Big Wednesday

So we tried not to get our hopes up this morning about fishing. We had our usual breakfast from the woman at the sandwich/pancake stall (tuna baguette, coffee shake) and headed to meet our boat captain. It wasn't until we actually boarded his longtail boat that we let ourselves believe that today was the day to catch some big-arse fish.

We motored out to sea for about an hour, dropped anchor, then proceeded to catch our live bait. We used a hand line with 25 hooks on it. All we had to do was drop the line in the water, let it sink towards the bottom, then pull it back up. We caught anywhere from 2-8 fish at one time, from about 4 inches to 12 inches long. The boat has a built-in box full of fresh sea water (a live well) where the bait is able to swim around, waiting for certain death.

Our live bait caught, we put a live fish on a very large hook, threw it in the water and let the bait take the hook out to sea. And then we waited. And waited. While we waited, we proceeded to catch more bait, enjoy the gorgeous scenery (clear blue waters, islands in the distance), and just enjoy being on the water. The first sound of the reel being dragged out was very exciting. Our captain jumped up, grabbed the rod and handed it to Nigel. He then spent about 5 minutes pulling in his first catch: a 4 foot long King Mackerel. It was kind of awkward reeling it in, standing on an unstable longtail boat. It didn't fight too much until it got near the boat, when it tried several times to dive deep. When he was just near the surface, the captain gaffed it and they brought it on board. It wasn't long after this that Nige caught his second fish, another King Mackerel. This one was smaller at about 3 feet long, but fought a bit more. The only other big fish that day was the one Kel caught, but unfortunately, it was 'the one that got away.' We did have a few snappers on the hand line to add to our collection of 'bait.'

We trolled the lines on the cruise back to shore, but had no luck. We arrived just before 5:00, and just ahead of the rain. We picked the smaller of the two mackerel to take for ourselves, and the captain took the rest for his family and friends. We dropped off our catch at Hippies restaurant (drawing many comments like 'Hey, nice fish' and 'thai-thai-thai, King Mackerel, thai-thai-thai, good dinner tonight!' as Nige walked through town carrying it) and had a shower before heading back to Hippies for our feast. They cooked it up two ways: lightly breaded then pan-fried and grilled. And it was absolutely delicious. We ate so much we nearly exploded. I took the leftovers to give to my kitten friend, T2, a little black cat that comes to our bungalow several times a day and follows us around. After dinner, we walked around the island. Well, waddled is more like it since we were so stuffed. I think Nigel said at least 50 times that it was the best fish he has ever eaten. After we felt a bit better, Nige got a foot massage while Kel got a pedicure in a nice air-conditioned place, then we wandered back to our bungalow for bed.