Daytona - 2nd Sunday!

Sunday, 27 September

The boys were out of bed at sparrow’s – 5.30am – picked up at 7 by Jimmy, Jim’s son.  They went to Ponce Inlet to board a half-day fishing charter aboard the ‘Super Critter’!

Lesley and I took off from the house just after 7am, to get down to the beach to photograph the sunrise.  We only just made it,  the sun is up by 7.30am.  Got some nice photos though and I used David’s camera ‘unsupervised’…. And also taught myself how to download the photos to the computer!

                                        Joe's Crab Shack on the pier.  The Roof Top is where
                                        they have the Happy Hour - hurricanes and beer buckets!
                                         

                                           Starlite Diner - my new favourite brekky place!

The boys met Jimmy’s friends – Big John and Derek – at the harbor.  There were about 50 paying passengers on board.  They put into a jackpot for the biggest edible fish that could be taken home.  There were several species that, due to the new ‘green’ laws have to be thrown back.   We had a member of the FWC (Florida Wildlife Conservation) group on board.  He measured every fish caught and some could be kept.  If it was a species covered by the ‘green’ law, as soon as it was  landed, it was measured, tagged and the “Obama” fish thrown back.  David – our ‘lucky Atlantic virgin’ caught a 26 inch red Snapper about 10 pounds!!!!

It was measured not weighed, tagged and had to be thrown back!!!    No fish for the restaurant for us. L It was the biggest fish caught on the boat on our trip.  He didn’t even get time to take a photo of it or give it the ‘Rex Hunt kiss’ upon departure!  (Luckily, Jimmy did get a photo of the fish – stayed tuned we have to secure it from him….)

                                                  Jim and Dave 'selfie'!

                                              Derek, Big John & Jimmy

                                                 The Captain came and tethered Jim's rod!

                                          Dave and his hot catch - and the Conservation member
                                          monitoring the catch.....

                                                    The guys are stoked - they go fishing 
                                                    regularly and none have caught a fish
                                                    this size....

The boys were disembarking when the crew did the draw for the jackpot – and the boys won!  Number 7!  Jimmy collected two fish – red eye and an Atlantic lane fish.  I got a kick out of watching the crew fillet them and throw the carcass into the air to the waiting pelicans who were dueling it out with the catfish!

The restaurant next door will cook up the catch if you take it in, for a few dollars with a couple of sides.  We sat inside in the air conditioning (much to my pleasure – it was damn hot!) and we had some delicious grilled blackened fish for appetizer.  I’m really enjoying coconut ‘breaded’ shrimp at the moment so that’s what we shared for lunch.  Jimmy, Derek and Big John were very entertaining during the meal….. the waitress was evenly matched with their humour!

Have spent the afternoon recovering and now Jim’s favourite NFL team, Buffalo Bills are on tv playing the Miami Dolphins – I don’t know which is more entertaining – watching the tv or watching Jim!