FINALLY GOT OUT

Finally got the opportunity to get out on the water. The weather, fuel prices, and timing has been preventing this avid boater to stay on dry land far too long. Got the opportunity to go out during the week, family was in tow, my son and daughter, her three children and her man were all in attendance. It seems I am not the only one who has the calling of the sea.

We headed out and the weather was just beautiful, trolling lines out, just waiting for that sound the drag makes when a fish hits. Not a lot of time passed when we got our first hit, by the end of the day we had 4 beautiful dolphin and 3 tuna aboard the boat. We enjoyed a fantastic fish fry that weekend.

That same Sunday, would be Mothers Day and our annual trip. It always seems to be good weather on that day, it would be our 11Th Annual trip. The same crew was in attendance and we headed out to the same location. We found the gulf stream out at about 15 miles and the rods began to bend, another 4 beautiful dolphin on the boat and to our surprise 2 triple tails. This was ladies day and we have never gone home empty handed. The end of the day was fantastic, the guys cleaned up and filleted the fish. Feeling like my life has been handed back to me I melted into my sheets for the evening dreaming about the next fishing trip.

CAPSIZE IT

My name is Zelda and I live in the Florida Keys, this day was a day to remember. A beautiful day down in the Keys as it is in Paradise. A couple of friends and myself set off to do a little dophin fishing. Out pretty far in the shipping lanes where we finally hooked a good one. I founght the dolphin for over an hour until I finally landed it and brought it into to the boat. A 48 pound bull dolphin tucked away in the fish box, one for the trophy wall.

Satisfied with the days catch, it was time to head back in and get cooking. Well as it sometimes happens we couldn't get the boat started, with all the distractions we never looked around us. Coming toward us was a freighter, we got on the radio and tried to call them. Then it was time to shoot some flares, well that didn't work, tried to shoot one across the bow as the freighter came closer and closer. Nothing was happening but all we knew was it was too late for them to turn the freighter now even if they did see us. Grabbed some life vests and put them on made our last frantic call to the coast guard. Jumping in the ocean and starting to swim as far away from the aproaching freighter as we could get.

Closer and closer we were screaming at them and didn't see anyone on deck as the freighter passed the boat so close that it capsized!!! I can tell you it was a scary sight, bad enough our legs were dangling with a couple thousand feet of water under us and now almost run over by a freighter, they wouldn't have even felt a little bump had they hit the boat. All the panic over with, all I could think about was my fish in the fish box, what can I do? I swam up under the boat and unlatched the fish box grabbing my prize dolphin, nearby was a life vest. I put the life vest on my fish so that we were all neatly floating and waiting for our Coast Guard rescuers.

After floating for over an hour the Coast Guard arrived to rescue us, coming over quickly thinking we had a child with us, but it was my fish in a life vest. The officer told us that they wouldn't be able to let me take the fish. I simply told them to forget it, because I am not loosing this fish after all that work, I will swim back. The officer called the boss and we all got rescued.

What happened to the frieghter, well the Coast Guard finally caught up with it in Lousiana, and there was nothing they could do to them. The boat, well the tow service came out and called it a salvage job, for 12 thousand dollars we could have it back. All I know is I have a beautiful trophy on my wall.

MY ROD LUCKY

This is not really a fishing story, but a story about a fishing rod. What you say! Well about 20 years ago I was living in Key Largo and just taking the boat out through Adams Cut, the water was very clear that day and I noticed something on the bottom. Jumping in to retrieve what happened to be a rod and reel. Not too crusty, I began using it, did a little bottom fishing and caught a few fish. After that day I named my rod Lucky.

Years passed and Lucky continued to perform well, the reels broke down and had to be replaced but Lucky was still intact. I went fishing with my husband and we got into a large school of dolphin, frantic as they are, so my husband became, we were fishing 2 and 3 rods at a time. I yelled to my husband "don't you dare use Lucky and put him down" The reason for this is Lucky has a short handle and will fly out of the rod holder. As soon as I could get the words out Lucky flew off the boat. I was too busy with fish on my line to throw my husband over-board, so we continued to fish. Pulling in our lines, fish on, fish on, pulling up the last line and discovered that the line seem to be tangled in another line. This was strange considering we were in over a thousand feet of water. Grabbing the other line and low and behold it was Lucky with a fish on. Gives a new name to Deep Sea Fishing.

Lucky went with me on a charter and since I wasn't really fishing we stood by and watched. A school of dolphin were now around the boat and my green anglers were having a problem. I told the guys you catch these fish with a booger, at the same time I picked up Lucky and threw the line in, no bait, no booger, fish on. Tell me that isn't Lucky.

To this day Lucky goes on all my fishing trips, my grandson Max is the one who uses Lucky now and he catches far more fish than anyone on the boat. I know that everyone has a favorite lure or rod you call Lucky, but mine really is.

FISH ON AND ON AND ON AND.......

It started before the trip months before, my son Jason's college buddies were constantly making fun of him for hanging out with his mother all the time. So we invited the guys out for a trip we went to Bimini and slammed the fish over there. Lots of variety and good fun.

I get a phone call out of the blue that Doc and Pete would like to go fishing they were in town for a wedding and thought they would book a charter. They didn't mention their best friend Jason wasn't invited. Off we went without Jason, he was busy working that day. It was a holiday so there was a lot of boat traffic, we hooked one or two dolphin, every time we did this a load of boats came over, we were nearly run over twice. Doc said "My favorite number is 27", so we headed out to sea 27 miles off shore, to get away from the boaters that couldn't find their own fish. In the distance I noticed a couple of birds, I followed them with my eyes and noticed they were heading to another group of birds that were actively diving on the surface of the water, we dropped the trolling lines in passed through the area. FISH ON...from that point on we were bringing them in the boat. This was the last day that my commercial fishing licenses was valid. We were so exciting, I was using 3 rods at a time. The guys were on the other side of the boat doing what they could. After some time Doc asked for the net and Pete said "there is fish in it", the boat was covered in blood and the fish filled the boat to our shins. Other boats came by to try to steal the school, none successful. For two hours straight we brought in dolphin, finally exhausted and the fish box full, we left the school to keep growing. By the end of the trip FIIIIIIIIISH OOOOOOON was slow and slurred without any enthusiasum. By the time we got back to the house with our catch Jason was there, and he was pissed. Well, can't forget to mention that his college buddies never made fun of him again for fishing with his Mom.

MOTHERS DAY CELEBRATION

We have a special ritual every year on this day. It's the day for us to go fishing, Myself, daughter and the kids. This particular year the weather was just fantastic and like every other year, there are only a very few boats on the water. In Miami that's amazing, I figure all the guys are stuck home with their wives or taking their moms out to eat. That's why this is the perfect day to be on the water.

My daughter, Monica hadn't yet caught her big dolphin, it seems that both my children have this list, the fish they want to catch, they check it off one at a time. The list will get shorter for Monica this year. It seems like we were trolling for quite awhile, couldn't get out early, the 3 kids are hard to wake up and get ready, but they love it. Anyway, time passed and now lunch time was approaching, I stopped the boat so we could grab something to eat, the trolling lines behind us slack. Monica picked up a piece of cold fried chicken and without even taking her first bite the rod started screaming. Monica still had the piece of chicken in her mouth when she grabbed the rod. The line was still peeling off, I went ahead and pulled in the other line and Monica screamed for the fishing belt. I wrapped it around her and she placed the butt of the rod in. Had to take the chicken out of her mouth too.

Really couldn't tell what we had caught yet, but then a jump and we saw a pretty good sized dolphin. The fight was on, for some odd reason Monica thought she was bringing this fish in quickly. She said "Mom get the gaff", I laughed and said you have some time before we need that. Nearly an hour had passed and Monica was exhausted, finally the fish near the boat, I pulled it in the boat. Monica was so full of excitement for this was her biggest dolphin. Check that off the list.

The dolphin landed on the boat and as you know they bleed like crazy. The kids in the meantime were watching the whole event. The fish jumping around the back of the boat, while I am doing everything I can to get it under control I get slapped by its tail right on the inside of my thigh, ouch! Suddenly Max the youngest one starts crying, and Sam the older, starts to get sick. It never donned on us that the sight of all that blood would bother the kids. Sorry, about that guys.

We caught a few more fish but nothing as memorable as our Mother's Day catch. Till next year.