Saturday, June 23, 2007
Current mood: awake
Category: Travel and Places
James' company planned a team building event, a deep sea fishing trip on the Gulf of Mexico! They invited many of the guys and employees from work and waited for responses when it became clear they would have space they opened the invite up to include spouses and kids. Yea! So we RSVP'd and I got to go deep sea fishing a second time this year, and it met a couple of my wishes from the last time I went out on the Atlantic; calmer waters and a warm day.
It was beautiful out there! It was a much bigger boat, so a little different experience from the trip in February. We had another family ride over to docks with us and we went to an early breakfast with them. I'd been watching the weather and knew it would be a calmer day on the water so no dramamine and no problems! We met up with the rest of the crew from work and their families at the docks and got settled on the boat. I met some new people that day and got to spend time with some I already knew. I also got to talk to some of my guinea pigs (I make practice pies and send them to work with James' for feed back and to preserve what I can of our waistlines.)
It was about a two hour ride out to the first place we stopped to drop lines in and see what was biting. All in all I think the captain took us to four maybe five spots to fish, maybe even six. We started off using squid for bait and then went to bait fish. I still don't get something about the bait fish though, why do they cut off the tails? Some people were using the whole fish minus the tails without the tails the bait was about 3-4 inches long, and others were cutting the bait fish into thirds and using chunks. It didn't seem to matter that much though both ways were catching fish. The catch of the day included Brown Grouper, Red Grouper and Key West Snapper (I think that's what they called them) and other than a lizard fish that went back I think that's it for the variety. One of the sons of another man from the company caught the largest fish of the day and Tom (who rode with us) caught the smallest fish of the day. It looked like a small brown grouper seriously I don't know how he caught it, he hooked it through the center of the body and it was only about an inch, inch and a half long. It was really the strangest. James caught several fish one of each type of grouper neither keepers BG had to be 22" and RG had to be 20". But he caught a Key West Snapper that was a keeper.
Sad but true I didn't catch a single fish that day, but I caught a few rays... sunshine you know. I had a few good nibbles but this trip it seemed a lot trickier to hook the fish. I really would of loved to feel how they fight, being out there is great but reeling in and trying to play it out till you bring that fish to the surface and get to see what's on the line that's where the fun is at. We were on the side of the boat as well which it seemed the rear and the forward decks were the better positions for catching but no excuses there were still people around us on the side catching. I was wishing for a bait casting rig though rather than just dropping a baited hook over the side and hoping. The captain, Captain Bob and his deck hands occasionally between helping everyone else managed to wet a couple hooks and they had their bait casting rigs, it looked like fun casting out farther. The captain caught a few really good looking grouper!
But a catch to come home with or not it was still a great day, like they say a bad day of fishing is better than the best day at work. James' company put on a great trip and they gave out some nice prizes for the biggest and smallest fish caught, as well as most and least fish caught. I got a nice bag for trips to the beach for least fish caught (I wasn't the only one but I guessed the right number to break the tie.) I also won a really nice Rapala tackle box in the raffle his company put on at the end. Now I just need a new heavier rig for dock fishing or hint hint maybe another trip out on a boat... (James are you reading this?)
See you later allig8tors.
Currently watching : Hitch
