We started off in the rather cold, cloudy morning, eager to catch some fish. We had dead ballyhoo as bait, and we were going for Kingfish. We would simply let line out from the reel and let the ballyhoo drift in the middle of the water column. After a little while at our first spot, Zaide, my grandfather, felt a tug. He handed the rod to me, and I reeled it in. We caught a Triggerfish. It was a nice catch, but we were hoping that it was a Kingfish. I had caught my first Kingfish on this boat, years before. The Triggerfish was pretty cool, and its skin was so tough that we had to use a knife to get the hook out. We had one.
After a little while, the clouds went away and the sun came out. The water was really clear. The weather was perfect.
Since we weren't catching anything, I asked for a chicken rig to drop to the bottom. We put cut squid on these hooks. It turned out to work! Once we arrived at a new spot, I felt the nibbles and then a nice pull. The rod bent over, and a fish was on. I reeled in a Squirrelfish! Although very colorful, the Squirrelfish is poisonous and I was very careful not to touch the fish directly when I was handling it. About 15 minutes later, there was another bite on my ballyhoo rod. I reeled it in, and it was another Triggerfish. We then waited quite a while for the next fish. After about 30 minutes, we went to a new spot which looked promising because there were already two boats there by the time we arrived. On the very first drop, I felt some small tugs, and I reeled in a Grunt. We threw it back before taking pictures. It was our 4th, and last, fish of the day.
The clouds that were present in the morning left early on in the trip, and my grandfather and I had an awesome day on the water, even though we did not catch the Kingfish we were after. After all, "they call it fishing, not catching." A fish is a fish, and we caught 4. Today reminded me what fishing is all about, just having fun out on the water with friends and family.
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