With a narrow window of fair offshore, we headed out for a day of bottom fishing at Pelican Flats. Our guest today were Tom, who moved to Florida when he retired, to fish, and his friend Johnny from
Missouri, who was down with his wife on vacation. Johnny had never been on the ocean before, so it was a first. What made it really interesting is that Johnny lost his sight in an industrial accident a couple years ago. Having lived through a life threatening accident, Johnny is now taking another challange. Being on the water without being able to anticipate the wave action is certainly a challange. At the days end, he was glad to be back on solid ground, but also glad he tried something he had never done before.
The fishing. Basically, it was Tom who was doing all the fishing. I helped out in filling his icebox, and playing with the Red Snapper a bit. The day was nice, and 3-4' sea's in the morning continued to calm as the day progressed. By the time we came back to port it was 1-2' sea's, making a nice smooth 45mph ride. The abundance of Triggerfish that we had seen on recent trips was a little down, but we still caught a handful. The Sea Bass were plentiful as always, and on the heftier side. The largest Sea Bass we caught was 17". The Red Snapper were as usual, not depleted, not rare. We caught a half dozen, with the largest measuring 30". All but one was over the 20" size. A single Lane Snapper was caught. We headed in early to clean the catch and boat.
While out, we heard the VHF call to the USCG about an overturned boat in Sebastain. The call was that people were in the water, and one was unaccounted for. All were recovered, but one was under water a while, and ressusitation was taking place as they were recovered and being transported. The day before at Port Canaveral, a cruiser ended up on the rocks, way up on the rocks. Fortunately, there were not reports of injuries in this crash, but that could easily have been different. With the overwhelming majority of boating "accidents", being no accident, but operator error, you have to wonder if people will ever learn that driving a boat has as many risks as driving a car, except that the 'roadway' does not move on you like the water, and getting a "puncture" on a car means pulling over to change a tire, but on a boat may mean 'SINKING'! Horesplay and 'hotdogging it' have no more place on the water than in a car. The results can be tragically similar.
Rough sea's till the weekend, but then a few more nice days to fill the coolers.
Captain Henry
"Wile E. Coyote"
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