Fantastic Day on the Water

 The last trip on the boat was a huge success: Sophia was happy and wore her life jacket. We did a bay tour and enjoyed a little time on the water. This trip was a huge success and a full family outing. It was a successful boat trip and fishing trip all rolled into one.

The weather pattern had been good, so the idea to take the kids out to the kelp paddies was in my mind. I’ve been very afraid of taking them fishing and not getting results. I also knew that there had been a lot of bonito around the kelp beds. I decided to give it a try by heading out in the nice weather, exploring the kelp (which is very interesting all on its own) and trolling for some fish.

The first good omen of the day was a successful run to the bathroom for Sophia. She has been doing great with her potty training. The boat doesn’t have the facilities to help in that quest, so we were happy she took care of business ahead of time. She then happily put on her life jacket for the trip.

The girls held their poles for the ride to the mouth of the bay. They had fun looking around and the day was amazingly beautiful. They like to sit up front and look out. After a snack of chips, we made it to the mouth of the bay. The mouth is always the roughest part, and it was set up perfectly for fun. Small rolling waves were coming through that made the boat gently bounce as we went over them. Each bounce brought a cheer from the girls. They were having fun.

I felt like the day was a success already.

It took about 15 minutes to get out to the area I wanted to troll around. It is a really neat area that typically has fish. The water turned to a very clear blue. Passing kelp stringers, we could see 20+ feet down into the water. The visibility was great. I slowed down to put some lines out but the girls just wanted “super fast”.

We trolled through the kelp for about 10 minutes looking at the stringers moving in the water. This was pretty interesting for the girls. Then mom got a fish. Now things were exciting. Luckily, we were able to get a couple more barracuda quickly for the girls. They each got to reel one in. Katerina was a little sad that she didn’t get to user her pole, but I think it would have broken.

We trolled around the same area for a while longer and got a lot of mackerel. We put some in the bait tank and the girls got to watch them swim around. They had a lot of fun with that.

The current had slowed down, so the fishing was pretty slow. The girls had been great, so we decided to head for home. Sophia woke up in time for a fun ride in.

After we got in and cleaned up, mom made a great dinner of beer battered bonito, home made french fries and onion-rings. After dinner, we went to Bogart Yogurt for some “pink ice cream.” It was a great day from start to end.