Fisherman Dave

So, um, yeah, I finally went on a vacation recently and I finally got to fish for the first time in months. I know, what kind of fisherman only fishes once every couple of months, maybe one that doesnt have time to do so every day, or every week at that, one day though, one day I will have the chance to fish my ass off, until then you must be forced to my once a every couple of months updates on this blog.

So I was down at my uncles house in the Florida Keys with a couple of his friends, and we were on our way out about 20+ miles to go after some Mahi Mahi. I was hoping to catch a wahoo since I have never hooked up with one before, but instead we got plenty of dolphin, and I have been eating dolphin for dinner every single night for the past week, and I still have about 5 bags left, which should last me another week or two.

Anyways I was able to hook up with a couple of the dolphin that we brought aboard, and let me tell you, not one of the dolphin we landed was under 20 pounds. At the end of the day I was called a fish hog, just because I had caught 2 of the 5, but everyone played a part and had fun, although there was way more yelling and screaming that was going on then there should have been. I guess that is just part of the game though.

I got a chance to get my camera out, and it happens to take pretty decent videos, and I go the end of one of the fights, pretty cool shit to watch.

Not only have I enjoyed fishing in the florida keys multiple times with my family, but I have also had loads of fun doing some snorkeling in the Florida Keys also. See my family has a vacation house that is located in Marathon Key, and we always go out fishing around the 7 mile bridge, around the canals and flats for some snook, and also we go offshore to try and get some Mahi Mahi. My uncle and my cousin are great scuba divers, and they have a handful of scuba gear to get the job done. They will dive right by the 7 mile bridge and they will come up with a ring full of snapper and grouper. I too would like to get a certification in diving one day but with so much things going on I find myself very short on time these days.

So when we do not feel like going offshore fishing and burning up hundreds of dollars of gas, we may go to a local reef and do some snorkeling. The amount of fish that are on the coral reef is amazing, no one really fishes thier as it is a tourist spot and is more for snorkelers just to enjoy the view of the reef and all of the colorful fish. I am not sure what the name of the reef is but I do know that it is a lighthouse and it is viewable from the inshore of the 7 mile bridge.

Once we get tired of looking around by the reef at all the pretty fish and the scenary we might head out to the open flats and do some snorkeling. This is also fun because it gives us the chance to net up some lobster left and right. At first catching the lobster can be a tedious task but once you get the hang of it, it is like second nature catching them. I get on my mask and snorkel, and swim on top of the water with a net in my hand and a poker, you spot the lobster by looking for the antennas that stick out of the hole. Once the lobster pops out of the hole you just scoop it up with the net, you can also catch them by hand as the lobsters in Florida do not have claws.

The second day of my vacation in bimini bahamas was just as good as the first if not better. Although I woke up with a bit of a hangover I was up and ready to go and catch some more fish. We really wanted to hook up with some wahoo, but as it turned out we had trolled for a couple of hours and didnt have any luck at all with that. So we proceeded to go to an old trusty spot that my cousin had knew about, and yet again we were catching some snapper right off the bat.

One thing that I had realized other being hungover is that I didnt take my morning shit like I usually do, and then it hit me and it was peaking when we were in the middle of hooking up with snapper and other cool looking tropical fish. Well the good thing about the Bahamas is that the water is always warm, so I just hopped overboard and took a dook in the water, scared shitless though that a shark would come up and bite my ass, you will see in a little bit what I am talking about. We were pretty close to shore and there were a couple of people that were populating some used pontoon boats looking over in our direction, too bad the turd wasnt a floater so that they could see it. Sadly enough the turd had just slowly sank to the bottom, sorry if I am grossing anyone out it is just the way that I am.

I was all fine and dandy with reeling up some snapper and shit but I had started drinking and wanted to get a hold of something that I could go home and brag about, with pictures. So I had caught a fairly large grunt, about 3-4 pounds or so, although grunts are fairly good eatin we had enough fish in the cooler allready to last us for awhile. So I talked my cousin into hooking up a shark rig, as he is a million times more experienced than I am. He hooked the grunt in the head and cut off the tail so it would bleed, so guess what we were going after, you know it, a shark.

Only took about 15 minutes before the line went zipping out quick, then the fight begun. It didnt take as long as I though to get the shark up to the surface, although the shark clearly was over 10 feet and god knows how many pounds, it was a nurse shark and for there size they do not fight as hard as other fish, not that it was completely easy to get the fish up to the boat. Landing the shark was completely out of the question, as I had no need to keep a shark that big, I wasnt going to eat it or hang it on the wall, so I just simply cut the fishing line and let him go.

Well that was the highlight for me of fishing in Bimini…

But there was good times altogether, the place my cousin had the condo was great, the bars (all three of them on the whole island) that we had went to were great. I can not wait to go back and I cant wait to get some more pictures, and on top of that it will be another great saltwater fishing story for me to tell.

One of the best vacations that I had ever had was a fishing trip to the Bahamas. The best part about it was several factors that were mixed together, see the owner of Marina Mikes happens to be my cousin and he just happens to have his own condo in Bimini, the Bahamas. The other cool thing about going to the Bahama’s is for me it was free, as my uncle has his own plane and pilot, so I was able to fly there with my cousin and his girlfriend on the private plane for free. I was originally going to take my vacation down in the Florida Keys to do some fishing with my uncle but I have allready been down there to do some saltwater fishing many of times. My uncle had called me a couple of days before I went on vacation and suggested that I go to the Bahama’s with my cousin, and boy was it one of the best decisions that I have ever made as the saltwater fishing there is more than superb. I hate to say it but I had more fun fishing there then I ever have anywhere in Florida, including the Keys, maybe it was the change that had got me.

The plane ride there had taken less than 2 hours from Fort Myers Florida, and I was informed deeply by my uncle to buy beer in Florida and bring it on the plane as they do not sell beer by the case in Bimini like they do here in the states, so I got my hands on a couple of 12 packs and a bottle of bacardi as part of my travel bag. When we had first got there I was taking pictures of the island through my crappy 3 pixel camera, though the image quality is crap you can see that the island is nothing less than fucking awesome.

The view was phenomenal and the water was nothing but crystal clear, I could not wait until we landed to see this place. The island that we were going to, Bimini, is only about 7 miles long, there just happens to be an airport there. Of course there is because many of the islands that are apart of the Bahamas are all about tourism, it is there main way of making money. They do not have any major manufacturing plants there, they rely on tourists. And with some of the hottest fishing in the world the Bahamas is loaded with wealthy fishermen that travel all over the world to visit there and catch some competitive game fish such as Wahoo, Mahi Mahi, Bonefish, and every type of shark and tropical fish that you could think of. When we first arrived there I was amazed on how friendly everyone there is. I mean since tourism is there manin means of getting money they teach all of the children to be very courteous to the tourists that visit there, and they all listen. On the island I was at there is very little to no crime, there are no police, courthouses, or anything like that. There is just trust among everyone that lives there, and half of the people that populate the island are tourists that are taking a vacation and relaxing in their condo, as there are many of them there.

When the plane first landed in Bimini we had went through customs there, which took in total about 5 minutes as the plane station is about as big as a hotel room. From there we hopped on one of the taxis they had there at the airport and we were on our way to the south part of the island where the marina was, and my cousins sweet ass carolina skiff equipped with a couple of 200 HP motors was located. Once we got to the marina it was just a 15 minute boat ride to the northern part of the island where is condo was. He parked it at a private dock that he had privelages too. By the time that we got there it was comining close to nightfall, so there would be no fishing the first day that we were there. There was a start to a great night out in the town ahead of us though that is for sure.

There are about 3 main bars or “nightclubs” that are located in the small island of Bimini, and we were sure to hit them all up. See there the main way that people get around the town is by means of a golfcart. There are very few cars there so a car mechanic wouldnt make the best living by being a car mechanic there, though if he was a golf cart mechanic then he or she would have plenty of work for them. Here are a couple of pictures of my cousins pimped out golf cart that he has over there.

Notice all of the fishing rod holders and of course the name of his marina along with all of the motors and types of boats that they sell. See the people in Bimini have a hard time accessing boat parts as they have to get everything shipped to them, my cousin is friends with everyone on the island so he hooks them up with what they need, in return he is treated like royalty there, his stuff is watched over, his boat is in perfect condition and clean upon his arrival, his condo is watched and in perfect condition upon arrival, not only that but we also had the privelige of getting the best conch salad in the world, along with a bunch of kalik beer for free.

The conch hut that we stopped at was great, it is like a local hangout spot and things there are always poppin and busy. I myself had the honor of eating my first conch penis, I think, that is what they told me I was eating anyways.

MmmmMmmMmm….tasty LOL!

Well the rest of the night was just roaming around town getting drunk and whatnot, very exciting but not too much fishing went on, actually none went on at all. The next day we woke up at about 7 in the morning, and of course I had one hell of a hangover, but none the less I was here to fish and no matter what kind of state I was in that was what I was here and what I was going to do dammit!

So my cousin, his girl and I headed for the carolina skiff with the fishing rods and tackle loaded onto the golf cart. 5 minutes later we were at the private dock, and which we didnt have to load any of our equiptment onto the boat, there was someone waiting there to do it for us, man whoever says money aint a thing just dont know, besides that lets get back to fishing.

We headed out somewhere after that, not really sure, all I know is that the water depth there can change instantly, and dramatically. You could be swimming in 10 feet of water, and then stumble upon a 800 foot drop in depth, no kidding. This is heaven for some big game fish and that was what we were out to get. We first headed to a well known ship wreck, where we were surely catching some snapper left and right, to get a view of the spot that we were at just take a look at the header of this blog!

We catching all sorts of fish, especially these oversized needle fish that kept plaguing us, they are fun to catch and all but they take away from the other edible snapper that we were after to catch originally. Here is a picture of my chunky ass holding on to one of these slimey bait stealing sons of bitches.

I had kept pestering my cousing to drop a deep line just because I do not get the opurtunity to do this type of saltwater fishing that often, so we had got a small grunt and then we dropped it a couple of hundred feet. After about 10 minutes or so something had hit it, but the fish had scurried into the rocks and we could not get him out. I had let the rod sit there for a little bit, and then I started to just pull at the line with my hand for about 5 minutes, hoping that I would annoy the hell out of the fish and he would get out of the rocks so I could pull him up. Eventually he did leave out from the rocks so I guess my little trick had worked and I reeled him up with a quickness. What it turned out to be was not what I expected, as it was adecent size Moray Eel, not something you want to eat unless you are sure that you know how to cook it properly.

Sorry you have to turn your head to see but at the moment I am too drunk to bother to open photoshop and change the direction, you know what I mean? So we were just nailing all sorts of fish from this reef, my cousin hooked up with this tropical looking fish, forget whats its called I might edit it later when I am not so drunk and have the urge to get the name right, its good eating though that is all that I know.

As you can see we were catching some crazy fish, and I haven’t even fitted half of them in yet. As I am getting more tired and more drunk, I will have to continue this tommorrow, as there is a whole lot more information about my saltwater fishing vacation in the Bahamas, including the biggest fish that I have ever caught.

See you then

Dave

Hello everybody and welcome to my blog about saltwater fishing and more. I will tell you a little bit about myself to get things started off right. First off this used to be a contest blog for seo, then when I tried to transfer the domain to the new host I had lost every post that I had on it, oh well this is a perfect time for me to rebuild. As you can see this will now be a fishing blog, because one of my favorite things to do is some saltwater fishing. I am from Florida and have lived here about 80% of my life. I will grow old here in the sunshine state and hopefully so will my daughter.

I am 27 years old and have a 3 month old daughter, along with a wonderful girlfriend who is the mom. I dont get many chances to get out of the house any more because I work a full time job as an HVAC technician/Tampa Bay Handyman, and when I am off work I am usually on the computer typing away or doing something. Anytime I get some free time or some vacation time you can as good say that I will be either in the Keys or somewhere in Fort Myers doing some saltwater fishing. My cousin and my uncle own a marina down in Fort Myers called Marina Mikes, and it is a great place to get a used carolina skiff. The benefit of that is they always have a boat or two lying around, so everytime that I go down there to visit there is a different boat for us to go fishing on.

Out of all the types of saltwater fishing I have done I would have to say that catching dolphin fish is the most fun, just because of the anticipation of waiting for the fish to hit the rig. You troll for sometimes hours, waiting, drinking a beer, pulling seaweed off of the rigs and letting the rigs back out in the water, looking for birds and boards, but once you get that strike it makes it all worth the wait. My second favorite type of fishing would be snook fishing. Not only are they a blast to catch, but in my opinion they are the best tasting fish that there are, thats why they have such strict limits on them because they have been so overfished in the past.

So I am hoping that in a couple of years I can save up enough money to buy a boat, and maybe even a small house with a dock somewhere here in Florida. The only two places I would move to is either Saint Petersburg, Florida, or somewhere down in Fort Myers Florida so that I could be close to my aunts and my uncle. If I had a choice and if my financial status would let me I would fish 10 hours a day every single day, I am not saying I want to be a commercial fisherman or anything, like in the deadliest catch t.v. show, but I would sure like to do some mangrove fishing for snapper and snook everyday of the week, with the occasional deep sea trip out in the Gulf of Mexico to hook up with some Mahi Mahi.