. Everything was ready to go for 5:30am Saturday.

Saturday morning came quickly, especially since neither one of us slept because we were so excited. We had a few little mishaps but we were on the water by about 6:30am.

By 7:30am we had caught the 2nd Place Trout that won us $300, a trophy, and a spot in the Old Salt Fishing Foundation Hall of Fame. Ok, I made up the Hall of Fame part, but it sounded good.

Although Andrea made me weigh the fish in, it truly was a group effort. I was making chum, throwing the cast net, and catching bait and Andrea was putting the bait that I had caught on the rods and setting them in the rod holders. All of a sudden one of the reels started to scream. To a fisherperson, there is no greater sound. It's what we live for.

When we turned around to look, it just happened to be the Hot Pink Rod that was doubled down to the water. Andrea grabbed the rod and I grabbed the landing net and in just a few seconds we were measuring our 21 inch trout. The trout, that would ultimately win us $300!!!

As you can imagine we are sooooooooo excited. Who would have thought the two girls that started out in a little blue Gheenoe, who couldn't catch a fish if their lives depended on it, would take second place in a fishing tournament. It really is a dream come true for us both.

Father's Day Fishing with Dad!!!

Citizens Arrest, Citizen's Arrest!!!

What a beautiful day to honor the memory of those who are fighting and who have fought for our country!! I was thinking as we were launching the boat how sad I felt for all the people who have died for our country that aren't able to enjoy a beautiful day like this. God bless them, God bless them all.

We decided to take the boat out later in the day since Andrea had to work 1/2 day. It ended up being a better choice anyway since everybody and their brothers, sisters, cousins and neighbors were out on the water. There wasn't even a parking space to be found at the boat ramp. I got lucky (or unlucky depending on how you look at it) some doofus who had no clue how to back his trailer out of a parking space was leaving. It took about 30 minutes but he finally got it out of the spot. All I knew was I wanted to be as far away from that boat ramp as I could possibly be when that guy tried to get his boat on that trailer.

Today was the first day in a long, long time that we were able to actually get out of the channel and run the motor on the boat. The wind has been so bad and we're skeerd of big waves.

It was awesome. The wind in our faces, the water rolled out for us like a red carpet. We docked at the Rattle Fish Grill, had an awesome lunch and headed out to our favorite fishing spot.

Elated that our spot wasn't yet taken, we threw out our anchor and prepared to fish!!! Fast forward 5 minutes and the sheriff pulls up in his 25 foot boat and asks us if he can board our vessel. I would've needed a new pair of Fruit of the Looms if I had been wearing any, but mine were Victoria Secret so it was all good.

So Deputy Fife says, "How are you ladies today?" To which Andrea replies, "Well we were good until you showed up." She's the only person I know that can get away with saying some of the things she says.

So all he did, short of giving me a heart attack, was check to see if we had all of our safety equipment and make sure that we didn't have any fish that were illegal to keep. "News flash fella, you have to let people fish more than 5 minutes if you want to bust them for trying to keep undersized fish!!!" It's good to see our tax dollars at work!! Doh!

We only caught one fish all day, an undersized Snook at 20 inches. ATTENTION: WE DID NOT KEEP IT. THE FISH WAS RELEASED UNHARMED AFTER THE PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN. I REPEAT, NO FISH WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS BLOG.

I might be getting a little paranoid since our recent brush with the law. Of course it didn't help matters any that Andrea commenced to singing "I shot the Sheriff, but I did not shoot the Dep-a-tee!!" What a goofball.

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged but there just isn't a lot to say when you sit in the channel for 4 hours. We have to get out into the big waters for there to be any big stories. ;)

Oh My God!!! I Caught a Snook

It was 25 inches long! It put up quite a fight.

Winds of Change are Blowing

Guess what? There's a story behind this Sheepshead!! Andrea and I spent the weekend at our favorite beach cottages called Changing Tides. Oh, if only we could have changed the tides, we would have had a much better fishing weekend.

We've been looking forward to staying there ever since we got our boat because there are boat slips in the back of the cottages. Dreaming of pulling up to the cottage in our new boat, we headed out on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately the wind was really bad all weekend and we never actually got to drive the boat from the ramp to the cottage, it was just too choppy, and we are just too wimpy (says Jason).

Soooooo, we decided to just hang out at the cottage and fish off of the dock. We met some other peeps who were out there fishing and we all became fast friends. They were having the absolute best time catching Catfish off of the dock. It was at that moment that I realized I might take fishing a bit too seriously. I'd rather have a root canal than catch a Catfish, but honestly it really is about the thrill of the catch and just having fun.

While fishing off of a small dock I spotted this large Sheepshead happily eating barnacles from the bottom of a sailboat. I quietly called everybody over to have a look, then made up my mind that I was going to catch it. I put a shrimp tail on my hook and just let it hover at the surface of the water by the boat. Low and behold, I caught it!! I watched it unassumingly take the bait and head back under the boat. Hooked!! That was the first time ever I had actually seen what I was trying to catch. It was very cool. Thanks to Rose, Abel, Julie, and Kelly for the picture and a really great Saturday afternoon!!

Oh and thanks to Andrea too for providing non-stop entertainment for the masses!! :)

Holy Freakin' Cow

What a Hog!!!



If you think he looks bad, you should have seen me!!!


Jeez, I don't even know where to start. We decided to take the boat out last night (Monday) because it had been very windy all weekend long and we were in dire need of a fishing fix. All shakey and sweaty from withdrawl, we hooked up the boat and headed for the bait store. About a mile down the road we realized that in all the excitement of getting the boat ready, we forgot the dock ropes and our depth finder. How in the world could anyone forget their ropes and depth finder, you ask? Obviously my friend, you have never suffered from fishing withdrawl. Fortunately we were headed to our night time sweet spot and that happens to be only about 3 minutes from the boat ramp. We're to skeeerd to go out any further in the dark. Old salts, we're not!!

So, Andrea backed the boat off of the trailer (since we didn't have our ropes) and it actually worked out really well. Mr. Fix it had shown us how to do that when we first got our boat and thank God (again) for Mr. Fix it. For those of you who may be new to the blog, Mr. Fix it is my dad, who just happened to be fishing on the other side of the bridge last night and caught his bag limit of Mangrove Snapper. We'll be waiting for that fish fry call, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting.

Alright I'll get to the fishing report. The evening started out slow, the water wasn't moving much, and it was a little bit windy but not too bad. Andrea had rigged our poles up before we left and we were ready to go. I don't think we even had a bite for the first 45 minutes that we were out there. Then, something under the dock started antagonizing Andrea (it's amazing how smart fish are). She'd get a bite and yank her line and the shrimp would come flying out of the water missing about 1/4 of its body. She threw it back, yanked it again and another 1/4 was gone. She did this until her bait was gone and then re-loaded and started the same routine again. After about four shrimp and 16 tries she stared to get a little upset but I just went about my business. Every now and again I would hear an expletive, not uncommon when fishing with Andrea.

About an hour had passed and I had pulled up one or two little Mangrove Snapper and Andrea starts yelling, "YEAH!!! I got the little son of a bi*#$, that'll teach you, don't you dare even think about getting off my line." I turned to see her reeling in this 11 inch Mangrove Snapper with a fat little belly and a huge grin on it's face." You gotta love Mother Nature.

Well, it's 7:15 a.m. and I have to get ready for work. You'll have to come back tonight if you want to hear the story that goes with the picture of that monster on the side of our boat!!

Ok, I'm back.......Now about that monster. I was just chillin' out, getting ready to call it a night and I decided to give my dad a quick buzz to give him a fishing report. I no sooner got the words, "there hasn't been much action over here" out of my mouth when this huge freight train hit my line. It was the most unbelievable thing that I have experienced in a long time. It was fighting like crazy, it was huge, and it was on the end of MY line. I don't remember much from between the time the fish hit my line and the time I finally got it to the boat, but I do remember that I was standing on the bow of the boat and it pulled me down from there. What a rush. All I could think about was keeping it on my line so I could see what in the heck it was.

Andrea was scrambling with the camera so we could get a good picture and I was just trying keep myself in the boat. I kept yelling, "it's a shark, I think it's a shark!!!" All I knew was that it was big. REAL BIG!!

As it turns out it was a monster Red Drum. We could barely lift the thing out of the water for a picture, besides I was really scared of it. Brave Andrea finally lifted it out of the water with a towel so we could get a picture. I know I joke about Andrea a lot but she is always right there making sure that I have everything I need to have a great time fishing. She's my fishing angel!!

So there you have it. We have no idea exactly how big that fish was but it keeps getting bigger every time we tell the story. To put it into perspective though just look at the size of that fish's head compared to the size of Andrea's hand. It was BIG, REAL BIG!!!

As a side note I would like to add that you guys can post comments to any of our blogs and we would love to hear from you. So get posting!!!

Latest Fishing Pics!!

Dad, Dolphins, and a Picture Perfect Day!!

What an awesome day!!! The fishing was EXCELLENT!! Andrea caught her first Sheepshead and it was a whopper, 18 inches!!! She started yelling the minute it took her bait. "It's a Sheepshead Keeuum, I've never caught a Sheepshead Keeuum!! I don't think I can get it, it's really really big!!" She's just too funny. She also caught a 15 inch Trout, and a 14 inch Pompano. She's almost ready for her own fishing show. Can you imagine the ratings!! Move over Grey's Anatomy.

A big pod of dolphins surrounded our boat for about 5 minutes or so. They were cresting about a foot away from the boat. It was so magical. They are such beautiful creatures.

My dad met us out on the water in his boat and that was a blast. He would drift right by us, around us, in front of us and then he tied onto us and ate a sandwich. Right after that we were told that we better leave our great fishing spot because a tugboat was going to be pushing a really, really big boat out into the channel. We didn't waste any time moving to another spot. No problem man!

I caught 3 Mangrove Snapper that were about 11-12 inches each, my dad caught one too so he took them all home to clean for dinner. It really doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

Fishing, Family, and Fun!!

Bluebird Skies

Fishing today was really awesome!! Andrea had the whole weekend off and we had planned to do a lot of fishing but Mother Nature was not very cooperative. Today, however, was a picture perfect day, when we started out anyway. We started out fishing the flats, God I don't know why we ever even stop at the flats we NEVER catch anything on the flats, today was no exception.

Foiled again, we moved on to "the point," and anchored up there for awhile. We did really well positioning and anchoring the boat. We had a prime spot. The bite started off pretty good. I got a small Sheepshead and Andrea caught a keeper sized Mangrove Snapper. About that time, two big Dolphin swim right through our fishing hole. Dolphin to a fishing hole is kind of like lightning is to swimmers, it causes anything with any sense to clear out.

We got the odd bite here and there, things were starting to pick back up and then some jackass pulls right up on us. Hello???? Fishing Etiquette 101, anybody? He kept trying to find just the right position and he kept turning his motor on and off. Between him and the dolphins there was little point in staying at "the point."

When we tried to pull up the anchor we were suprised to find that we had hooked a second anchor, it weighed a ton and poor Andrea had a really hard time pulling it up. She fell backwards onto her butt, she was sweating and huffing and puffing. Passers by probably thought she was trying to real in a Killer Whale.

Guess where we went next? Yup, you guessed it, back to the freakin' flats. Don't ask.

We moved over to an old piling with some rocks around it and I started pulling in Sheepshead like crazy. I think I caught six in all, each one bigger than the next. That's my kinda fishing!!

Andrea was just commenting on what an absolutely beautiful day it was and all of a sudden, the wind turned and the seas were at about 4 feet. It was CRAZY. Thankfully we were only a couple of miles from the boat ramp but we were both soaked to the bone. That trip was eerily reminscent of another scene from the perfect storm, still no George Clooney.

We're safe and sound though!! It really was a great day!

Ok, Ok, Here's the Blog

Confession time!! The fishing tournament didn't go so well. The weather was awful and it really made for some tense time on the KW (Key West). We did manage to catch a sheepshead to enter, it was 2 pounds, the winning fish was 7 pounds. All in all it was pretty miserable but we did get some experience under our belts!!


More recently, we took the boat out last night for some week night fishing and we REALLY had a super great time. The night started out slow but we ended up having a decent fishing night.
The birthday girl (she's 50 now everybody!!) caught a beautiful Red Fish and I caught a chubby little Mangrove Snapper. We also had a bunch of good bites and caught a couple of Lady Fish. We had fun and the boat got a much needed bath.

As you might have noticed, we are really enjoying our boat. My dad has helped us make it the perfect little fishing boat. We were getting quite a bit of water coming in the boat when we stopped and it was driving us crazy, wet feet in cold weather really ruin the day. Mr. fix it got right on it and designed some little stoppers to let the water out of the boat but not in. Genius, I tell ya!!

We went out to the Sky way bridge fishing with Mr. fix it a couple weekends ago and we caught every little sand perch within a 40 mile radius but not one Grouper. But what a great time we had spending quality time together on the water. : )

I do solemnly promise to blog more. Sorry you all had to wait so long.

P.S. Andrea gave up cursing for Lent (tee hee) she has to put a dollar in a jar every time she slips up. I see a cruise to Tahiti in our future!!! Oh Yeah!!!

That Sinking Feeling

Today I made a cast net throw, to end all cast net throws!! At least for that cast net anyway. Yep, another one of those damn lessons, I forgot to loop the end of the throw rope around my wrist. I threw it and couldn't get it back, what a sinking feeling that is. :) Andrea said the look on my face was priceless. I was honestly more concerned about any wild life that might be harmed by the net. We're always so cautions about fishing line and here I just tossed about 10 pounds of it, with weights no less, over the side of the boat.

Other than that we had a GRRREEEEAAAAAAT day. The weather was soooo beautiful and I caught a big ol' trout. I caught a lady fish and another little trout too. Andrea didn't catch anything but she worked her fanny off rigging the poles and manning the snacks. Just joking.

The highlight of the day though was that we docked at a local waterside restaurant and ate lunch. We hadn't ever done that before and we got quite a kick out of it. Our boat looked so tiny next to all the boats that were docked there but we were so proud!!

A big thank you goes out to my dad!! He came to our rescue at the dock with a screw driver when we needed to do some minor repairs. Note to self, get a tool kit for the boat. Actually, I'm sure that Andrea stopped on her way home and picked one up. She's such an Eagle Scout!!

Our Fishing Trip with Jason

Andrea and I went out on Jason's boat one Friday morning in early November. We left at 4:30am. It was early, it was chilly, but it was fun. Jason really knows what he is doing. We caught a snook, OH YEAH!! We also went about 7 miles off shore and trolled for Spanish Mackerel. We caught 3 really good sized ones. Andrea gutted two of them on the boat and also cleaned a couple when we got back to Jason's. We had a blast.

Lessons, Lessons, and more Lessons

Ahhhhh fisherman, we live for the ultimate bend in that fishing rod. There is nothing better than that screeching sound of the line being pulled off of your reel and watching the rod double over under the strain of a really big catch. What a rush!!

But what a buzz kill it is when you realize that what you've caught is your own boat. Yup about 10 feet of line wrapped around the prop like a spool of thread. Lesson number 342, don't put the boat in reverse while someone's fishin' outta the back.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you ran over one of those crab trap things with your boat? Lesson number 343, the rope that attaches the buoy to the trap is pretty long so the trap isn't necessarily directly under the warning buoy. Now I've heard rumors that some of you guys feel that my fishing buddy is being wrongfully picked on, so I would like to personally take the fall for this little catastrophe.

Now I'm supposed to be the lookout and I usually do a pretty good job. But lately I've been avidly watching fishing shows and I have become particularly interested in a fish called the Triple Tail. They are elusive and hang out right beside bouys. Those damn fishing shows make everything look so damn easy. Every damn buoy they went to, low and behold, there was a freakin' Triple Tail. I'm sure you can probably see where this is going without my belaboring the point. Lesson number 344 when you're the lookout, YOU NEED TO LOOK OUT!!

Well, we finally got some toilet paper for the boat. No, we don't have a toilet, but since Andrea averages about three bowel and bladder attacks on each trip out she's mastered what some might call, "hangin' it over the side." She absolutely refuses to wear Depends.

Lesson number 345, don't try to remove a wind knot from your line while driving into the wind. Last week while riding from point A to point B I noticed a little wind knot on my spool. I'm thinking, "I'll just pull a little bit off, ok, just a bit more, oh almost got it, a little more, a little more, I have this under control." My thoughts are interrupted by Andrea saying, "Kim, is there a problem?" "What? Huh? No, no problem", I say as I look down at my feet that are tangled up in about 5 feet of fishing line.

Finally and quite possibly most important is lesson 346. When you add a 3 ounce weight to your line you most certainly do not have to heave it with all your might. Especially when you are very close to a bridge that has a fishing catwalk and multiple pedestrians. Can you say involuntary manslaughter?

We haven't been catching a lot of fish but we have laughed a lot. Owning a boat has truly been a character building experience. I'm sure many onlookers have thought, "Look at those two characters!!"

Pictures are coming very soon, I promise!!

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!!

Fiiiiiiiiishingggggggg

I have come to realize that there are two types of fishing. There is fishing and then there is fiiiiiishinggggggg. Andrea falls into the second category. I, on the other hand, take fishing very seriously. When I feel a nibble, I wait, give it a second to commit, set the hook and start to land the fish. That's fishing!!

Andrea feels a nibble, lets the fish clean it's pallet, swirl the bait around in it's mouth a bit, then she lets it swim around because she likes to watch it move her line back and forth. She says, "Look Keeum it's swimmin' round on the end of my line." That prompts me to yell, "Andrea will you set that damn hook and bring that fish into the boat!!!" Her reply, "well ok, I'm just having some fun with it!!" Then she starts reeling like a bat out of hell, gets the fish to the surface of the water and then it flops off the hook and hits the water. For cryin' out loud, I just can't take it!!! That girl could test the patience of Mother Theresa herself.

Sweet she is, a world class fisherwoman she is most certainly not!! I just can't wait to enter our first fishing tournament!!

Fishical Therapy

WE GOT A NEW BOAT!!!! After years and years....well, ok it was only months, but it seemed like years. We finally found our boat!!! Affectionately named "Fishical Therapy." We drove down to Palm Beach yesterday to take a look at it and we're going to go back out and pick it up on Saturday!!!

A few of the highlights:

It's 15 feet long with a bimini top to keep us sheltered from the blazing Florida sun.

It has a 50 horsepower Johnson Motor. Wow, can you imagine, 50 horses, now that's some power.

An aerated live bait well - we'll save tons of money not having to buy "D" sized batteries for our little portable air pump.

It has a marine stereo and two speakers installed - we didn't have a stereo in the Gheenoe, but I do hope that Andrea will continue to do her moving rendition of "Go Tell It On the Mountain".

A color fish finder/GPS system - Andrea and I were the fish finders on the Gheenoe, we stayed in three feet of water most of the time so we could find the fish pretty easily and we never needed a GPS cause we could always see the car from where we were fishin'.

It really is awesome and we really are excited to go and get it this weekend. You all know what this means? A bigger boat, so bigger fish stories!!! So we hope.

Oh my goodness!!! I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Andrea caught the biggest Mangrove Snapper to date on our last fishing trip with my dad. It was over 12 inches!!! I went to take a picture of it and the batteries in my camera were dead. She was thrilled beyond words about that, let me tell you. But I found this picture of one that looks exactly like it on the internet so I thought I'd post it for you all to see.

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.