Any fishermen/Women? Hunters?

I don't personally hunt, but mark does. We live on a farm with lots of hunting land. Unfortunately, insidious poachers have pretty-much ruined it, at least they did this year.. they manage to somehow stake out the house and go when we are not home.

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Originally Posted by joepythons

Have you ever cleaned a dove? Total waste of time in my opinion,they look better alive lol.

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There is a trick!! step on the legs and pull on the wings!! LOL!!! you get dove breasts right there.

Ok soft shell crab sandwiches are great, but I have to ask what does squirrel taste like? ( and please don't say chicken ) :)

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

No. :disbelief My grandmother used to eat soft shelled crab sandwichs, and the legs stickout out of the bread freaked me out. :bolt:

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LOL! I remember those! I actually tried to get over my grossed out opinion of soft shells when I worked at an upscale restaurant....Couldn't do it! Ick!

Still, I love a nice steamed crab and some nicely grilled rock fillets!

Jotay- our Dad still has his boat docked out in Mayo...I believe he's in the South river, it's a 20 minute jaunt to get the the Bay Bridge. Lots of fun! Our dad used to take the three of us out a lot as kids. We'd tie up with other boats and sleep out for the weekend...it was awesome!

Hey Christie - do you remember that poor sweet little duckling we tried to adopt!

As a boy, I used to fish off of Ft. Lauderdale, FL (about 10 miles out) we would drift in the Gulfstream. I caught a 40 lb. Wahoo once. As I got older and moved out of FL I started Fresh Water fishing. The largest Smallmouth Bass I caught is 3.5 lb. I too, really enjoy panfish fishing. The light tackle freshwater gear is so easy to just throw in the trunk and just go.


As for hunting, I once went bear hunting with a bow. Didn't see a one!!! But the company was really good so it wasn't a waisted trip. I went dear hunting once with a Winchester '94, saw a lot of bucks, but I had a doe tag. I did get a shot off at one doe, but I was so nervous that I missed (by at least 3 inches). After that shot we didn't see anything, I guess it scared everything away for miles.

I really wasn't into hunting. I did enjoy competition shooting with both bow and rifle while I was in the US Army.:salute:

Most all my fishing is done underwater with a gun. Guess it's a combo hunting/fishing thing. I also catch spiny lobster when in season. I love seafood. Now it's getting close to mudbug season, but I have to buy them here in So. Florida. We make our own Andouille and Tasso, so when I do a "boil", there is usually jambalya and gumbo to go along. Softshell crab PoBoys and oyster Poboys are two of my favorite sandwiches.

Just to show that some fish are pretty smart, here's a little story of my hunt for one wiley black grouper.

I was the skipper of a 38’ dive boat in Ft. Lauderdale for several years. On this particular trip, myself and divemaster were scouting out some new sites. We had just come inshore from a dive on the “Rebel” , which is a vessel purposely sunk as an artificial reef in about 110’ of water. After crossing some pretty flat, sand bottom at about 60’, the depth finder indicated the bottom was coming up fast. After reaching about 35’, it fell off quickly to 45’, indicating a nice ledge. We decided to anchor on top of the ledge and check it out. When we hit the bottom, it was like “Ca Ching”, lobster everywhere! We caught our limit within 20 square feet and 10 minutes. So we decided to explore the area to see if it was worthy of paying customers. We soon realized that it was a very small area maybe 2000 square feet and really not a good spot to bring 20 divers at a time. As we started back to the boat, I glanced off into the sand and spotted a black grouper watching us. He was using a seafan as cover and had lightened his color to match the sand. I alerted my buddy and off we went. Sensing he had been spotted, he turned tail and started swimming slowly across the sand. I knew he was going to kick it into high gear soon and decided to get off a shot from 40’ away. Because of the species I hunt, I use a technique called “free shafting” where there is no line attaching the spear shaft to the gun. Therefore, I can take longer shots. Just as I pulled the trigger, he bolts. My buddy gives chase as I recover my shaft and reload. After about 200 yards we see him heading for what we thought was another ledge. We clearly see him go up and straight down into an opening. The “ledge” turned out to be a section of old dredge pipe about 8’ in diameter and 400’ from end to end. Needless to say he was home free. We headed back to the boat and I marked the spot in my log using points on shore to “line up” the location. We pulled anchor and moved in over the “pipe” to mark it’s position, then headed in.

Over the next month or two, we visited that spot six or 7 times. We anchored on the ledge and swam in to the pipe, hitting it at different points each time. Everytime he was either hovering over the split in the pipe where he first disappeared on us or out in the sand. Neither of us could get close before he vanished in the pipe. The next time we visited the spot, I was playing divemaster while training a new boat captain. We had an instuctor with students on board, so I decided that the pipe would be an excellent “controlled” spot for his students. We anchored so that the stern was directly over the pipe. I figured that with all these people in the water, that black was long gone inside the pipe. It was hot and I was bored so I hit the water figuring the commotion of the students would attract some hogfish (think of birds following the mower along side a highway). Nothing in sight. I said to myself “what the heck” and headed toward the split in the pipe, just for grins. I had become very familiar with that pipe by now and decided to try a different approach. I basically hugged the side of the pipe, swimming on my left side. When I was with in 50’ of the split, I held my breath (yeah I know, never hold your breath) and as soon as I was at the split, came up and over the pipe ready to shoot. There he was, looking down the pipe in the direction of the students. He caught a glimps of me and started down just as I pulled the trigger. Too late, perfect kill shot. That was one of my most memorable hunts, taking 9 dives to out smart that grouper and learning a lot from the experience. BTW he was about 18 lbs. I’m a firm believer in leaving the “monsters” be, as they are the top breeders of their species and will never take a fish much larger than 20 lbs. Black grouper can exceed 100 lbs. Since I am not a trophy hunter, I only take what I can eat and I’m selective in what I take.

Craig

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Originally Posted by wendyhoo9

LOL! I remember those! I actually tried to get over my grossed out opinion of soft shells when I worked at an upscale restaurant....Couldn't do it! Ick!

Still, I love a nice steamed crab and some nicely grilled rock fillets!

Jotay- our Dad still has his boat docked out in Mayo...I believe he's in the South river, it's a 20 minute jaunt to get the the Bay Bridge. Lots of fun! Our dad used to take the three of us out a lot as kids. We'd tie up with other boats and sleep out for the weekend...it was awesome!

Hey Christie - do you remember that poor sweet little duckling we tried to adopt!

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I was just talking to dad about that! :giggle: We were horrible little kids. :rolleyes:

I still have the urge to go crabbing again. Gotta pull that string super slow. No pots for me!! :crazy:

My Phillipino aunt introduced me to softshell crabs. I was kind of skeptical first.. but I really like them now.

The crunchy legs are the best part, AND it meant I never had to share with the other kids in my class, as I always told them it was fried tarantula.
I love good seafood, and Olive Garden has a alfredo dish that has shrimp and crawfish in it. I always order it "No sea fleas, double the mudbugs, extra sauce". Then I got to explain it. No shrimp, double the crawfish and extra sauce. They usually understand that last part okay. Haha.
I want to go deep sea fishing ot catch one of any of the large(50 lb) fish, then I can go "Nope, I'm done. That fills my freezer". Just to watch the jaws drop. I can go inside the cabin to nap the rest of the trip. I don't much sport fish, as I fish for food to eat. I enjoy it, but I want fish to eat, not to turn loose again.
I wish I had more time to hunt, but lately it's work, work, worry about money, work some more.
Maybe soon
Wolfy

I had some softshell crab tempura sushi rolls the other day that were kickin'.......great stuff.