Fishing Report - New Rig in Tobago

New fishing rig handmade by Dave for Tom

While we were in Charlotteville this time, Tom got to talking fishing with Dave and discussing fishing rigs.  Handline specifically.  "I will build you a proper one.  Yes, you need a proper handline so you can catch fish."

Dave making it, Tom learning

They went ashore and bought all the stuff to make this fishing rig.  Dave cut a branch from a lemon tree - "Best wood for the handline.  Very strong."

Tom and Dave - fishing buddies

"Oh, you are going to catch so many fish with this.  I wish I could come with you on your boat to see all the fish you are going to catch."    Beware fishes!!  Thanks Dave!

Update  - We have tried it twice.  Once on the sail from Tobago to Carriacou and once on the sail from Carriacou to Martinique.  Fish = 2 sv Honey Ryder =0.  But we are determined.  

Lion Fish Hunt Carriacou Jan 2016

Poisonous spines

January 8 2016
We went lion fish hunting with Lumbadive.  I mainly wanted to go diving again - my 5th dive!  There were five of us that used tanks.  Three others went along to snorkel.  Tom carried the bucket for 1/2 the of the dive and then hunted for the rest.  I had the bucket for a short period of time but it was heavy and I am still too new at diving to be handling a bucket filled with poison spined fish....in my humble opinion!  I also felt I was still too new to diving to take my underwater camera along so no action pics this go around.  I did help located lion fish and then banged on my dive tank with a metal stick to get the hunters attention.  The visibility wasn't great but we still managed to get a decent size one and several small ones.

Thunderball underwater battle scene

I do have to tell you that at one point all five of us were swimming side by side along the bottom with spear guns and Hawaiian slings ready to go.  All I could think was that we looked like a scene straight out of the James Bond movie Thunderball.  Remember?

Of course the theme song "Thunderball" started playing immediately in my head.  Sort of weird to have Tom Jone's belting out music as you swim along but that was the soundtrack in my head at the time. 

Spines everywhere

Anyway....lion fish.  So what's the big deal?  Poisonous fins/spines!  Can you see them?  Seven in total that must be cut off.  Basically everything but the tail. 

Lion fish (left) contents of it's stomach - another fish (right)

I told you about them last year when Tom went Lion Fish Hunting.  But I didn't realize just how big of an appetite they have.  It's HUGE.  The above little fish (right) was found inside the small lion fish (left).  It's what....1/3+ the size of the lion fish and swallowed whole?  Wow!  

Our haul

Because they are so voracious and thus threatening the reefs of the Caribbean, lion fish hunts kill as many as possible.  It doesn't matter if they are big or small, kill them all.  Of course only the medium to larger lion fish are eaten.  The small ones are too much of a bother to clean and fix.  Be sure to keep an eye out for lion fish on menus in restaurants in the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida.  Please order it, if you like fish.  It's safe to eat (once the spines are removed), tasty and helps reduce the population.  If we eat more, then people will fish more for them.    

Joanne cleaning up the big one

Diane and Richard hosted a potluck at their house that evening, inviting many of the local ex-pat community and us to sample the lion fish.  It was a fun evening punctuated by good food, great hosts and some interesting characters. 

Lion Fish potluck - pic by Richard

Fishing Update - Catching

Tom has been fishing but to date not catching.

That changed in Carriacou.  First he caught a goat fish.  However, while cleaning it off the back of the boat, it slipped out of his hands and was gone.  Nice meal for some other fish.  

Next was a small flounder.  We determined too small - these fish are really thin and flat so it needs to be a fairly good size flounder to keep it.  

Finally two jacks.  Woo hoo.  Bar jacks to be specific.  We grilled them up.  Delish!

Fishing Report Update - Lion Fish

Check out Beyond Burgoo tab or click here Lion Fish

Fishing report

Handline trolling behind s/v Honey Ryder

January 18, 2015

Prior to cruising, we have not been fishing people.  Tom did some as a kid but other than that, we know very little about fishing.  We did a little last year which mainly consisted of dragging (trolling) a line out the back of s/v Honey Ryder for three days on our passage down to the Caribbean.  While other boats in the rally reported each morning with excitement the fish they had caught, we had nothing to report.  Argh!  

We are determined to change that this season and become fishing people.   Correction - fish catching people.  We bought a book to assist us - "Cruisers Handbook of Fishing" which we have both read several times.  Tom has talked to many cruisers about gear and techniques.  He purchased lures, hooks, sinkers, etc....and in one case found a rod....while in scuba class.  It had not been on the bottom long so he cleaned it up and now it works just fine.  He has also made two hand lines for trolling.

Results to date -

Trinidad to Grenada -      Honey Ryder = 0  fish =1

Grenada to Carriacou -   Honey Ryder = 0  fish = 1

Carriacou to Union -      Honey Ryder = 0  Fish = 3  we had 2 lines out AND the rod

Union Island -                 Honey Ryder = 1  Fish = 0  we bought a tuna so it really doesn't count

Tom has also started visiting with the locals about fishing.  Who better to know than the local fisherman, right?  He even showed Sweet Deal (the guy we bought a tuna from) his hand line for trolling behind Honey Ryder.  Sweet Deal nodded in approval but immediately said "Get rid of da wire.  De fish da see it."  Ah.....clever fish.  

We have not tried fishing since Union Island because of the Tobago Cays Marine Park so no fishing.  This also includes Mayreau.  But look out fishes.  We are coming for you.  We are headed to Bequia soon and we will be fishing the whole way.  

Can you see it?

Update - 

Tobago Cays to Bequia -    Honey Ryder = -3  fish = 3 

We lost one off the rod plus the hook and then caught not one but two barracuda.  Yes, I know they can be good eats but only the smaller ones since the larger ones can carry ciguatera (toxins).  Since we are new to fishing, we don't really know what is small and big, so we didn't keep either.  Plus we really didn't want to mess with a barracuda (mean fish with teeth) as our first "landed, gutted, prepped and eaten fish".  The important thing here is that we Tom caught two fish.

Fish on

Getting Serious About Fishing

Or at least learning more about fishing.  Neither Tom nor I are currently fishing people.  We know little to nothing about it.  We like to eat fish.  However now that we are living aboard, opportunities have started presenting themselves for us to start to learn to fish.  I previously post about those opportunities  - net casting, shrimp and crabs. 

Awesome cruising chick Christy of s/v Hello World recommended the book "The Cruiser's Handbook of Fishing" by Scott Bannerot and Wendy Bannerot.  If you pop over to their web site s/v Hello World, you will see that they are having some luck with their fishing/shrimping/crabbing lately along with breathtaking cruising locales and fabulous adventures.  Thanks for the recommendation Christy!  The book is written specifically for cruisers by cruises.  It's very comprehensive.  You can read all the way through it or simply turn to specific topics.  I chose to get the physical paperback book vs Kindle version because as a reference book, I thought that might be easier to grab on the fly when we needed it.  Can't you just see it now.....we finally snag our first fish while tolling underway and one of us reads out loud while the other follows the instructions to land it.  HA!  What a sight that would be.  Anyway....wish us luck. 

Crabbing and a Prison Break

Little one so we let him go

We decided to finally bait the crab traps and see if we could catch some dinner.  Two chicken necks in the large trap netted us six crabs total in a little over 24 hrs.  We put two more (stinky) chicken necks in a smaller trap down the way.  By morning there were 2 crabs in that trap.
 

I had to snap the pic quick as he was FAST towards freedom

When I checked again at noon they had escaped.  Prison break!  I wondered down to the laundry lounge where Tom was watching the British Open to let him know that some of our dinner had escaped.  Caliber Janet was in there as well.  When I announced "bad news, there has been a prison break" she looked up startled and was quickly relieved to find out it was two of our crabs and NOT a real prison break.....the county jail is right across the street.  Ooops -my bad Janet.


Big crabby crab

A third trap was filled with shrimp heads and shells from our shrimp boil Saturday night....YUM by the way.  However the crabs aren't going for it.  Later we did catch one in this trap but they seem to prefer chicken necks to shrimp heads.  We tossed a couple of smaller ones back.  They must be 5 1/2" our expert crabbers tell us.
The final catch =10.  Head on over to Beyond Burgoo Boiling Up Crabs to see how we cooked them up.

Free Food - Crabs and Watermelon

Pat = "Um, oh....Tom?  You need to come out here." - outside of boat
Joan= "What?" - climbing out into cockpit
Tom ="What's up?" - below
Sabrina = "What's going on?" - below
Pat = "Uummm, you just need to come out here and see."
Joan = "Oooh!" - now in cockpit
Tom = "Ok.  What is it?" - climbing out to see
Sabrina = "WHAT?  Is everything ok? - still below 
Pat = "You just need to come out here."
Sabrina = "Is something wrong?  Is everything ok?"  Mild panic "Will someone please tell me WHAT is going on?"- as I head for companionway in mild panic.
Joan = "NO, NO, NO....nothing is wrong.  It's a good surprise."

Blue crabs just waiting for us

What we found on the dock was a bucket of 10 blue crabs.  Cruiser Jessie (the great crab catcher) had left them for us to enjoy.  Thanks Jessie!!!

Pat starts the transfer with our tongs

We had slept in and thus found them mid-morning.  At the urging of Bill (our super-duper dock mate) we sprung into action.  Pat ran for a bag of ice at the dock office.  We put the ice in a cooler and then an old shirt down on top the ice.  Apparently if you lay them directly on the ice, it will kill them because ice is fresh water.  Also if you lay them down upside down, it will kill them as well.

Sometimes it takes a village or at the very least some dock mates

The next step was moving them from the bucket to cooler.   While we have long tongs, they really weren't long enough and the crabs were....crabby.  They started waving around their claws with great speed.  Soon we had two wooden spoons and a spatula out to help us - HEY, it was all we had.  A dock neighbor's advice was "just pick them up."  He acted like I was crazy when I asked if he had crab tongs.  I said "come show us how."  He reached in and almost got pinched big time.  "Whoa!, these are angry little crabs.  Not at all like the Dungeness crabs we have in Seattle."  We had a good laugh later with him about that.  Bill (our super-duper dock mate) came to the rescue with proper crab tongs. 

They SEEM docile but they are NOT!

Even though we got them on ice, they were starting to bubble meaning they were starting to die.  (We got quite an education on crabs during all of this.)  We needed to act fast.  Okay - change of plans.  Instead of crab dinner or lunch, we would have crab brunch.  What?  You don't have crab for brunch on Saturday's!

A little spice makes it nice

We started with my pressure cooker pan but soon realized the handles would melt on the grill.  Bill loaned us his crab boiling pot and we got the water on the grill to bring it to a boil.  Luckily I had some Old Bay on the boat so we dumped a bunch of that in the water and waited for the boil.  Watched pot does take a long time to boil.  Especially if it will be boiling up some yummy crabs for Saturday brunch. 

Tom and Joan check out the crab

In the mean time, cruiser Jessie (the great crab catcher) brought his trap over to loan it to Tom.  He had snagged another so our count was up to 11 crabs.  He explained to how to bait and set the trap. 

YUM

Finally the water was boiling.  We put 4 crabs in and waited 10 mins.  They came out that lovely red crab color.  Four more in and another 10 mins.  The last 3 went in and we prepped by adding some chopped garlic and Old Bay to the butter melting in a small sauce pan on the grill.  Our utility drop cloth from the boat worked terrific as a table cloth as things soon got messy.  FINALLY the last 3 crabs were boiled.  Pat gave us a refresher in how to eat crabs as we dug in.  YUM!  So very, very good.  It was simply amazing.  We finished off with a lovely watermelon that Gina had given us.  Thanks Gina!!

Ready to dig in

The carnage and yes those are channel locks.  We don't yet have a lot of the proper gear for crab.

We all enjoyed it so much.  It wasn't just the delicious crabs and watermelon but the whole experience of waking up to a wonderful surprise that took our day in a whole new and unexpected direction.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?

Tom Goes Shrimping

This story is over on Beyond Burgoo tab since it involves food.  Please navigate over there using the above tab Beyond Burgoo or by clicking here.

Net Casting 101

Class in session

Last night Tom asked Bill to teach him how to cast a net so at 9am this morning, Bill held class using his 6 and 8 foot nets.  He also got out his 4 foot net but it's a totally different technique. 

Net up over his shoulder and everything gathered, Tom prepares to toss it out there

The guys on the beach/pier always make it look SO easy.  Of course it's not.  There is quite a process and art to it.

Mid-air of a cast

First is making sure it's not tangled in any way.  D-uh but it can easily get tagled.

Nothing in the net this time

Then there is a very specific way of gathering it all up in your hand so it will release properly. 

Another cast - not too bad

Then you drape part of it up over the shoulder of the throwing arm.

Tom did catch this angry little crab - he was carefully pulled out and tossed back in

The free hand works it's way around the inside base of the remaining net to gather some up for the perfect cast.

Tom trying the 8 ft net - more to deal with

Then you stand straight towards the direction you are throwing and twist around at the waist to get enough momentum to throw it all out there.

Another try

Tom is left handed but does some things right handed ( because the world forces lefty's to).   He tried both ways.  The left worked best.  With the leads on the bottom, the nets are heavy.  The guys got quite a workout. 

Getting there

There are all sorts of laws/rules about what you can and can't eat.  I would have thought that if you catch it, you can eat it but NO.  It depends on the size of net, the size of mesh and so forth.  Some nets are for bait only. Very complecated and confusing.

Twisting around for another throw with the 4 foot net

While they didn't exactly catch dinner or anything (other than the angry  little crab) they learned a bunch and had fun.