Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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. 

11 comments:

  1. i am super jealous! i have never been fishing on a big-sea boat... i would love to try it and one day i may go for blue-fin here in cape breton...

    i really like your cooker and the recipe! sharks are delicious and it looks like you guys had a fantastic cook-up!

    not to mention a lot of fun - good on ya!

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  2. what an awesome day - i would have loved it too! although i am an island girl and have eaten just about anything from the ocean - i have never had shark. jambaloney (the huggy) above has told me it is deelish. and we have them here but they are rarely seen or caught as they tend to be offshore and the only people out there are lobster/crab fishing - and that's only allowed for 2 months of the year.

    anyway - it looks like you had a fantastic time and a fantastic meal - yum. can't wait to try me some shark!!!

    kymber

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  3. Jambaloney and Kymber, It was a good trip. I think I may post some more pictures tomorrow. Thanks for the comments.

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  4. Glad you guys had a fun time fishin and fun time eating...it all looks delish!

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  5. Looks like fun, and congratulations on your son's wedding I've been waiting for you to mention it on you blog since Stephen mentioned it on his.

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  6. Hope you saved a few pieces for me...

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  7. Jacked Up Glock Mom and Odysseus, Thanks we did have fun and the wedding was very nice.
    Stephen, I had a few pieces left over last night in a fish sandwich. The uncooked fish I sent home with other family as they don't get a chance to eat fresh fish as much as we do.

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  8. Yeah, shark is excellent. Not sure why someone wouldn't eat it. It's pretty darn tasty.

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  9. 45er, I think some people look at shark as a man eater or maybe it's because they have no scales, you do have to keep them cold before cleaning and the sooner you clean them the better but as you say excellent eating.

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  10. I think some people look at shark as a man eater

    Worms eat men, fish eat worms, we eat fish. Rinse and repeat.

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