2021 - TRIP SUMMARIES AND PHOTOS

Trip Date:  12/31/21

Bennett's first boat ride ever, with Grandpa and family!

Trip Date:  12/25/2021

Merry Christmas!

Trip Date: 7/20/21

I had the pleasure of taking Lisa and her grandson Carter out on the water today. The weather was beautiful and the water was calm. Right before we got to our first fishing spot, a manatee cruised by the boat, but it stayed underwater, refusing to let us take a picture of its face. We set anchor in our first fishing spot, and I taught Carter how to cast an open-faced reel. He learned how to hold the line, flip the bail, and release the line when casting. He was a quick learner, and was doing his own casting from that point on. Later, at another fishing spot up the river, he yelled out, “Something broke my hook off!” I responded back to him, “I think you caught the whale. Check my left shoulder.” The hook barely scratched me but was stuck in my shirt. Lisa cut the hook off with the bolt cutters and we were back in business. We all got a great laugh from that! After getting very few bites, we checked out a few other trusty fishing holes and Carter caught several catfish and several mangrove snapper. He was so excited, listening to the noises the catfish were making. I told him they were “barking” at him. Only cat I know that barks like a dog. When we moved to another spot and caught several mangrove snapper, Carter loved looking at their teeth. We had a great day on the water, and I had the pleasure of joining them for lunch at Captain’s BBQ for some delicious food!

Trip Date:  7/15/2021

I had the pleasure today of taking returning customers Vickey (Ga Ga) and her grandson Jackson back out on the St. Johns River for their second trip since June of last year.  The weather was perfect.  Not too hot, not too windy, and the water was very calm.  

I told Jackson I had a special treat for him and he asked what I brought him to eat.  Ga Ga laughed and told him that not all treats are food.  As we slowly went underneath the train track bridge, I held him up so he could touch the underside of the bridge.  (He was so excited when we did that, he wanted to do it again on our way back to the dock.)  After we came out from under the bridge, Jackson saw one of the electrical towers off in the distance, and yelled out, “Look, the Eiffel Tower!”  Ga Ga explained to him it although it looked similar, the real one is in Paris, France.

Jackson had a list of things he kept checking off as the morning progressed:  see alligators, check; see a manatee, check; see different birds, check; holding a live fishing worm, check; catch a fish, half-check (No fish bites today, however, we saw a dead catfish floating, so not wanting to disappoint him, we caught the dead catfish using the net, and he was thrilled with that!)  He wanted to see turtles, however, none were to be seen.  We did see a sign that the river may have blue green algae, and believe this is why we had no fish bites and saw no turtles.  The most exciting moment of the day was when a small manatee surfaced right behind the boat, took a breath of air, then went under before we could get a good picture.

As we were heading back down the river, Jackson’s hat flew off, and he yelled, “Oh, No!”  I told him not to worry, and we circled around and grabbed his hat with the net.  Fortunately, this happened before netting the dead catfish, otherwise, his hat would have stunk.

We had a great time, and it was a pleasure watching Jackson and his grandmother making memories and enjoying the great outdoors together!

Trip Date:  6/8/2021

Back on the water again after spending lots of time with my new grandson!  Although it was windy and hot, it was great to see the 

Trip Date:  2/10/2021

We decided to give it a go yesterday despite the intense fog and were rewarded with a great sighting of a pod of dolphins.  They were just off our port side enjoying feeding and swimming with each other.  I caught several sheepshead while Phyllis brought a nice flounder to the boat.  Turned out the flounder was camera-shy and refused to have his picture taken.  We wrapped up the day with some great shrimp tacos at Captain's BBQ!