I'm Cooking Now!

After threatening to buy on of those counter top convection ovens with the rotisserie I did the deed thanks to a ding at Kmart. Hamilton Beach twin 12 inch pizza baking with rotisserie! Since is was cold and windy last night, it has perfectly bake four loafs of bread, a batch of bacon-cheese cornbread muffins and a pound of bacon. All the while keeping my little place warm and restauranty smelling!

Oh, wait! This is supposed to be about fishing.

I fished my buddy Sonny Monday. Sonny first fished with me about 12 years ago with his uncle Victor out of Captain Pips. Now Sonny is growed up with is own boat. This time he brought down a 30 foot Carrera with twin Mercury Verado engines. I had Sonny meet me at the Seven Mile Marina.

Now I did not know that Sonny had a new boat. Last time he was down with a 22 foot boat, so I was a bit surprised to see his new ride. The young gun captains at the marina were a little surprised to see the boat also.

Monday was a slick calm day, perfect for running offshore in a high performance 30 foot Carrera with twin Mercury Verado engines and a sound system nearly as powerful. So I took over the controls of the boat, push the throttles up to a comfortable cruise and nearly 2 minutes later pulled it back to neutral at the Mangrove snapper fishing hole by the bridge. :)

I'll take Sonny someplace a little further down the road later this year, Monday was a half day snapper trip. We did just fine with a near limit of fat mangroves, a Cero Mackerel of respectable size and a very fat yellow jack.

Both Cero and Yellow jack are not bad at all on the table. Cero is the best eating of the mackerel in my opinion other than Wahoo. The yellow jack is tasty with firm flesh and nearly white meat a lot like Cobia with a hint of tuna thrown in. It is one of the few jacks that I will eat not smoked other than pompano, both regular and African.

Now that I am done with the Christmas Rush, I have a few days to work with a few other boats I need to get into order. Flatlines, the boat my buddy Doc owns, should be running now so I need to get her cleaned up and hauled. The Walkabout is running fine, but I need to set up a few things so I can fish it easier single handed. Nothing major, but I need to rig the anchor so I can set it without climbing around stuff too much. To do that, I need to first get an anchor set for not too easy break away. Then I am going to run some less expensive half or three quarter days for my bridge and channel regulars.

Marathon in the Florida Keys should be your next fishing vacation destination. Join us for charter fishing, fishing guide trips or our fishing 101 so you can fish on your own with better success.

Tight lines,

Capt. Dallas