Fishing Trip

Sunday, January 13^th 2008

Today Me and Tom went ocean fishing. We were supposed to leave at 11am, so we went down to the dock around then, but something was wrong with the dock and Surangel Sr. wasn’t there yet. He was going to take us out. So we ended up leave around noonish I think, it was me, Tom, Surangel Sr., the houseboy, and another helper. After about 5 minutes Surangel asked me if I wanted to drive. So I climbed into the captain chair of our small fishing boat and took off. It was one of the most nerve racking experiences I have ever had to deal with. Surangel is shouting me orders which I cant hear in the first place nor can I understand most anything that comes out of his mouth. All I get is his hand motions telling me to go left, then right, then straight, then right again, as I try to navigate through the 100’s of reefs. Mind you, im doing all this going 40 mph, which doesn’t sound that fast but out in choppy water, its fast and its bone jarring bumpy. Tom took a turn driving once we got out to open water. The water was kinda rough so he hugged the reef for calmer water, but it was still very bumpy and hard on the body. Me and Tom both were very nervous and extremely stressed out about driving. The water was kinda rough and every time the boat hit a wave it sounded like the wave could rip a hole in the boat at anytime. It was extremely nerve racking. Me and Tom both wanted Surangel to drive since he kept shout orders and we had no idea what we were doing. On land I love speed, but out on open water Im not too keen on the idea. The water is too unpredictable for me and the waves jar the boat and hit it so hard im afraid the boat is going to break apart. But we finally end up at our fishing spot about 3 hours after we had taken off. It was a long way out, it didn’t help that me and tom were drive and had to make a course correction every 3 minutes. So we through out our lines as we hugged a reef far away from land. The first fish caught was a Mahi Mahi, which the houseboy caught with a hand reel. It bled a lot. Then Tom got a Wahoo and then a Barracuda. Then I got a Tuna. We only fished for about 2 hours. But it was a fun experience. While we were our fishing our two helpers got seasick and we ready to pass out and threw up. I felt bad for them but I was glad I was able to hold my own stomach. After we caught the four fish it was about 5ish and the water was a lot calmer, almost glassy. So we cracked the throttle and headed home, it was dark by the time we got back to the dock. One of the helpers cut the Mahi Mahi up and gave it to us. The rods and reels were put away and the boat docked up. I took a shower and afterwards started prepared the Mahi Mahi, which wasn’t easy. I had to filet the fish first with my little Garber knife. It was a tough job but I enjoyed it. I like cooking and that’s part of cooking. I fried them up with some butter, orange juice, and black pepper. Nothing fancy cuz we didn’t have any spices or anything fancy. They turned out pretty good, there was some left over. That one little Mahi Mahi had a lot of meat on it, probably enough for 4 people. So all in all it was a good day with good people and good fishing.