Better Than a Day at the Office.

Bottom-fishing here works like this:

1. Position the boat juuust right.
2. Drop the lines (to depths of 180 feet or more).
3. Allow the current and/or wind to move the boat over the fish (visible on the depth-finder).
4. Wait for nibbles.
5. Reel-reel-reel the lines back up again.
6. GOTO: 1.

Today was about as nice as it gets out there. The waters were calm, and we got a couple peaceful hours in before the wind found us. The fish were biting slow but steady, maybe averaging one catch per drop (six passengers fishing). And they were nice and big. The state record for the blue line snapper (my old friend the taape) is about two pounds, and most of these were at least 3/4 of that. And there were several sizeable soldierfish, and a big pink goatfish, and a sizeable triggerfish (sorry, boot-boot).

The triggerfish is always a good thing to catch, because you can say "This is the guy who was stealing your bait" and show off the trick with the trigger. The trigger is a stout dorsal spine which the fish can lock into place; right behind it, there is a second spine which unlocks it. So the fish can lock itself into a hole in the rocks, and no other fish can pull it out. The trick is to show the passenger you can lower the first spine without letting him/her see you touch the second spine, and then ask them to push down the first one. Nobody can.

The passengers were decent, too, and that always helps. Sometimes you get people who are rude without meaning to be, and sometimes you get people who are rude on purpose. Sometimes you get guys who think that because they've fished for other fish in other places, they already know how to catch these fish in this place. (The real fishermen know that techniques are different for different fish and different waters.) Most people are pretty nice, like these were. They also followed directions well, and they seemed to enjoy themselves, which is really all you can ask for.

So, you know, not a bad way to spend an August day.