So much fun fishing AND crabbing!

On our last trip to St. Simons Island, we met up with Cristi and Juani who came up from Ft. Lauderdale.  We wanted to make it a fun trip for them full of fishing and crabbing.  Well, we didn't go out on the boat but had a great time off "Howard's Dock."  We caught 6 big crabs and everyone caught at least one fish and though we only have a 2 hour window to fish, we made the most of it!
One of the things I like about fishing at Howard's Dock is that we don't have to clean up the boat, and since Don cleans the fish, I only have to clean the crabs.

Walking on the beach art sunset

Cristi fishing

Regan the dog stayed with us the whole time.  He tried to eat  the chicken crabmeat.

Can you see the sheephead?

A cooler full of fish and crab.

View of the dock and the marsh.

Male crabs have bigger claws!  We caught all males this time.

Cleaned cooked crab.  Let's eat!

Good-bye Summer!

This weekend we went to the condo one final time before school started - for the kids that is!  I have been retired one year now and this is the second time that I can relax at this time of year and not be all stressed out about going back to school!  Don't forget that I loved it while I was doing it but now that I'm not, it just makes me happy!  We sure packed in lots of crabbing and beach in two days!

Andrew, Lauren and Isabella are ready for the beach!

Some beach activities:

Making real sandcastles!

fishing for small fish to play with!

crabbing at the pier

Yummy!  Crabs for dinner!

hermit crabs to play with!

Andrew found this moon shell with his feet while we were looking for sand dollars in the water.

It is the biggest moon shell we had ever found!  He said that he felt it and thought it might be a crab but still decided to pull on it.  It was stuck in the sand like it is stuck on his hand here!

Isabella is six weeks today!  She still mostly sleeps or cries for her bottle.  These moments of communication are so special!

Crabbing off the boat

BLUE CRABS!

We spent the week in SSI fishing and fixing up the condo.  I tried a new way of crabbing off the side of the boat while the fish were not biting.  Together we caught 11 fish – all cleaned and frozen- and I caught 10 large blue crab.  I was so excited.  Many times on the boat I wished we could crab and fish but never before figured out a way to do it.  I remembered how in Varadero we would go to the laguna  and throw out the bait on a string.  I don't remember how we brought them in but how excited we would get playing with the crabs.  So, I tied the chicken leg to a string with some weights and let it down beside the boat.  After a few times I could tell as I pulled it up that there was crab attached to it.  I lost a few when the crab let go and I did not get the crab into the net but I captured most of them.  They are bigger than the one we usually catch on the pier.  I called my 7 year old grandson and shared with him last night and he said, “Awesome!”  I cleaned all the crabs and put them in the fridge.  We will take the crabs to eat with them Monday.  He loves to catch the crabs and also to eat them!