Thursday, May 10, 2012

May 9, 2012.

The eye is all better and work is going well so I thought I'd use this opportunity to do the fishing season recap.

This year we really knocked the shit outta the lobster with 181 taken. The weather was especially nice, we made it south pretty quickly and the lobster gods favored us with a record harvest. We gave a lot away, we brought 9 back with us and evidently ate a shitload.

57 Lionfish were removed from the delicate ecosystem that is the Bahamas. They're an invasive species and I kill em' because its the right thing to do. They're so dangerous that they just sit there looking at you when you swim up to destroy them. Even after they're shot there’s no fight, they just sorta die. Good riddance. Bitches.

Hogfish is our favorite fish. They can be pretty deceiving when it comes to size. In the past I've been badly fooled and discovered that my catch was a lot smaller than I had anticipated before I shot him. After firing its too late to take it back so I tried to be a lot more selective when shooting.
As a result we only took 14 but I was pretty pleased by the size of all of them.

I only took 1 Nassau Grouper this season. Before the season I saw several big ones but once the season started I just wasn't seein' the large ones. I passed on dozens of borderline fish but I can't really complain.

We took our first Tiger Grouper
ever this year so I have to consider it a success that we came away with 3 Tiger Grouper for the season.

I took 1 Margate this year because he was a monster. They're easy to kill so I really don't bother unless a huge one shows up. And one did.

We also took our first Porgy this year. They're pretty skittish and I was pleased to run into one face to face with my spear already cocked. Another bonus was that he was fairly large and turned out to be quite tasty.

I took 1 Red Hind this year. They're usually fairly small so I generally skip em' but this year a big one challenged me to a game of “around the rock”. He was also tasty....for a loser.

The last fish of the season was a real nice Almaco Jack. He was so big that the meat chunks that Christy prepared in a soy sauce/ ginger glaze were mistaken by guests as ribs until they started eating them.
Big, solid, really firm meat that was very good.

During the season we had a tremendous day of line fishing while traversing a stretch of deep water. We were rewarded with 3 Mahi Mahi. Mahi is a terrific fish and straight out of the sea, they're hard to beat. Of course none of our were as bigs our friend Mikes. Bastage.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Dang, those are some big fish. What kind of spear do you use?

Glad your eye is doing better!!

S/V Veranda said...

We use pole spears. They're 6 feet long with a 6 inch threaded rod on the front. Various different barbed points can be screwed onto the rod.

Anonymous said...

Just caught up with the blog; waiting out weather in Ft. Pierce. Lively day in the ditch yesterday. South Florida is having some unsettled weather. We may come to the bay in September. Will let you know.

s/v Vixen

S/V Veranda said...

That would be awesome if you could get up here. It would be great to see you guys again and you'd love the late summer sailing here.

Mike Davis said...

I really enjoyed the Jack, thanks for sharing. It was great seeing you guys again

S/V Veranda said...

We always look forward to seeing you too but the time just goes too quickly