Thread: Optimism

Little tip on the vacuum sealers: Roll up one sheet of paper towel and put it in the bag on top of the fish so it soaks up any liquid that gets sucked out. Makes for a better seal and none of that glorp to stink up your unit.

Chillinfish---the technical term is "ruint".

I'm sure dry ice would work well, but it's expensive. I've always vacuum sealed dry filets, warped each pkg in newspaper, put a couple layers on top and duct taped it shut. After a 10 hour drive, we spend the night in a motel and drive another eight the next day. Still frozen when we get to the cabin in Wisconsin. Been doing this for 40 years without a thaw in standard igloo or Coleman cooler.

14-1/2 hr drive.here....vacuum sealed with minumal dry ice works great.....never had a problem with out the ice before.....last 2 trips I brought the small upright freezer for the extra fillets to store in the condo.....the fridge freezers just aren't big enough for the month stay on those trip's
And haywires tip is spot on with the paper towel and vacuum sealing

Haywire, never thought of that, THANKS!


Our FoodSaver vacuum packer is almost 10 years old now. We bought it with Target gift cards we got as presents from our wedding back in 2006. It was around $100 on sale back then. From everything I have read, the "cheap" ones are not worth the money. Go with one that is in the middle price range unless you are using it a lot, then the pricier ones are worth it. Buy bags in large rolls off Amazon, much cheaper that way.

Got back from a week (Oct 10-17) this past weekend.

Figured I'd just post a few comments about the fishing/accommodations:

1. I don't think I could have picked a better place than the house on Ponce de Leon/Triple Tail in Ft. Morgan.
   
   • Beach was great; people were great; weather was great; fishing was great.
   
   
2. Got all we needed for ice/miscellaneous "stuff" at Sassy Bass (including dry). Just one run for groceries and junk at publix and wally world.
3. Got all the fishing gear and near-shore advice at L&M. Stopped there BEFORE getting to Ft. Morgan. Great selection but you guys need a few more bucktail jigs with white hair. I'd bet you could find a local to make nicer stuff than the spro in the rack. Just a suggestion; your staff was very nice and helpful.

Fishing:

1. Did I mention it was great? No exaggeration: had a line in the water less than 90 seconds (white and red Reef Runner we use for walleyes up north) and a bull red peeled off 100 yards. Fought him for 10 minutes before he straightened out the treble hooks. Yea . . . lesson learned . . . back to J&M in the morning.
2. Fished the Dixey Bar every day (started each morning there). 4ft - 12 ft of water. Boated bull reds until the arms ached. Some great pictures of my 98 LB mother pushing 80 years old acting every bit the seasoned pro taking line when she could and laughing her A$$ off. And yes . . . beer at 10AM.
3. 11 year old son was king of the sharks. Don't know how we're catching reds and he was stuck on sharks, but he earned the shark t-shirt so he got it. Next time, I'm sure he'll have better luck.
4. The weather . . . uhm . . . how do you locals get any work done???
   
   • Winds light and variable every day. 82-85, no humidity, blue skies.
   • Took the 16 ft. Whaler off shore (a bit) to the rigs to troll for pelagics. No Yellow fin, but a nice mix:
     
     • King Mac
     • Spanish
     • Little Tunny
     • Wahoo
   
   
5. Trolling bait:
   
   1. Clark spoons
   2. Anything silver (or gold) or shiny
   3. Shiny Rapalas
   4. Cigar minnows on mackerel rigs.
   
   
6. Trolling inshore at about 7 knots and had a fairly large shark hit one rod so hard the impact snapped the base mount on my Cannon electric downrigger.

In short, we caught so many fish on so many different baits at different water column depths/levels (surface in 60 feet to 4 feet down in 8 ft of water); I can take almost no credit. We netted skates at the beach and cut them up to use as bait; that worked almost as well as live shrimp.

In my mind, I'm still there. 51 more weeks to go really.

Great post, thank you for sharing. Now, how about the pics? Did you get the pics?

Its all tall tales and lies without pics!

Don't know what I was thinking . . . Skimpy on pictures, but here are a few: