Fishing

At some point during our time in the Trailer Park at Stock Island Chuck made a quick weekend trip to St. Pete and brought his boat, motor and trailer back. It was really nice now we could go out on the boat to fish.

We both loved to troll using silver spoons as bait, sometimes we fished in the Ferry Channel (for those who don't know at one time a huge ferry ran to and from Key West to Cuba)  the channel was dug quite deep to accommodate the Ferry. 

Many times we trolled about halfway out to the J Marker. Occasionally we ventured on out to the 12 mile reef. The water over the reef is quite shallow in places. But when you go beyond the reef it gets really deep; like dark blue and then purple. Wherever we fished we always caught really nice fish.

MahiMahi Steaks

Bull-Nose Dolphin

I loved catching the big ones, like the Bull-Nose Dolphin. 
It is from this fish we get MahiMahi on the menu.  They are one of the most colorful and beautiful fish in the water, and fresh caught, but color changes to a dull drab not long out of the water.

 Kingfish still in the water

Kingfish Steaks

We also caught Kingfish they are so much fun to catch. strong fighters and when you boat one you know you have just caught a big fish. This fish gives us really nice steaks for broiling or grilling.


We caught numerous Grouper, I am not sure how many different kinds of Grouper there are, but many of those can be caught in the waters around Key West.

There are many ways to prepare Grouper, they make a delicious chowder, red or white base, they are quite delicious when blackened. The meat is white and very delicate.

Grouper

My favorite is Grouper fingers, dipped in a light egg wash and lightly breaded with either flour or cracker meal and fried in an iron skillet in a little oil and drained well.



And last but not the least of the larger fish we caught was the Spanish Mackerel. They don't seem to get as big as the Kingfish, but they do get quite large and they are really strong fighters a lot of fun to catch. Very tasty when broiled or grilled. Mackerel and Kingfish are also good smoked.

Spanish Mackerel

When he wasn't at sea we went fishing every day after Chuck got home in the afternoons. But we loved to eat what we caught and any excess went in the freezer and was often shared with friends and guests. None was ever wasted.