Things really didn't sound so rosy when I was told we were going to take a boat out of Destin at 6 am. Destin in a bit more than an hour away...that means we'd have to leave BEFORE 5 am, um, yeah, can't tell ya the last time I was up at that time. Thankfully, Gramma called the charter company the night before we were to go out and was told we didn't need to be there before 7:15. Alright, we're getting better already!
Everyone got up just fine the next morning and loaded up the car (thanks to an extra hour of sleep). C drove, considering my state of incapacitation, being before 8 am and all. We got to Destin in good time and the menfolk even fed me. Unfortunately, the only quick place open for breakfast was Whataburger...not really known for great breakfast food (sorry egg+tortilla does not = burrito). Sleep: good, breakfast: bad.
As I scarfing down my sad excuse for a breakfast burrito in the back of the car, the guys went to check us in at the charter office. I was told I had to go up to the office to sign myself in and took, what I thought might be, my last chance to pee for several hours. We found our boat at the pier and boarded it. We were the first passengers to arrive and we were told there'd be 9 more joining us-a full boat. I also learned, that there were bathroom facilities on board. Whoo hoo! Breakfast: bad, bathroom: very, very good!!!
Everyone else arrived and I was thrilled to see that there was one other woman on the trip with us. I'd hate to be the only reason all the guys couldn't pee off the side of the boat! We met the captain and our two deckhands. We were told to sit/stand anywhere we'd like and we were off!
Well, apparently, we had some rough seas this morning and soon giant waves began crashing over the front of the boat. Anyone sitting two or three feet off from the cabin slowly got soaked. C and I were pretty protected where we were but some poor schmuck at the back of the boat looked as if he had been dunked in the gulf! Save for the salty spray, I thought it was a fantastic ride out to the fishing grounds. We had some super duper roller coater waves-ones that rocked you up and down and back and forth all at the same time! Unfortunately, one of the deckhands (the 15 year old son of the charter's owners) didn't handle choppy waters well and headed straight for one of the benches below deck. By the time we stopped at our first spot, we had lost at least half of our fellow fishermen to a horizontal position! Thankfully, none of our hearty Lizar party succumbed! It just meant there was more room on the deck and we got to fish the wimps' share of the catch!
Here Grandpa, take our picture please...
Yeah, should have known better, let's try again (shhh, this was actually his FOURTH attempt)!
Those of us still standing upright got right to business and started fishing after a brief tutorial. The one remaining deckhand had prepared bait for everyone: hacked up frozen fishies and sliced squid. Right about then I decided to pull out my official "I am a Girl and I Don't Touch Dead Fish" card...what you don't have one? You should look into getting one. You don't use it often but it's very handy when the opportunity arises. For the entire trip, any time I lost my bait or there was an icky fish attached to the end of my hook, I would just stand there with a sweet smile on my face. Amazingly, someone (Grandpa, C or the deckhand) would rebait my hook or remove the fish. It was great, I never had to even ask, it would just magically happen! At the end of the trip I think C mentioned something about having to double the deck hand's tip because of me but I'm not sure what he was talking about there. He's always such a generous guy, that husband of mine :)
Everyone quickly got the hang of casting the lines and we began to pull up lots of fish from the sea. You cast the line, let it sink to the bottom and then reel it up for about five turns. Pretty simple. One side of the boat (the one we weren't on) kept reeling in one big Red Snapper after another. Me, I pulled in one little bitty Snapper after another with a few Remoras mixed in. The deckhand was so sweet and measured everyone with the stick to see if it was big enough to save, even when it was obvious that they weren't even close...OK, maybe now I'm seeing that big tip he got came into play! At least I was catching something, even if we had to toss it back. It was way more than those poor souls in the front of the boat were doing. If I've never said it before, thank you Mom and Dad for my strong constitution! It has served me well on all sea voyages thus far!
I think in all we stopped in three different fishing locations, before we reached our fish quota. At the last stop, I finally managed to catch that elusive Keeper fish that everyone had been talking about, whoo hoo! I've never heard of the Keeper fish species, but they look very similar to Red Snapper.
It was amazing how quickly 6 hours had flown by. More amazingly, I had had a really, really good time (check it: I doubled two sets of words in that sentence). As we go closer to the shore, the living dead had begun to rise. Some passengers appeared that I'm not even sure were on the boat when we left the dock. I swear I hadn't seem them before. Sucks to be them! Talk about $100 bucks wasted. Even the second deckhand made a cameo and felt well enough to eat Pringles and order a cheeseburger to be delivered to the boat when we returned. Go figure, he bounced back quickly!
Once ashore, the deckhand (the good one, not the fair-weather one) prepared the fish. First he hung them all up on the boat sign in the marina by jabbing them through the eyeball (yum). This made a beautiful, and not at all creepy backdrop for some homeless-looking guy to take everyone's pictures. Amazing, this same said vagabond guy reappeared 10 minutes later with 8x10 prints of the pictures for sale at the bargain price of $10. Yup, the sucker I'm married to bough one, even though we had one taken with our own camera. He can't say no, that's how he got me!
Anyway, back to the gross fish. After everyone had their souvenir photo opportunity, the deckhand proceed to gut and fillet all the little fishes right there. It was awesome to see how fast he did it all. When he was done, he portioned out all the fillets and gave then to everyone that had stuck around. We got everything he had left at the end, which I'm sure was a bit more than everyone else got. My math is a bit off, but I'm pretty sure the fish we took home came roughly to about $40 a pound-bargain, WOOT!
Before taking off for home, we made a quick pit stop. Yes, I had managed to go 6+ hours surrounded by water with out having to pee, go me! I guess I didn't have anything to worry about in the first place. The guys complained about being covered in fish guts from the bait, but I was fine, they're just big complainers, I guess :)
For dinner that night, I did a quick search for how to prepare Red Snapper and came up with a great Cajun rub for the fish. C fired up the grill, I made a nice salad, and we had an awesome fresh fish dinner. The kids declared it the best fish ever, I'd have to agree. Plus, it was a pretty awesome day. Twist my arm, I guess I'd go deep sea fishing again...but I'll have to make sure to have my extra tip ready!
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