Grenadier Island behind Shanty Island July 22, 2015

Sometimes it is more fun fishing when you don’t catch anything.

On our houseboat we caught several largemouth bass here so I was hoping for a repeat. I was fishing by 7:00. One pole had a worm with a bobber, one pole I was using for casting. I did not catch anything on the bobber pole. I experimented with several lures, catching a tiny perch once. Then I put on a jerk bait, which is something you let the line go slack with, then jerk on it. On the second cast I caught a 24” fish, the same kind as yesterday. This one had swallowed the entire treble hook, and it had a bunch of teeth. I figured I would have to cut the hook out so I might as well try to fillet the fish. I conked it on the head with a hammer, then started to work. First thing was to put on a protective glove to avoid stabbing myself with my fillet knife. Immediately it got caught in the other treble hook. I took it off and of course could not get the hook out of it. The fact that there was a big fish hanging on the other hook did not help. So I cut the fish head off and let the fish head and glove dangle from the pole in the water. It looked like the fish was looking at me.

If you know me you know I don’t like cleaning fish. Jim was no help. He refused to row over and get it for Jola. (Of course I would have expected him to clean it!) She was willing to cook it after all. I filleted one side. There was a lot of meat on it. But I had cut through some bones so they were there too. And then I remembered the skin had to come off. I did a fair job of that. I was not very successful trying to get the bone strip out. After a quick assessment of where I was in this task, I dumped the entire fish overboard. Then I had to deal with the hook and glove. I finally had to cut the strands of cloth attached to the hook to get the glove off. Then I had to really work with pliers to get the hook out of the fish head. I did, but bent it a bit. I quit fishing then for fear I would catch another. Kerry says the boat looks like Katrina just hit.

I did get a picture of this one. Warren, what is it? 

Now that it is a bit later, I regret throwing the fish away. I should have persevered. It was a nice fish and it is a shame that it is dead for no purpose. I have at the moment lost my enthusiasm for fishing.

We left Pine Island at 10:15 and arrived at Grenadier Island an hour later. We passed one possible anchorage to go to one that had a little dock we could row too. But when we arrived there it was not as pretty as the first, so we doubled back to the first anchorage behind Shanty Island. We passed some interesting little island homes on the way. 

Anchoring was easy today. Fewer weeds make a difference. We had to move once when we swung too close to Liberty. Liberty had to move when their anchor drug and they got to close to us. Busy afternoon! I had thought about going for a swim, but it got cloudy and much cooler in the afternoon. Did you ever think you would see a big RV on a little island? I didn't.

I have not had to manually pull the chain out of our locker since we added the anchor swivel. In the past the chain would fall over itself and the windlass would not pull it out. The captain had to do it. That seems strange to me. I thought the windlass was defective, but later learned that it is made to "slip" if it feels much resistance pulling the chain out of the locker, for whatever reason.

View from Annie of Shanty Island

Enjoying a martini for old time's sake.