The Great Offshore Fishing Trip

After my sons wedding on Saturday myself and 4 other family members decided on taking an offshore fishing trip on Monday leaving out of St Augustine Florida. We arrived at the dock before daylight and were the only ones to go out fishing so they opted to take us on the smaller of their fleet.

Shown here is 4 of us (my uncle took the picture)








Nice size boat for a small charter. It was 5 of us and Capt and Mate.

 It was daylight as we left the dock and headed under the Bridge of Lions and the "Gilligan's Island" theme in my head.  You could see many historic sites from the water, the old fort, down town landmarks and old homes. As far as towns and city's go St Augustine is one of the most beautiful IMHO.

               
                      







                                         
My Brother and I were sitting on the stern as we head out the mouth of the river and the others sucked up the A/C in the cabin even though it was nice and cool outside I think they liked the soft chairs inside.

Heading out for the "3 hour tour....the 3 hour tour"

My Nephew fishing

My youngest son (right) and mate holding a shark he caught.

Our shark catch

My Fish Cooker. I have cook many fish and shrimp in this cooker.

Ready to eat, you get about this much from one shark this size.

We went out about 10 miles offshore and anchored over a reef in about 80' of water. The seas were about 3-5 feet, not too bad and a slight breeze.
 I like fishing offshore it is fast paced  when you are over a reef the fish bite quick, I was catching a fish almost every time I let down early in the day although many were "throw backs" it was fun and you get tired reeling. I remember times in the past filling a large cooler with snapper till the lid would not close. This day we caught a few snapper but we could not keep them.
We caught many small black sea bass (2 keepers out of the bunch) and 5 small sharks. Some people wont eat shark but it is extremely good meat, it is firm and white and cooks up flaky.































Sharks are a lot of fun to catch, They put up a good fight even after they are in the boat. One in particular kept jumping out of the cooler and thrashing about on the deck.












Shark is also easy to clean. One cut to remove the belly section and one cut down each side to remove good meat and one cut to remove skin. It takes less than a minute to clean each one.























I like to cut the meat up in chunks the size of 2 fingers and soak in butter milk and roll in corn meal and fry in 350 deg oil till golden brown. you can also soak small pieces in orange juice over night and cook on the grill. The meat is very firm and not mushy at all and no bones. I cooked the fish along with 3 lbs of fresh shrimp, hush puppies, coleslaw and potato salad.......... Excellent eating.