Hurry Up and Wait

Vero Beach

Well, it's official. We will wait until after February 19 for the engine project. My friend Pete Lemme said it will be hard for me to make people feel sorry for us while we sit here in the warm sun and spend our days on the beach. OK I won't try.

Yesterday I tried surf fishing for the first time ever. I went to the bait store and said I was a novice. The guy sold me some frozen squid for bait, and a pompano leader/hook rig, and some pyramidal sinkers.

I put all the stuff in the dinhy, packed a lunch, and rowed over to the beach. When I got there and I was walking to my spot, a local man came by and threw cold water on my idea. "Ha," he said, "what do you think you're going to catch? It's rough out there." That wasn't helpful.

It was rough, the waves were far apart but when they broke they reared up to about 7 feet high. I waded out as far as I could stand without being knocked off my feet. I cast the rig out, and it was a great cast; I estimate 60 feet. However the rig started immediately drifting to my right and onshore. In just a couple of minutes it washed almost all the way up to shore. Obviously I should have had a much larger sinker. I'll buy a bigger one and try again.

On the way back, I had two squid which had thawed and I couldn't keep, so I put them on hooks and let them drag behind the dinghy as I rowed back. When I got back to Tarwathie, surpise! I had caught a nice catfish. I cleaned it and we ate the meat in the jambalaya that Libby made for dinner. Yum.