Hey Where's my Dinner?????

Last night we went to Longdoggers where else haha and there was lots of talking going on. John was planning to fish today with Reid & Chandler. Ron was already out fishing with some other guys, my brother Mark was planning to go out and so was Al.(other people were going fishing too) Naturally, all of them were talking about all the fish they were going to catch. Al, Mark and John had a bet going on who was going to catch the biggest one...and we decided we were one way or another going to be eating LOTS of fresh fish at Longdoggers today at around 6pm. Wellllll.....that was the plan but
Mark got nothing. John, Reid & Chandler got one small bait fish, and Al got one mackerel..(but won with that!) hahhaha Ron & crew got lots and lots of tuna..but they were also 128 miles offshore...so that didn't count.
It wasn't as calm as they expected.(so that rain gear John assured Reid he wouldn't need would have been nice to have on board).....but it was a beautiful day. Just no fish.
So...I guess when the rest of the gang showed up at Longdoggers tonight...looking for Ron? John? Al? Mark? and all the fish...they got
skunked too!
John was in bed...Ron was so tired he wasn't going anywhere. AL may have been there for work...bragging about winning with one mackerel...and Mark???.....who knows.
I guess you could say "Don't count your fish before you catch them" haha

Friday Night Fish Fry (in the garage?)

John went fishing Wednesday night/Thursday with Ron, Ben, Anthony, Alex and Matthew...on this boat. (Anthony is a partner on this boat with another friend) we think It's a little bigger than John's boat...and that was helpful since it was a little rougher than they expected. The extra 8ft came in handy...haha
They did not find any wahoo...but they did get some grouper and snapper.

Anthony & his brother Alex (Alex and Matthew and his friend Veronica are visiting from Quebec)
While Ron & Ben cleaned the fish on Friday evening...we ate!
snapper
It started to rain a bit so we all moved into the garage...cosy enough..not exactly luxurious..haha but the food was good so we didn't care.Besides...that way my whole house didn't end up smelling like fried fish!
Anthony brought some wahoo and made up this sushi...with a special spicy sauce...pretty good.
we invited our friend Mike over and he brought a big lobster. Anthony's kids were both scared and fascinated by it
After a little coaxing...Aidan decided he would touch it
We ended up eating and drinking in the garage until late into the night...we listened to music, laughed and just enjoyed a casual Friday night get together with plenty of good fresh fish!

Last fishing trip of 2010=first sushi of 2011

John, Brenna, our friends Ron Y., Reid and Chandler L. all left for the Bahamas last Wed....hoping to find some wahoo. (and more)
Originally they talked about staying through New Year's Day...but after I asked them whined a little to come back New Year's Eve...and they did. (It's a good thing too...because it was kind of rough coming back...although they had a following sea...and it only got worse the next day.)
They weren't really back in time to do anything NY eve...but luckily for them I stopped to get some food and wound up staying an hour with friends at Longdogger's and that was enough to satisfy my wanting to go out anywhere. Plus there was the promise of fresh fish while we watched the games on New Year's Day.
1/1/11. Ron came over and cleaned the fish...with John & I, Reid & Chandler, my brother Mark, our friend Charlie and friends Tom & Teresa S. and Tom's brother Eric watching. We enjoyed the mild temperatures, some cold drinks.. and winning teams (way to go Gators!& Crimson Tide!) and ate lots of fish fresh and straight from the cleaning table.
Our good friend Heather, who is always willing to give advice where the pets are concerned...invited us over tonight for sushi. Chris had all the needed supplies...rice, wasabi, vegetables like peppers, cucumbers, avocados, spring onions...etc. Mike and Denise brought some lobster claws and Mike's (famous)lobster casserole. Chris and Heather prepared all the sushi ( with wahoo and snapper caught by John and crew and lobster from Mike) along with salad and miso soup..and we all ate like kings and queens. A great way to start off the new year.
But after fish for 4 days in a row...even if it was super fresh and very tasty...tomorrow night we are having hamburgers!

Another Good Day of Fishing (sort of)

John, Ron, Ben, Jess and Ben's dad, Mike all went fishing Saturday and as you can see...they got some great fish.....but it was a long day on the water
Ben holding a Yellow Eye Snapper. Mike has a Grouper.
"Big Ben" holding the big grouper

John with all the fish...all 8 different species
I came out the back door...unaware the picture was being taken....
Holding up two of the big ones
They finally got a Yellowfin Tuna...one of the first this year (after So many last year) Ron was reeling it it went along came a shark (or two?) and CHOMP!!!!!...half the fish was gone...but Ron reeled it in and we finished off the rest! hahaha

Strawberry Grouper and Silky Snapper
Queen Snapper

Mystic Grouper....one ugly looking fish...but it tastes pretty good! :D This giant fish head was from a 160lb grouper....and the head was so ugly....I'm glad I didn't see the whole fish!.I like the goofy expressions on John and Ben's faces..almost as bad as the fish)..I'm not sure what Ron was going to do with it...other than freak people out by showing it to them...I figured maybe he was going to do a twist on the scene from "The Godfather"...substituting a big fish head for a horse head...but they assured me that wasn't his plan. hahaSo they left our house at about 2:30am Saturday and headed out as usual looking for fish. They were catching plenty of fish and then got a little later than usual start back. About 49 miles out the hit a wall of storms...not just rain...big black clouds and lightning...with the radar you can usually use it to get around the storms...but this one was about 20 miles long and miles deep...no way around it. So they had to wait it out (for 3! hours)...the water went from being sheet glass to kind of rough when the north wind kicked in...so they were wet, running a little low on gas and wondering how they were ever going to get through the wall of storms! Mike said at one point it was just a wall of black and red...doesn't sound fun to me! John put a call in to the Coast Guard to let them know they were out there...they weren't in distress...just running a little low on gas and figured it would be a good idea to let someone know where they were (GPS) and what the plan was...just in case things got any worse...(Thank God they did NOT!) Meanwhile...back at the ranch house I was starting to get a teensy bit nervous as it was getting dark, and late(r). Finally...around 9PM Ron called and told me they were on their way in the inlet and would call again as soon as they got in. They went in at Ft. Pierce...met the BoatTow people who had waited with two gallons of gas...and THEN they still had to run up the river to Sebastian Inlet dock...to get the trailer and bring the boat home. SO...they pulled in to our driveway at approximately 1:30am almost a full 24 hours after they left. They were all pretty soaked/(sort of drying off...)very tired, very glad to be home. John came in showered and went right to sleep. I on the other hand...could not sleep for the next hour and a half...I think I finally went to sleep around 3am....Ben said he and Jess couldn't sleep, same for Ron...after all that adventure...it was hard to settle down. LOts of late night TV viewing...(which usually puts you to sleep sooner or later!) Everyone slept in Sunday and then came over around 4pm to clean the fish. Once that was out of the way...we brought some over to the neighbors.....and cooked some up for ourselves.
It was a nice evening on the back porch for seared Tuna, grilled grouper and MahiMahi. And THEN>>>>....we all slept pretty well last night!

Continued from Sunday

Okay...after spending WAY more time than necessary...I think I finally have the pictures to go with the big wahoo story. The computer is acting up...it's almost like it has had a stroke....or what I assume a brain is like after a stroke...or trauma...it gets the message...but doesn't necessarily interpret it / or respond to it correctly or...something like that. It took not 1, not 2, but 3 tries to get the pictures downloaded to the RIGHT place...so I could then upload them to the blog....ahhhh the things we do for....???????? self satisfaction? so in no real order... here's my brother Paul and friend Pete who both stopped by for a bite after work.
out and in the pool

Hey! what happened to the couch??????? it was recently spotted up in Huntsville, Al...hahaha

Pat, Chris and Chuck rolling up the sushi
the source of the sushi... pretty big fish...isn't it? 47 lbs
in the kitchen...setting things up


A good time was had by all!

Another big fish = lots of fresh sushi

So....the camera has the pictures...but I can't get them downloaded onto the computer....so just the story for now. Yesterday...Ron went offshore with Reid and Chandler. John opted to go golfing instead. Ron called about 12 noon to let John know they had caught a BIG wahoo...47pounder to be exact! After that call...John proceeded to get on the phone and call everyone to come over for an afternoon cookout. The key people...Chris DeVries and Chuck Tanner...because they had the necessary equipment to roll up some fresh sushi....both were available and willing to come over and work and EAT! Amy and her sister Lynn, along with her family came...they brought a Golf Ball Toss game and a delicious Strawberry Walnut Salad.(I originally gave them the recipe...it's good. I actually got it from my sister Elizabeth). Anthony and his friend Stephanie came with a big pan of hot spinach dip with pumpernickel bread and tortilla chips(yum) and the fixings for a batch of "Poki"
a sushi appetizer....with too many things in it to mention here. It was good. I had cookies (of course!) and made a big fruit salad...because you can't go wrong with fruit salad. Then we had the sushi rolls.....fresh wahoo (hours old) with avocado, red pepper, cucumber, seaweed wrap...etc...and plenty of dipping sauces. As fast as Chris and Chuck (and Pat) rolled...we all ate! haha John also seared some on the grill....and before long...that 47 pd fish was disappearing! (We did bag some up)
We played the golf ball toss game....we swam in the pool...(that felt like a bit like a lukewarm bath)...(.but still refreshing.)..we talked, ate and drank....all 31 of us! We listened to music...and eventually had a Dance -off...with the Wii game. Courtney was the undefeated champion! We all got a work out trying to beat her!
Stephanie was the only one who came close....she beat the rest of us...but couldn't beat Courtney! I figure it's because she has been to the "Mike Roy School of Dance"...haha...I told that to Mike (her dad) his reply??? "Damn right! haha" Plus she's been listening to and watching the rest of us dance to that music since she was about 2! I guess Julia and Ellie will be the future champions...we are training them now...hahah!
So far this season the guys aren't catching nearly as many fish as they did last year...especially the Yellow Fin Tuna...but in the last two weeks...they got the 58 pd mahi, the 47 pd wahoo and Ron and some friends had a second place 37 (?) pd tuna...so we have been eating pretty well!

A BIG One!

John took his goddaughter Jordan, her boyfriend Josh and her brother Chandler offshore today. It was part of John's gift to Jordan for her graduation. (Josh graduated too) Fishing has been a little slow a LOT slower than last year so they were just hoping to catch something! Well...the first bite of the day was this one. Josh was excited... he had caught his biggest fish to date...then
they had a hit...knew it was big and then this guy jumped up about six feet...and the fight was on. Chandler was first to take the pole...he fought it for about 25 minutes. He got it in pretty close...then it took off again and it was Jordan's turn. She fought it for about 20 minutes...then Josh brought it in.
They knew it was one of the biggest fish they were ever going to catch...so they took lots of pictures! They took it to Whitey's Bait and Tackle to have it measured and weighed. It OFFICIALLY weighed 58 lbs...and was 5 ft 8inches long.! They even took it to another place to confirm the weight show it off and then John started calling everyone!
Cleaning up the boat
Here's how big the head was...this is a shot of it in the cooler
The tail was sticking out...so everyone passing by could see it!
When Tim drove by...it didn't take long for the crew to make it's way down to get a look at this fish.
John with the fish




And where all good fish ultimately end up....on the cleaning table! I know what's for dinner tonight!