This post is from Shelley:
One of the biggest highlights of the trip was a fishing trip with Liz and Jeff on Saturday. Their boat, the Lizard, is beautiful and I loved sitting up front while we crashed through the waves into the Bay. They are serious fisherman so we had fresh chum and Liz ladled it out into the water as we drifted. (I even got to watch the chum being made, ground up mush of frozen fish; that was quite an experience!) But it worked its magic and right away we started pulling in striped bass. The hardest part was waiting after the first jerk on the line; pull up too soon and you’ll get the hook away from the fish (often with your bait in his mouth anyway). And so I learned to wait until the fish figures out something is wrong and starts to fight, then reel him in. The striped bass were beautiful and several of them were fighters! We ended up hitting the limit (2 per person) very quickly (the biggest was 28 inches) and after a short swim in the bay we headed home to cook ’em. I learned a bit about scaling and fileting in the process. The fried “fish bites” were incredible and the enormous pan of them disappeared early in that night’s dinner. The ones I caught were the tastiest of all!
We toasted to the country’s birthday and to those who couldn’t be at the cottage with us. We got to see bioluminescent creatures right next to the pier and the reflections of our neighbors’ fireworks on the water.