Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Fishing Trip

Wayne and Christy with Captain Brady
On the best day so far of our stay, we went fishing in the Gulf with Captain Brady.  It was a glorious day with temps in the 70s and calm as glass waters.  After picking up some bait at sea from the captain's friend, we headed out into the Gulf.  There was a rather large pod of dolphins jumping playfully.  We circled them laughing at the wonder of it.  The calmness hindered the fishing to a degree, but I had rather have beautiful weather and fewer fish than vice versa.  We caught a variety of fish.  Some of them were out of season (Gag Groupers) and some were under sized (Red Groupers).  Both John and Wayne caught red groupers that were 1/8 and 1/2" short of the 20" requirement.  The hogfish feeds off coral and rock and is almost exclusively speared rather than caught on a line. This captain instructs on catching with a line, which you lay on the bottom of the gulf (about 50') with a frozen shrimp.  Check out Wayne's t-shirt featuring the hogfish. At points during the day we saw a loggerhead turtle, several large jellyfish and many varieties of sea birds.  
The trip is best described in pictures at flickr.