Getting ready for our next trip and splitting tails

Video of the blue heaven running across the bay

Well its that time again, Time to get the boat ready for travel this season. It seems as though I just returned. Between selling the old boat and buying the new one, and then gearing it up, It seems this winter just blew by. Heck I have not even got to hunt much over this last winter. . But I did manage to get to the hunting camp last weekend. I spent four much needed days in the woods.

Porky died


The new boat is starting to feel more and more familiar each day. After months of cosmetic changes, now we are getting to turn her into OUR fishing rig. We are storing rods and rigging lures and ordering bait. Its kind neat how each day the boat becomes more and more like home as we personalize it.

We are preparing to depart in about a week and a half for the Bahamas and Dominican Republic. I have a new mate, he is learning quick and fitting in very good. Tyler Levesque is 21 years old and has not traveled much but he is wide eyed and a quick learner. He is excited to kick off this new way of life. He has NO IDEA what he is in for. He will remember this next trip for years to come.  

Over the last two days we went mullet fishing. My old mate Kyle took us on his Carolina skiff and we netted a fair number of silver mullet to be used on dredges and as teasers. Had we not had to fight torrential rains, I think we may have done better but we got a good shot of mullet. We split tail each and every one and vacume seal them after treating them with baking soda and salt. lots of work but worth the effort. 

sealing dredge mullet

Kyle and Tyler throwing cast nets in the rain

A perfect split tailed mullet reddy for the  sealer

Some of the medium mullet being salted before being  sealed

I am looking so forward to sharing this next trip with all of you via this blog. There will be lots of great stories and fish pics. And of course there will be many sun set pics.  Its going to be a great season. The new boat is up for the trip. And so are we, But as is always the case, When we are home we dream of traveling.... when we are traveling we dream of home. I have had quite a few requests for my poem I wrote about this subject so here it is again. 

A traveling sportfish captains poem

I sit on the boat and dream of home
For months on end, we travel and roam
Plying the waters, we fish here and there
Home in our thoughts as the ocean we dare
When home we dream of being at sea
Our thoughts of the boat do constantly be
We want to be there, chasing big fish
Our minds do wander of travels we wish
Torn between two, we are pulled to and fro
We live for the dreams that we only know
Our homes and our travels pull like the tides
Both do control us for all of our lives
-Capt Ed Thompson