Meet Captain Fox Watkins, genial Floridian professional charter captain. For 47 years he has been fishing the waters off the coast of Florida. Today he had the uneviable task of taking me on my first ever sports fishing trip.
I have been fishing before; minnows in streams, the odd small trout, that kind of thing. But I have never been anywhere near sailfish, marlin, tuna and the big fish that lurk in the ocean.
First of all though, we needed fuel and I discovered part of the reason that deep sea fishing trips are so expensive. The 1500HP is very, very thirsty and needs a lot of maintenance. The fuel tanks hold 300 gallons which cost a cool $863 + 6% state tax to fill. The trip to Titusville and back, about 10 hours round trip had used 400 gallons of fuel - well over $1,000.
We started out catching some live bait. Specifically, this was sea bass about 8 to 10" or so that hung themselves eagerly on our hooks when we put small pieces of shrimp on. Ben particularly loved this, once catching three fish on one cast, and would have been happy to do this all day. However, we had bigger fish to fry and motored on to a wreck to look for amberjack.
Nico dropped over a couple of sea bass as livebait and was immediately in to a big fish. Unfortunately, I chose this moment to be overcome by the smell of diesel and the feeling of nausea from the rocking of the boat and was violently sick for the next hour or so - the first time I have ever been seasick and I felt embarassed that my sea legs had let me down.
Then it all went quiet for a while and we couldn't catch anything. Fox, who gives directions from the bridge on exactly what to do when, came down to see what was happening. He dropped a rod in and immediately got a bite, gave me a knowing look, and handed the rod to me. I wasn't prepared for how hard it would be. The fish fought like hell and I didn't think I had enough strength in my arm to reel it in. With help and encouragement from Nico I finally hauled him up. Nico gaffed him and put him quickly into the fish box. Fox guessed the weight at 35lbs - I was sure it was larger! - but it did get quite an appreciation from the crowd that gathers at the marina to see what has been caught.
The amberjack are part of Fox's deal; he has them made into what he calls fish dip or Smak and is sold locally. He gave us a tub and it is delicious - Lucy gorged herself on it.
So, we had to catch something for supper. Ben caught a couple of legal sized sea bass and then we moved on to troll for kingfish (also known as king mackerel). There were around 20 other boats in the area, mostly commercial fishermen. After a one hour or so of no bites, we landed three decent sized fish in quick succession. They have pretty nasty teeth and I was glad to see them safely in the fish box.
After that, we returned back to the marina for the obligatory pose with the catch. Fox then drew quite a crowd of tourists and pelicans as he demonstrated his filleting skills. The resulting fillets were then made into a superb meal by the restaurant in the marina for only $10 each. Great way to end another memorable day.
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