What?  Does that make sense????  It does when you’re at SGI in August.

 

The whole group was again together that morning.  Audrey was a little bit grumpy since she couldn’t find her favorite “A” hat.  Being with her brother didn’t bring a smile either – not that you could tell with their buffs on.

We checked our pinfish traps first thing as they had been successful on an earlier trip in the week.  While we didn’t hit the lottery with pinfish, we did find this guy – an eel, along with a mud catfish and a decent sized crab.

Her demeanor changed once she was the first to bring this trout on board.

Then her mother added a keeper trout to the cooler.

Somewhere in between I added a trout to the cooler, but missed out on the photo.  As mentioned in an earlier post, a fish selfie just doesn’t work.  We were teasingly calling the morning ‘Girl Power Hour’.

The pop-up storms were becoming more prevalent and decisions needed to be made.  Which way to head to miss them?  Go west and run through an impending storm OR go east and see if they wear themselves out?  We chose west.

What a great decision!  We got to East End and then we found magic……….diving birds.

We ran across these on our last two SGI trips and each time had great fun.  Thus one of the trips this activity was named ‘Runnin’ & Gunnin’.

Seeing the diving birds, Eric drives up to the frenzy, puts the boat in neutral and then we all cast towards the action.  Initially we were only getting ladyfish and while fun to catch with their acrobatics they were not the desired species.  Only when Eric said to let our lures sink for several seconds did we begin to catch some mackerel.  Unfortunately, we also snagged one of the dive-bombing seagulls.  😦  OMG in a very bad way.  We couldn’t get close enough to the bird to untangle the bird but quickly decided to cut the line – close – to let the bird escape and the fishing line come loose.  It worked.

It all starts with the schools of glass minnows, attracting schools of fish, which attract diving birds which attracts us – the fishermen.  We coast into the frenzy, cast (and hopefully hook) before the minnows and fish go deeper down, calming the water.  We quietly survey the horizon, looking for the action to start all over again, then go running into the fray.  🙂  Kids absolutely love it (and so do the adults if we’re honest).

Eventually we got enough macks and  paid more attention to the weather.  We had been keeping an eye on it and it looked like the one storm was scooting along the shoreline instead of coming into the bay.  However………………………..

I had just enough time to grab a photo of East End before we headed back.  Love SGI – just saying.

W debated stopping at the youth camp in the state park for cover or going all the way back.  There seemed to be a possible break in the clouds and we went straight to the house.

Man – is that a nice fish haul or what?

Eric was able to convince Audrey to help him and the work was done much quicker.

Then there was this fellow – Devin.  I heard some noise around the seawall and this gentleman was using a cast net and floating a holder with him.  He’s showing me one of his mullet that he netted.

He was selling the fish to his customers and Eric told  him to come back if he had any leftover as we would be interested – and he did.

 

Sushi…………..now we come to the second part of the title.

We first attempted making our own sushi several years ago and it was a popular dinner choice.  Our last trip we made a poke bowl – just when those of us on the mainland was starting to hear about them.  That was the plan if we caught mackerel.

It was definitely a team effort.  Dennis cooked and prepped the sushi rice.  Others grated the carrots, seeded & sliced the cucumber, cooked & cleaned the shrimp before it was all put together.  Avocado and spicy mayo sauce completed the poke bowls.

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But it didn’t stop there.  Sushi rolls were also on the menu, some of which had the mackerel included.  Prepping and rolling the rolls while using the sharpest knife is key to their success.

What meal is complete with our dessert – homemade.  Dennis found a recipe for Atlantic Lemon Pie and that task was left to myself and Audrey.

It was VERY tasty and a nice end to a great day.

Sharing our combined meal that was eaten out on the screened porch as the sun was setting.

 

More SGI adventures are coming.

 

Ginny