Deep Sea Fishing.

I was not sure if we'd get an opportunity to go fishing when we lived down here. Mainly because to charter a boat is pretty expensive and well that is our only excuse. But luckily, Phil had been mentioning fishing during a couple of conversations and my happiness and excitement over the idea of ocean fishing kept increasing. So prior to our volunteering for the half marathon we had made plans to go fishing.

To refresh, on Sunday morning we were up at 4:45 AM to unload tons and tons of water for the half marathon. We had just finished with the water. We were sore and hypoglycemic, I may have had a Chuck the bear moment (grrr), and we quickly drove home to get our things for fishing. The weather had been very good over the past few days and so I was not expecting very bad seas that may make me sick. Fun fact about me is that I do get a little sea sick if the water is rolling to much. This is hard to embrace because we spend so much time on water in Iowa as well as here in Florida. In running around grabbing all the necessities I realized that my dad had prepared me well for this adventure. I packed: sunscreen, a Cabella's hat, long pants, long sleeve shirt, close toed shoes and water. We also stopped at the store for other necessities: sandwiches, chips and beer. We were on the boat and ready to go at 8 AM. On our fishing trip was our Captain Phil as well as Dave, Brad and us. I said Dad prepared me well, but in actuality I didn't use the long pants or close toed shoes. It is the Keys and I am pretty sure the only non-flip flop shoes I have worn are for work...

Leaving the Navy housing base we headed out to sea.. or so I thought but in actuality we had to get some bait. Brad got out a very large net. The net was weighted at the bottom and attached to the weighted end was a large draw string. The object is to use the boat like a herding dog to draw the baitfish toward the shore. Once near the shore the person with the net casts it out and over the baitfish. The weights sink the net  quickly to the bottom and you pull the drawstring to bring the weights together forming a closed net.  You then pull the net up and dump the baitfish onto the deck of the boat. Once on the boat you designate a man to gather the bait (Rick) and place them into the livewell for use later. Brad threw the net three times to collect enough bait for us to use.

Brad looking for bait

The cast..

The catch!! 

After collecting part of our bait for the day we headed out to sea. The area we were going to fish was about 10 miles off shore and very very deep. Phil decided to take us to a little honey hole first so we have our best chance at catching something. The ride out to the honey hole was comfortable - the seas were about 2-3 feet with rolling waves. I have seen the deep ocean one other time in my life, I forgot how indigo blue it is and images do not really do the color justice. Once to our spot, Phil gave us the low down on how the deep drop works. First, you string your line with about 6 hooks. Each hook is attached to an eyelet and are about 5 inches or less apart. Then, you add weights to the end of the line. Brad brings out two very large round weights, each weighing about 3 lbs. Finally, you bait the hooks. The bait we used on the stringer was squid and some other bait fish I had never heard of. The fishing pole was not like any I had seen before, the reel was massive and the line was 300 pound test.

The rig

Once the line was ready we dropped her into the honey hole and waited. As the line kept going and going out I started to pay attention to my surroundings. We were so far off shore that you could not see it, and at one point an empty freighter came within a mile of us - they are huge vessels. I also noticed that the waves were in the most perfect rolling succession and they were large enough that you could pretty easily lose your balance if you were not anticipating the roll. FINALLY, the line hit the bottom of the ocean and it was time to fish. According to prior stories Phil told us that you do not see the reel thump like you would at a lake because the line is so deep, but you do get a feel for the very small change the more times you deep drop. About that time both Phil and Brad were pretty sure we had some fish on the line--let the reeling begin!!

After both Brad and Phil took a turn reeling in the fish I took a crack at the last 200 feet or so. The boys were nice enough to move the reel into a position along the edge of the boat that would be easier to reel in. I am not going to lie I completely understand why someone created an electric reel to do all the work. Phil said that he will not purchase one of these until he brings in a sword fish. He once reeled in a shark- what kind I have no idea but apparently it was not as cool as a sword fish. Anyways.. I am reeling and reeling and reeling and REEELLLINNNG and my arm is super tired. The fish on the reel had better be so huge.. the last 50 feet I swear my shoulder had never been this tire and I hear the distinct sound of disappointment from Phil and Brad- NO FISH!! All that effort for the 6 pound weights on the end of the line. I need to start lifting, YIKES! That was the only drop we did where we did not catch any fish. The remaining drops we would bring up 2-5 fish. There were a couple of times that we lost a hook due to something large taking them. The fish we caught were Tielfish.

Phil reeling in our catch

After we caught our first fish it was time to have a beer because the pressure was off Phil to put us on fish. I grabbed a delicious cold beverage and took a big gulp.. we dropped our third time.. I took another gulp. I remembered Brad saying when I got onto the boat "Either of you get sea sick" to which I replied "yes" .. I was semi- reassured that the ocean was going to be fairly calm because of the direction of the winds and I made the command decision to not take dramamine because I didn't want to sleep through our trip.. my third gulp of beer this thought came to my forebrain and I cursed myself because I felt the beginning of nausea. Oh no oh no oh no.. I am the only girl on this fantastic boat, this is my first fishing trip I am NOT going to chum the water! I continued to carry the half full beer around.. I took my turns on reeling up some fish... I took a tablet of dramamine (what a baby) and I did my best to stare at the horizon. By the last drop I was grasping onto the edge of the upchuck cliff.. when I heard the greatest words out of Phils mouth "Lets do some trolling" In my head the clouds parted and angels were singing Phil's praise because I was that close to losing it.
For the first 40 minutes of our trolling I sat cross legged in the front of the boat breathing deeply trying desperately to gain control of my stomach. Success!!! I was back to normal. Phil said he had a pretty good idea that I was maybe not feeling the best because I got pretty quite.Which we all know is really weird.  The remainder of our trip we trolled and then attempted to use the baitfish we had captured this am. We fished lake style with the baitfish but unfortunately we were not successful. I was really glad we ended up trolling, but it kinda hurt to know we left a honey hole.

Tielfish and Grouper

Dad always makes us kiss our fish to appease the "Fishing Gods"
Maybe I need to figure out away to appease the "please don't let me get sea sick gods" 

Thank you to Phil for taking us fishing!! I loved it, even when I felt terrible.

xoxoxo
Rick and McKenzie