Exeres Family Fishing Trip Spring 2013
I think I've explained who people are before, but it bears repeating because really who remembers shit like that.
The blond is my uncle Richard, first mate of the fishing boat. He's gaffing a mackerel caught by my other uncle, Jason, who tends to be the first to grab the trolling line while the boat is headed out to the fishing waters proper in the Gulf. That weird thing he's doing with his arm is keeping the invisible fishing line out of his face.
This is the primary target of the Emerald Coast fishermen for the next five weeks,
Lutjanus campechanus, the red snapper. The bag limit is two per person, and with eight customers on board that put the total limit at sixteen fish. We caught fifteen. I caught three, but one was below the weight limit and released.
Sarda sarda, or Atlantic bonito, is a blunter member of the mackerel family. We caught three of these and ended up cutting up one for bait. This ended up being much more effective for attracting snapper than the squid, shrimp, and minnows we brought with us.
Scomberomorus cavalla, the king mackerel, are the long fighters that get caught by troll lines. The ones we caught were all somewhat smaller than usual, but we caught four of them and they are delicious.
Captain Eddie is visible in this picture, but the real star is that tiny little finch or sparrow, I'm not sure which. It appeared as if by magic when we were three miles off the coast, and landed on the deck right next to my brother. It appeared to be very exhausted, as it didn't move after landing, even as Rich scooped it up to place it on the upper deck so no one would accidentally step on it. After just a few moments of rest, it took off again and disappeared.
Brother on the right, grandfather on the left. As you can tell by the bent pole, Grandpa was fighting something that would have ended up being the largest snapper on the boat...
...if only a shark hadn't gotten to it first. A sudden, violent jerk on the line told us exactly what had happened, and our suspicions were confirmed when the leftovers were effortlessly pulled up to the surface. We laughed.
Grandma was the only one who hadn't caught anything worth keeping during the trip until one of the troll lines captured something on the way back to shore. She managed to reel in the last catch of the day, a king mackerel.
My usual position. With the early embarking and the constant rocking of the Gulf waters, I tend not to last long on these trips. I managed to make it to the last hour this time, at least.
The spoils of war. We didn't get any individual photos of the triggerfish we caught, but you can see those flat, round ones on the top row. The total count at the end of the day was fifteen red snapper, four mackerel, three triggerfish, and three bonito.
I've already eaten some of the snapper. I'd like to think it's one of the snapper I caught. It tastes amazing.