Off the Charts!

Hi Everyone!

Since returning back from Pittsburgh, we've slowly been trying to adjust back to the Florida life.

Last weekend, we had a fun night out with Chad and Lisha, and tried out a new Mexican place in Tampa.

Glenn continues to stalk butterflies in his spare time.

But our latest adventure yesterday brought us some real excitement.

For our anniversary, I decided to surprise Glenn and book us a half-day inshore fishing charter with Captain Stewart Ames. Captain Stewart called me on Friday night to warn me that the weather had been so unpredictable that he'd had to cancel several other charters during the week, and we'd just have to see how things were on Saturday.

In fact, it has been raining a LOT over the past couple weeks. There was a 60% chance of storms yesterday morning, but we got super lucky. The charter left out of a marina in nearby Ozona, where Chad and Lisha have their little cottage down the road. I was happy to see that it was just the captain and us going out on our own private trip.

 

We headed out to an area off the shore of Caladesi Island, and storms were building on all sides of us.

Capt. Stewart surveying the scene.

By some miracle, we made it through the entire 4 hours without getting rained on at all. It was a weirdly beautiful day.

This osprey was eating a fish, and the birds below were feasting on his leftovers.

So now, I am going to tell our story a bit backwards so I can save the best for last. Towards the end of the day, we went over to some mangroves and fished for redfish. Captain Stewart suggested he cast for us, and we let him, because we would have just thrown our bait directly into the branches of the mangrove trees. He actually had perfected an amazing cast that went underneath the trees and back into the little hidden pools...it was something to see.

Anyway, at this spot, Glenn caught two redfish and I caught one. Sadly, mine threw himself overboard before we could take his picture, but we got this one of Glenn and one of his fish. These were relatively small for redfish (probably around 16 inches) and our Capt. was somewhat disappointed with them.

We told him that we were used to catching fish that were usually around 4 inches long. :-)

At the very end of our day, Glenn caught a big sting ray. Good grief. The thing took off and eventually suction cupped himself to the bottom and Glenn couldn't budge him. Quite a workout.

Stewart said he wouldn't bring it into the boat anyway for safety reasons, so it was a relief when the line finally snapped, although I would have liked to have gotten a picture of it.

But anyway, back to the beach by Caladesi. We were anchored right off shore, where we had seen a few swimmers earlier. Fortunately, the threatening weather had scared off most other fishermen for the day.

We were fishing with live bait that Stewart caught that morning. Whitefish and grunts (pigfish) mostly. He taught us how to cast for salt water fishing (two handed, over the head, since the bait is heavier than fresh water), and all sorts of fishing techniques. But we went for probably a half hour or so with no success.

Suddenly, BOOM! Something hit my line and took off - the line just zipping out. The nice thing is there is really no need to set the hook with bigger fish - they seem to set it themselves. The captain was yelling at me to "reel, reel, reel" which was easier said than done, as I could hardly turn the reel at all. (He later taught me how to make this easier.)

Anyway, somehow I managed to bring in the first fish of the day, a 29-inch snook.

Ta-da!

You are actually not allowed to keep snook right now - they are out of season. So this one went back to sea after her selfie. (FYI, I say "her" because Stewart told us that once snook grow to be over 27 inches long, they all turn female. I looked this up, and as unlikely as it sounds, it appears to be true.)

Not too long after this, Glenn got a hit near the same spot. Stewart was saying it must be another snook, although smaller, but whatever it was still was putting up a hell of a fight.

When Glenn landed the fish, we discovered it was a beautiful sea trout. Stewart said that they are hardly catching any of those at all right now, especially such a big one, and he was very excited. He told me he might put this picture in this month's newsletter.

What a beauty! 23 inches!

The trout was actually the only fish we were allowed to keep, and so, I shall be cooking that for dinner tonight.

Not long after this picture was taken, I once again got another hit. The line went screaming out and suddenly we could all see this huge fish just racing along the shoreline. Glenn and I both said it was the fastest we've ever seen a fish take off. It was both exciting and terrifying.

This ended up being a much harder fight. While the first snook was somewhat cooperative and swam towards me, this time, the fish raced off and then started circling the boat. The captain wasn't sure what I had...thought it might be an amberjack. Anyway, he's all excited and yelling at me to reel, reel, reel, and follow the fish so the line wouldn't get wrapped around anything.

At one point the thing went under the boat and I thought I was going to lose him, but Stewart took the rod from me, persuaded him to move somehow, and then gave me back the rod. I was not sure I wanted the rod back at this point. (Glenn said he was glad he wasn't fighting the thing; we could tell it was huge.) Anyway, I have no idea how, but I managed to bring it in.)

So yay! The biggest fish I've ever caught in my life, another snook, just shy of 35 inches.

While this pics were being taken, my arms and legs were totally shaking. I was saying, "Take the damn picture!!!"

After that, I was kind of hoping not to catch anything else for a while. That was exhausting!

So anyway, that was our anniversary on the water. We both had so much fun; such a great day.

Afterwards, Stewart filleted Glenn's trout for us, much to the delight of the onlookers.

We caught a total of 6 fish - 2 snook, 1 sea trout, and 3 redfish. (Not counting the sting-ray.) Not a ton, but the best day of fishing we've had.

Last night, we went to Ocean Prime for a lovely anniversary dinner. It was nice to get all cleaned up as we were pretty disgusting after a day on the boat.

So that's it for this week's adventure. Hope you all are having a great week!

The Burgh and Back Again

Hi Everyone!

We had a great visit with you all! Unfortunately, we were having such a good time that Glenn forgot to take many pics of friends and family, so sorry if you don't see yourselves in here.

He did, of course, get a pic of himself with his buddy, Pops.

And also a picture of the new love of his life.

Also, last Monday, my parents took us to Glenn's happy place, which is Phipp's Conservatory. It was beautiful, and Glenn got to practice his photography skills, so sit back and relax for the show.

Peek-a-boo!

Here's my nominee for the photo of the week...

This photo is to demonstrate that the hibiscus is as big as my head.

Family selfie!

On Tuesday, we flew home. And Glenn couldn't resist taking some pictures out the window.

On Wednesday, Glenn and I had the day off, so we decided to go fishin'. We returned to Weaver Park in Dunedin, where there were a couple dolphins swimming in the shallow water.

The fishing in Dunedin continued to be both fun and rather frustrating. As soon as you throw the shrimp in the water, there is an immediate strike, and, 9 times out of 10, you lose the damn shrimp. We went through 48 of those poor suckers. However, Glenn caught 5 fish and I caught two, so it wasn't a total loss. Although we didn't catch anything big or exciting.

Glenn found out the fish that we were catching are actually bait fish, called Pig fish or grunts. They are used to catch redfish and snook, but we just let them go.

You are going to think I am making this next part up, but I swear it is true. When we reeled in the Pig fish, they make a grunting / oinking sound just like a pig. I have never heard a fish make a sound in my life, but these guys oink. Here is Glenn oinking to the Pig fish.

I did have one strange catch. I caught a little gar.

They are pretty, iridescent things. But soon after this picture was taken, we noticed that I had not actually hooked the gar. The hook was hanging loose. Somehow the line had looped around, and through the gar's mouth (he had tons of tiny teeth) and had tied his mouth shut. Glenn and I were desperately trying to untangle the guy...it was like untangling a knotted necklace, and it took us much longer than we wanted. Finally we got him free and threw him back in, but he didn't move in the water. I was sure we had killed him. But after a few minutes, he came back to life and swam away. Yay!

So that's pretty much it. This past weekend, we have not really done anything photo-worthy. We had a nice dinner in Tampa with Chad and Lisha last night, but otherwise have just either been running errands or sitting on the porch.

Hope all is well with you all! Talk to you soon!