Gloomy to Exciting

Today, I went fishing on Sea Legs III with Doda Annette. We have been waiting to go fishing together, and last Monday we planned this trip. Our annual Sea Legs fishing trip. When we got on the boat, It was gloomy outside and the water was choppy. We bounced side to side as the waves pushed the boat. By the time we got to our third stop, only three fish had been caught in total on the boat. Fishing was very slow, but that did not discourage Doda Annette or I. We kept our hopes high and knew that we WERE going to catch at least one fish today and that our streak of catching fish on a boat, let alone Sea Legs was going to keep on going. After a little while at our third stop, I felt a tug. I reeled in as hard and fast as I could, and I caught a grunt! The streak is still alive! Doda Annette and I were now very excited, but little did we know the excitement just started. I bit later, I dropped my half eaten (because of the grunt) piece of squid back into the water. I saw the sun start to come out more, and the day was looking better now. Then, I felt a huge pull! I hoped it wasn't just my line tied up with someone else's which happened a lot that day because of the waves. I also thought it might have been a knot because it feels very heavy like a fish is on when you use that type of heavy deep-sea fishing gear. I reeled in halfway, and there was a knot. The crew and I untied the knot. But then, I still felt the gigantic, super heavy tug of a fish! I reeled in as much as I can, but the fish was making the line tension very tight and the rod looked like it was about to break. I had to reel in a little, and then wait, then reel in some more in order to prevent the line from snapping. Doda Annette helped me reel in a little by pulling up some of the line too. Soon enough, I saw the whitish, light-beigish reflection of the huge fish. I reeled it in enough to bring in onto the boat, and I caught it! A huge Red Grouper! That fish is on my list of fish that I want to and will set out to catch sometime in my life. On it read "Any Type of Grouper," and now I can cross that off! I am very happy that I had caught that. The average length for a Red Grouper is 15-16 inches, and this Red Grouper was about 20 inches. The grouper beat the average by 4-5 inches! There is a pool for five dollars for the biggest fish on the boat. I won because of the fish, but I couldn't keep the grouper because it was not Red Grouper season, which starts on May 1. The only other things we caught were seaweed and an eel caught by Doda Annette. It looked funny as it wrapped around the bait to clam it as his. The first mate got it off by lightly tapping it's head with a small metal pole. We didn't catch anything else that day but It was very fun at the end for the sun to start shining and for me to cross off something from the list.

No Fish

Today was one of the many days which I did not catch fish, and it stinks that today it snapped the streak of catching at least one fish in the Tampa area. Today I went to go fishing at pier 60, a pier in clearwater on which I caught 29 fish (my record high of fish in a day) last time. I tried small, cut up bits of shrimp and squid like last time, but no fish. No one else was catching fish that day either. Tom, a helpful volunteer, was there, as he is usually, helping everybody who needed it. I asked Tom why people were not catching fish, and he said that it was because of the seasons changing. Now it is spring. Last time I came here, it was Winter. I went on the Queen Fleet twice, one in winter and one in spring, and I caught way more in winter. (I caught 11 fish that day, and that was the record before Pier 60) I suggest to come to fish at winter or maybe summer. I had a fun time even though I did not catch fish, and now I know to find out about the best times to fish according to the seasons and the weather.