Our new found fishermen buddies Holland and Shawn found some of the best fishing grounds inside of the St. Augustine Inlet, and only a few yards away from Cat Maudy. Naturally I cheered like a wild woman when Holland caught his first Sheepshead fish (the fish that have human like teeth). Sssshhhhhh. Cheering for a fisherman would be “incorrect”. No need to attract OTHER fisherman to this hotspot – so I promised to keep the commotion down when the next fish was caught.

Time to buy my Florida fishing license. I imagined fresh catch for dinner every night. Perhaps, I wouldn’t know what to do if I were to catch a fish….wouldn’t know how to kill it….and surely wouldn’t know how to fillet it. But those are details that can be dealt with another day.

Here’s what I learned from our fishing friends:
– you can keep 15 sheepshead per person per day. That’s a lotto fish!
– the bait is an itsy bitsy crab thing
– chum by scraping off the barnacles near a dock or bridge piling
– then add some broken up mussels to add to the chum flavor
– put your hook down…and start reelin‘ em in!

The H&S fishing team caught 24 fish that day….just 6 short of their daily limit for 2 people. And, not only did they donate 2 of these fish to us….but took the time to show us how to fillet them! Thanks Shawn & Holland….our fresh sheepshead fish dinner was truly divine!