Wine Down: Keys Trip

I am always asking Jared to take me fishing, but for some reason we never go...either we don't get up early enough or it's too windy or some other ridiculous excuse. Not to mention that our only available fishing vessel is our Gheenoo, which is pretty much an over-sized canoe with a motor on the back...real luxurious. Plus, our Gheenoo also happens to be housing a bunch of the junk in our garage that we don't have room for. Hopefully, we will do some fishing in Jacksonville soon, but until then I guess some offshore fishing in the Keys will have to suffice...no big deal :)

Saturday, April 2

When I decided that I wanted to go to the Keys for Spring Break this year, one of my must-do activities was offshore fishing. Luckily, Jared's dad had a friend who owed him a favor and he happens to be a charter captain, so Jared didn't have to shell out an arm and a leg to take me fishing...I'm so demanding :)

Jared, Erika, Ben (Jared's dad) and I set out bright and early for a full day of fishing with our captain Jimmy. Erika and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to sport our matching tie-dyed Sloppy's Joe's t-shirts. In the Keys, you can wear pretty much anything and not be considered ridiculous looking.

About 15 minutes into our trip, the guys had all the rods out and set up, ready to go. All of a sudden, one of the reels started going and Jared jumped up to get it. He set the hook and a sailfish jumped out of the water. He called me over and told me that he was going to get it started and then he was going to hand the rod over to me so that I could reel it in. I was very excited about this because I had never caught a sailfish before. The fish jumped a couple of times and I was starting to become concerned that my little weak self (remember it's been at least 3 years since I've been to a gym) was going to have to reel this giant fish in.

Finally, Jared handed the rod over to me and the fight was on. He kept standing behind me the whole time; I think he was afraid that the fish was going to pull me overboard.

I was pulling up and reeling down for what seemed like an eternity. My arms were killing me and even started to feel like noodles. It got to the point where I had to use every ounce of strength in me to pull that rod up. I seriously thought that my arms were going to give out and let go of the rod. After about 30 minutes of fighting this fish, Jared asked me if I too tired and wanted to give him back the rod to finish it off. I had come too far and I was not giving up now. Finally, after 45 minutes my sailfish was up to the surface of the water next to the boat. I did it!

My arms were so tired and shaking, but I wanted a picture with my sailfish...this was a glorious moment for me :) After all that fighting, I still had to lift this 50 pound fish out of the water and hold it up for my photo. So in a hurry, our captain Jimmy and I lifted that fish up into the boat, snapped a photo and threw him back into the water.

In all the fishing I've done in my lifetime, I've never caught a fish this big and I've never worked so hard to catch a fish...I was feeling pretty badass :)

Once we got my fish up to the boat, we discovered that he was hooked in the side of his body instead of in the mouth. This was the reason why it was so difficult to fight him and why it took me so long and so much effort to reel him in. I have no idea how the fish managed to get hooked in the side, ask Jared...he must have set me up...rude.

After we released my sailfish back into the water, it was time for me to take a long break from the activities. Whatever fish was hooked next was definitely not going to be reeled in by me, I was exhausted.

Not too long after, Erika caught a dolphin with a little more ease than my sailfish. We ended up keeping it and I can't wait to eat it soon...love me some mahi mahi :)

We relocated to the reef in hopes of more action and spent the rest of the day fishing for mangrove snapper. We caught a lot of grouper, but we couldn't keep them because they were all too small and grouper is not in season right now. Among all the mangrove snapper and spanish mackerel that we caught, Jared, Erika and Ben each managed to catch a king fish as well. It was quite a successful day of fishing!

While the guys were cleaning all of the fish back at the dock, Erika and I ventured over to the bar next to the marina for some strawberry daiquiris...cleaning fish is not our forte :)