Deep Sea Fishing With My Dad, Poppyseed.

Father Daughter Day Deep Sea Fishing = Awesome.

Some of my very favorite memories in the world are going fishing with my dad. I used to call him “Poppy” which morphed into “Poppyseed” which also varies into “Popsicle Stick” depending on the day even still.

Poppyseed has taken me fishing since I was a little girl and I love it. I even remember catching my very first fish with him, it was a tiny sun fish and I think he has a picture of it somewhere. I wore his big puffy jacket.

Poles waiting to fish.

Yesterday we went deep sea fishing off Clearwater with Double Eagle Deep Sea Fishing, it must’ve been the first time in about 20 years (yes I’m old) and I learned a few things.

First, I learned that it’s perfectly acceptable to drink beer when on a boat full of fishermen at 9 a.m.

Cheers!

I learned that I could look like a real fisherperson if I want.

Semi-non-professional

So he didn’t get boys (he got us two girls) but he got the next best thing: girls who aren’t afraid to get dirty.

I won’t kill a bug at home but I’ll bait my own hook!

I learned that I feel bad for sardines because everyone wants to eat them. Sardines really are screwed! I thought as a I lowered it into the water…

And then caught this, my first fish of the day! A snapper! (Dinner! mmmmmmm.)

Then the magic happened for my dad!

Go Popsicle Stick!

WHOA!!! GROUPER! He had the biggest fish on the boat for a while! We thought he might even win the unofficial pool. He got beat by another fish by only 2 inches.

I learned that there are truly hideous looking fish in the sea.

The fish was hideous but look at that gorgeous blue water! I loved it.

And that apparently they don’t make for good eatin.

I learned that you can jinx yourself by yelling, “I am a machine!” in front of the whole boat when you catch your second fish. After you declare what a machine you are, there’s a good likelihood you’ll catch things like coral and hideous fish afterward. So don’t do it.

I (re)learned that my Popsicle Stick is cute.

Isn’t he??

And that we have a lot of fun together fishing.

Even when you catch fewer fish than the rest of the people on the boat.

Probably because you prematurely announced to everyone that you’re a machine…

(In our defense, we caught a lot more, but there are restrictions on grouper sizes, so we had to throw them back if they weren’t big enough.)

By the way, we picked up some visitors on the trip back to the dock.

We saw so many dolphins frolicking in the water on this trip but this was the closest I got. We were seeing eye to eye!

We have a long-standing tradition of cooking what we catch as soon as we come home. So we had a grouper sandwich fish fry with a beer batter recipe I found on Google on the way home (recipe to come on Saturday!) Ohmigod to die for.

Honestly there’s nothing like fresh fish. The snapper I caught I’m going to bake or broil (instead of fry). Moderation here, people!

Some Deep Sea Fishing Tips

So, if you’re going to go on a deep sea fishing trip for the whole day (which I highly recommend if you’re ever near a coast or come to Florida), I do have some other pointers for you while I’m at it.

• Bring lunch and snacks and lots and lots of water beer. 
• Bring sunscreen and lots of it and a hat because not only do you get direct sun, you get the reflected sun off the water. Double whammy!
• Bring a cooler that you can leave in the car for the fish that you are going to take home.
• Bring cash so that if they’re grilling up burgers on the boat and the smell is wafting onto all the fisherpeople from the onboard kitchen, you can buy one. Or not. (I didn’t but I did have burger envy.)
• Bring cash for tipping the crew onboard who help you when you catch a fish, snag a bunch of coral, spin out your fishing line into a big wad of mess on the reel, clean and filet your fish for you, or make fun of you for calling yourself “a machine.”
• Bring antibacterial wipes so that when you go to eat your peanut butter and jelly sandwich or take a sip of water or beer or touch anything in your bag or cooler whatsoever, you don’t have to run to the bathroom to wash your hands every time and also you won’t contaminate yourself because your hands have been in the bucket of chum all day.
• Wear comfy shoes but bring the flip flops, just in case. There’s lots of comfy time in between the actual fishing.
• Don’t leave your lunch cooler at the ship when you leave. Like we did.
• Know that when you’re in the shower afterward getting the fish smell off of you that the shower isn’t actually moving, it just feels that way because you were on the boat all day.
• Did you know that some local restaurants will even cook the fish up FOR YOU!? They will here. That is if you don’t have an awesome recipe waiting for you already.

The charter we used was Double Eagle Deep Sea Fishing in Clearwater. Their full-day deep sea fishing rate was $77, which includes poles and bait. That was pretty good from what I researched! Getting your fish filleted at the end is a little extra but totally worth it because I don’t know how to do this and I’m not to interested in learning.

The crew was awesome and I’ll even give them mad props for making it a gorgeous sunny day (with no storms) as if they had any control over that but we can pretend they did. Also, I didn’t get anything for saying any of this,  this was actually a Father’s Day gift I had given my dad a year (maybe two?) ago that we finally got a chance to use.

And it was the best.Day.Ever.

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