I guess if you're tired of hearing about our fishing trips, CLICK HERE to skip down to the "June Adventures at the Hoffman's" section.
Late June, we're back at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, ready to go out and catch the big ones. I was over in Southwest Florida, visiting some potential WiFi customers, so drove across to the park to meet Buck and Bruce (SC fishing friends). I got there first, didn't have much to do, so took the photo below of my RV sitting on site #68. Notice all that extra space? Move your mouse over the photo and you'll see how we made good use of it! CLICK PHOTO FOR ENLARGED VERSION
My Travel Log
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80. The Big One That Didn't Get Away
Bonita (from Chapter 49)
Sailfish - end of the battle; That's the beak sticking out on Buck's right and the tail on Bruce's left
Buckner holding the front
Bruce holding the tail - he's not very energetic at this point :)
We all got down Sunday, got all the equipment ready, and were up Monday at 6 AM ready to fight the fish (and the elements). It seems that the elements have given us more trouble on the last few trips than the fish have. Recall on our last couple of trips, the wind was the problem. If it gets much about 15-20 mph, you probably don't want to venture out on the Atlantic. We've been out in that kind of wind a few times and it really isn't much fun. You can't bottom fish, you spend a lot of time being tossed around the boat, and it's really hard to pee off the back.
This trip, it was rain. We were down there 3 days (had planned 5) and spent our first hour or so each day, discussing whether to venture out or not. As it turns out, we managed to avoid the rain all 3 days, sometimes by boating around the storms as they passed through and sometimes just making a bee-line for the port when the storms started looking too bad.
Lastly, two inside photos. First, one way that Joyce spends much of her time - with Tinker hanging on because she heard a noise. Second, that's what all the dogs do whenever Mama goes out.
So, that's what we do ... tough life, eh?
That's retirement!
Smoked sausage, wine, and Potato Salad; an alternate to DR&C - see my Blog 3/24/07
See the Topiary on the corner? There's a bird nest there!
Click to enlarge and you'll see baby birds in the center
Mama computing and
Tinker relaxing
And what about the "big one that didn't get away"? Well, Bruce caught another Sailfish. Now, if you read last chapter (79), you'll see that he caught one then also. And why doesn't Hoffman ever catch one, you might ask? Well, that's because Bruce is usually sitting back on the fishbox looking to the rear, while I'm usually up in the front seat, passing the time drinking beer/water/coke, eating sandwiches, and occasionally napping. Bruce is the "true fisherman", always keeping his eye on the lines, usually the first to yell "FISH ON!", and the one who can usually get to the active rod first.
Speaking of getting to the active rod, let me diverge for a moment. That reminded me of a really unique event on this trip. As you may (or may not) know, we troll four lines. On this trip, in the middle of our Bonita haul, we at one point got hits on all four lines at exactly the same time! Wow! Talk about a panic. Buck was driving, Bruce grabbed the starboard out-rigger line, and I grabbed the port out-rigger. His almost immediately got off the hook, so he grabbed the next line and started bringing it in. Meanwhile, I had a really large fish on my line - he continued to take out line and I reeled in very little. I more or less just held the rod and watched him run for a couple of minutes, long enough for Bruce to bring a Bonita in on the starboard rear line. About that time, my line suddenly snapped! I reeled in and found that it must have been either a Marlin or Sail, because the line was roughened about two feet at the end and was cut clean! Certainly wasn't a Bonita! I then grabbed the last line and brought in ... guess what? ... another Bonita. We sure saw a bunch of them that day. As I said, no food, but a lot of excitement, especially when you get 4 hits at once!
So, back to the big fish. It took Bruce almost two hours to get it up to the boat, then I took over the wheel and Buckner grabbed it by the beak and brought it in. He and Bruce just sat down, both tired from the battle. I turned off the motor, grabbed my camera, took the photos below, then helped them get it back into the water. As heavy as it was, we were sure we had one around 200 pounds, but were told later by a local "expert" that Sails don't come much bigger than 90 pounds in that area. He said you had to go to South America to get one in the 200-pound range. So, either we had a South America stray or we over-estimated. But I'm sure it must have been at least 90 pounds - no doubt the biggest caught there in years .... haha :) As usual, CLICK ANY PHOTO FOR A LARGER VIEW.
Until I looked back at Chapter 79, I had forgotten that Bruce got a Sail on our last trip also. I think this one was bigger, but it's hard to tell from the photos. At any rate, I guess I'll have to stop the naps, etc., and spend more time at the rear if I hope to be able to spend two hours fighting a monster fish that we're going to throw back ... hmm ... I'll have to think more on that one.
Little birds made it from Topiary to 2nd rail of fence in the corner
And through all that, how did we do on fishing? Well, Monday we just caught a few Bonita -- altogether a rather rough day on the water with little payoff. Tuesday, we must have brought in about 25-30 Bonita! Buckner said that's the most Bonita he's caught in a single day in his 40 years of fishing the Atlantic. For those who don't know about Bonita, I've included a photo on the right from our April 2003 trip. We long since quit taking photos of Bonita, but obviously still did in 2003. They're a great fighting fish, very strong for their size, but not good eating ... so ... with them, it's "Catch and Release."
On Tuesday, we not only caught a large number of Bonita, but also the largest that we'd ever seen. And the strange thing was that we caught them at all depths. When we were starting out, still in less than 100' of water, we noticed a bunch of bait fish thrashing around and an occasional larger fish would jump right out of the water. We threw out our lines and started catching large Bonita! Still in less than 100 feet! Much later, we were out around 400' and still catching Bonita. It was really a "Bonita Day", which means we had a good time, but were a little disappointed about not catching supper. We ended up cooking some really great Cheeseburgers both Monday and Tuesday nights, but would rather have been eating the catch of the day.
A better view of the head
Another wierd fish that Bruce caught - no idea what it was
Closeup of the little birds - it took them about 3 days to finally fly!
If they hatch in our yard, are we grandparents? Feels like it :)
Dove's nest above our pool supply cabinet; She sat there for almost 3 weeks, before two little doves hatched and flew off almost immediately
Another bird that flew in June! View from the front yard
Where's Mama? Everybody watching the back door, where she was last seen
Tootsie finds a spot of sunshine and takes advantage of it
JUNE ADVENTURES AT THE HOFFMAN'S
So, enough about fishing. Now, I'm going to show you some photos representative of what Joyce and I did during June, when she wasn't painting and I wasn't fishing. If you find them boring, sorry about that. I need to put them somewhere, so I can come back later and enjoy them. I'm hoping you'll get some enjoyment also.
