- Thread starter
- #701
First thing, my buddy Ian came through with the El Fuego seeds 17 but 2 don't look like they will pop. AWESOME:
Now I am going to tell you a nice story about taking this one family fishing. This story starts on the first Monday in July the year makes no difference. Its quarter to eleven in the morning and I have all my Spinning Gear out and I am putting new Mono (line) on all the reels and greasing the Drags. From behind me I hear a very polite " Excuse Me Sir, Might I have A Word With You" in an Upper Crusty English Accent. It turns out it is a Family on vacation in the Keys from Manchester, England. He proceeds to ask me what his chances are of catching a Sail Fish. I tell him he has no chance at all, because Sail Fish Season doesn't start until December and runs thru April. I then tell him that right now its Flat Calm, the Gulf Steam is not running, the water tempature is so hot the Fish are staying deep and No Body Is catching anything. I asked him how long they were going to be in the Keys, and he said they were booked at a Hotel in Key West until there plane left on Friday evening. I told him to go down to the Boat Dock in Key West in the afternoon about 5:00 pm and see what the fleet caught, and if they see a whole bunch of Fish being caught and then make up their mind about fishing or not, but don't get your hopes up. So Wednesday comes and about 4:30 pm, this same guy from Monday is standing at the back of my boat. He tells me that they stopped at a few other Boats on their way to Key west and every body was saying the fishing was great and tried their best to get them to Charter their boat. Even in Key West when they went to the dock, they were told the fishing was good and yet no one was hanging any fish up. He then tells me that he canceled his Hotel in Key West and is now staying at Holiday Isles and would like to Charter my boat for all day Thursday and he didn't care wheather or not they caught fish, they wanted to spend the day with me because I didn't Lie to them just to get their money. So I get a deposit and go inform the front office that I'm booked for tomorrow and call Bodine (my mate) and tell him were out at 6:15 am. I go back to the boat and take it to the fuel dock and filler up. As I am backing, back into the slip, the English family is waiting. They just want to say see you in the morning. I say "Hey you guys want to eat the best sea food in the Keys, my treat? They say that would be splendid. We all loaded in my car and I took them down to one of Raphael's (the pot guy) Fish markets. It's on the bay side so you can watch the Sun Set. Now Raphael's brother in law is afraid of the water so he talks Raphael into letting him open a very small Restaurant/Bar at the Fish Market. Its a half circle Tiki Bar with 10 tables in an open Patio right on the water. Absolutely Beautiful. We start off with Stone Crab Claws an then Snapper California a Yellow Tail Snapper Filet in a ceramic baking dish, sliced Avocado, Mozzarella Cheese, covered in Marinara Sauce and baked to perfection. For dessert Chocolate Mousse Cheese Cake. We ate, had a few adult beverages, and watched the Sun become three times it's normal size and disappear into the horizon. I dropped them back at the Hotel and went home to get some sleep. I get back to the boat about 5 am and the owner Larry Dukehart is waiting at the back of the boat. He tells me that he got back from business in Stone Mountain, Ga. early and was going to run the boat cause he was on the fishing jones. So I went from Captain to Mate for the day, which was fine with me, that way I could spend more time with my new friends. Around a quarter to 6, Bodine shows up, I forgot all about him, and I tell him to go home and I would see him Saturday. Larry took us out of the marina and headed for Alligator Light where we would be stopping to get live bait. Once at the light, we anchored up, put out the chum bag and waited for the bait fish to gather behind the boat. In 5 mins and one snap of the 16 ft Cast Net and we had our bait and were off. As we are crossing the reef into deeper waters I am putting out the trolling lures, for some high speed trolling until we get further out. As I'm putting out the third lure it gets hit and we are hooked up. At the same time as the rod I was holding got bit so did the other two rods that I had all ready put out. So we got a triple header right off the bat. In the picture all the way to the right, three of those small Blackfin Tuna were caught. Now I get the lures back out and in not to very long the flat line goes and we got a Schoolie Dalphin on, that is the small green fish in the picture. When you get in to a school of Dalphin, as long as you keep one in the water the school will stay right behind the boat. So I took the first one and put it in a rod holder and went and got two Ultra Lite Spinners, sat mom and dad down in the Salon and got the two kids and took them to the back of the boat and let those two catch all those small Dalphin. Between the two of them they caught 12 and had a Blast doing it all by them selves. We get under way and I go to put the right rigger lure out and I go to put it in the clip and it pops out, I get the line back and put in the clip and run it a few feet up the pole and it comes out of the clip again. There is a slight bend to the rod and I think it picked up weed or something. I pick up the rod and put it all the way in gear and start to reel the line comes tight, the rod bends and off in the distance I see a Sail Fish jumping. Sure as Shit we got a damn Sail Fish on in July. I get the guy situated and hand him the rod and we get treated to a brilliant show of Grey Hounding, Head Shakes, Jumps and Flips for the next 20 mins or so. I had discussed with the guy early about conservation and he decided not to kill the fish. So I Billed it, brought it in the boat, got pictures, measure, tagged and released the fish back into the wild. We trolled around some more, caught those 6 Dalphin in the middle an called it a day. Isn't strange how 3 days earlier there wasn't a fish to be found, and this guy and family not only have a great day fishing but he gets to catch his dream fish and have what ends up being the best vacation of their lives. That's one of my favorite times fishing. Later TOAST
Any expectation that she'll modulate that lovely aroma as she dries and cures? One can only hope, eh? 
What a relief, huh?
