Cobia-thon 2012



The two clubs waiting to have some BBQ after a long day on the water.

 The clubs had their annual cobia-thon tourney about a month ago. This year the opposing club took home the traveling trophy along with the prize of having the bragging rights for the year as well as some free garb from a local fishing tackle shop. John and I fished the tourney and were only able to get one short cobia and a few tripletail. We had a good time, though. John has not released the photos of his epic battle with our one quarter-inch-short-from-being-a-keeper cobia. We were able to slip away from the daily grind and get some fishing in, but this year it seemed like the cobwebs were too thick to shake off to get a good chance to put some fish in the box.

Two 15 inch triple tail.

John fighting the epic battle.

Here we GO!!!

Although the blog has been idle, the clack of the keys on the key board haven’t been idle and neither have I!

Some outdoorsmen lie dormant during inclement weather and wind- driven sea choppy days, but weather has no enemy with me and rain, wind, sleet, or shine, an island cracker’s work is never done! It’s been windy for the last month or so and the proverbial fishermen have morphed into renovators, honeydo’ers, grocery shoppers and some have just become couch potatoes; however, the solid few have prevailed and strengthened into stronger, faster beings able to withstand greater adversities, and have greater tolerance to the wife’s stink eye, better selective hearing; all around better and stronger men.

I’ve had a bit of a windblown January and February but somehow I’ve kept myself busy doing anything that I can get my grubby little hands on in an effort keep the evil beverages out of them. Between finishing out a tougher than usual hunting season, building more prototype shrimp lights, tanning alligator hides, completing some much needed boat repairs and starting in on the Austin Healey we are currently rebuilding, (not to mention the 14 month old kraken we are raising...), I've had my hands full. On another note, let me first say I’m no Catholic, nor have I ever been, but for some reason Blythe and I have always observed Lent. I see it as a short period of time where we give something up in our lives that will make us a little better for ourselves and the family and friends around us. This year I have, once again, decided to attempt to give up the “fire water," the "killdevil,” the “devil's punch”… I could go on… in an effort to enjoy the outdoors and the fresh springtime air sober. So, “Here’s to sober Saturdays, bitter N.A.’s throughout the work week and thanks goodness for Sundays…”

The Mighty Florida Alligator

I mentioned that I've been tanning gator hides. Let me explain how this came about: I've been lucky enough to have met Dale Cebellos, a great guy who, with his wife's patient help, owns and operates Creative Aztec Taxidermy. Dale tanned my first few hides and has now beeen nice enough to explain in detail the steps of taning alligator hides and talk em through all the roadblocks I've run into. This is definitely an art combining patience, experience, some "exact" and some "not so exact" recipes and a lot of elbow grease. It's one of the strangest and yet most interesting things I’ve done-- a new skill, none the less. Being an amateur taxidermist is one of the toughest things I’ve ever jumped into feet first. Not to mention trying to learn it on the toughest animals on the water, the mighty Florida Alligator. By far the hardest hide south of the Mississippi to tan. I just finished tonight and dropped off one of the hides I tanned at my dad's house as a thank you for letting me use his land to practice my new skill. Yup, that musty scent emitting from my lazyboy is me; hmm, I might still have some in my hair. It's the scent of adventure…the scent ...of...adventure.