Our last night at Grayton Beach

August 17, 2019—All good things must come to an end. This is our last night at Grayton Beach State Park in Santa Rosa, Fla. It was a good vacation.

Fishing? Well, no “big-uns” but we took home, over the course of three days fishing at the pier, 29 croakers and whiting. Not a bad haul, and a delicious one at that. These little fish fry up “real good.”

Although, like any other angler, we would like to pull in black drum and redfish, when you are fishing from a pier or shore, you have to go for what comes by. If you are not in a boat, wishful thinking will not lure the fish to you. We have learned that when the big ones are not biting, but the little ones are, go for the little ones. Instead of consistently losing bait placed on big hooks (for big fish), switch to little hooks and catch little fish. That’s what we have been doing, and we’re having a great time. We will catch big fish in the future.

Something else we have learned—how to pack our truck. In our last outing, we forgot the rod holders for surf fishing. (We left them home.) We had also left some equipment under the truck camper because we had unloaded everything when we had arrived.

Not this time. This time, we packed the fishing equipment to be on the bottom of the pile in the back seat of the truck. The camping chairs and tented canopy were the last items in, and the first (and only) items we had to take out. The fishing gear stayed in the truck, so we always had everything we needed with us. We’re learning…

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We are rank amateurs, little more than novices, in this angling business. But today we felt like pros. As we were setting up our gear, a young (40ish) couple and their pre-teen daughter came over to us and started asking us about the fish they were catching. They didn’t know the species (we didn’t either, when we first started) and were concerned that they had “legal” fish. They said it was their first time out—ever. We identified their catch and shared our limited angling expertise, which improved their first fishing expedition. They were grateful for our help.

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We are all packed. Tomorrow morning all we have to do (after coffee, of course) is put the camper on the truck and leave. We are considering taking the coastal route that will take us through Mexico Beach, the community that was literally wiped out by the hurricane last year. If we do, I’ll post some photos.

Right now my task is a tasty one: I am going to cook up a number of those delicious croakers for dinner tonight.

Until later,

Your Reluctant RoVer,

Linda