What To Do If You Hook A Seaturtle

 What do you do if you accidently hook or snag a seaturtle while fishing in Florida?

The good news for both you and the seaturtles is ... it probably won't happen.

But, it might.

This young sea turtle swam too close to one of our lures and snagged a flipper. We were not able to remove the hook from his tough scaley, skin while he was in the water due to his efforts to swim away, so I used the dip net to lift him in to the boat for the 10 seconds Denny needed to pop the hook loose.

In no time this little guy was back in the water hunting the grassflats and avoiding the tiger sharks who hunt him.

The FWC (Florida Wildlife Commission) has specific guidelines for dealing with a hooked seaturtle. It turns out that we unknowingly followed them by applying common sense along with a sense of urgency in getting the turtle back into the ocean quickly and with minimal stress.

The actual guidelines can be found here.

Snagging a turtle is a pretty rare event, but if you are out there often enough, it could happen.

Check out the link above for more information.

Anyone who thinks turtles are slow has never seen a sea turtle kick it into high gear.

Watch the short video below to see what I mean.

Post Reunion ... The Slow Way Home

Well, ... no, not that slow.

I wish.

If you dropped in for my last post, you know I've been at my high school reunion this weekend.

It was a blast and miraculously ... no one had changed a bit.
Everyone looked exactly like their yearbook pictures ... it was pretty amazing.

Of course, we all grew up in a town with the REAL Fountain of Youth, so it's really NOT that surprising.

Sorry, no pictures today to prove that claim ... I took a blue million pics last night, but almost all of them were on other people's cameras.

"Here, take one with mine."

"Mine too."

"Mine is the big one by my purse."

And ... there is the issue of courtesy. I think my friends deserve the chance to OK any photo I would post here, so perhaps in a future post ...

It was a heck of a lot of fun though and I look forward to the next one in about 5 years.

The class of '76 has too much fun together to wait ten years between reunions.

We are on the 5 year plan.

Right now, I'm somewhere on SR 40 west of Ormond Beach using McDonalds' wifi and sipping their excellent ice tea (unsweetened of course).

I've got my Florida State Park Pass in my pocket and plan to hit a string of parks in the DeLand area ... Blue Springs, DeLeon Springs, maybe Lake Woodruff NWR, and who knows after that.

Whatever happens on the slow ride home, you know I'll share it with you.

Now, the JEEP is calling.

Gotta go.

 

Pinkularity

Roadside scenery on the way home from work.

How could one not stop for spoonbills?
I could not resist.
The Jeep rolled to a stop on the skinny road shoulder and I stepped out expecting them to fly away, but the just kept preening, yawning, and quietly honking in a nasally, ibissy way.

Oh, and there was stretching too.

Today, if they are there, I will have to resist the call of the pink.

It's that time again ...

I'm off to my high school class reunion.

SAHS Class of 1976, I'll see you at the White Lion for happy hour.

Shade Hawk

This young red-shouldered hawk may have been born this year, but he wasn't born yesterday ... notice he's smart enough to get out of the heat and into some shade.

I took these photos a few weeks ago when the pond was almost dry (again). The hawk was perched in a willow that overlooked the two tiny puddles. It was a pretty good ambush spot for thirsty birds and randy frogs that were attracted by the promise of water.

I think things are quite different down at the pond right now, because we had a whopper of a thunderstorm last night with wall rattling thunder and torrential rains.

I was not allowed to go out during the storm and check out the pond water levels, but I will today after work.

I know the frogs were really singing as the rain fell in torrents, so I am expecting to find actual water in my pond.

On The Road Again

Well, it's that time again.

Time to head back to school for another year of teaching and learning.

I learn so much on this job.

And ... while I will be the new guy at Cedar Key, daughter Emma will be the VERY new teacher at my old school.

Hard to say who will have the biggest butterflies in their stomachs, but I'm thinking mine are a wee bit smaller than hers.

However the first day may go for this father and daughter teaching team, we both know relief is waiting at the end of the day ... waiting patiently for us to return.

Nothing like a Bear snuffle to make you feel rejuvenated and ready to do it again.

Frog Egg Soup

Well, it's that time of year again when I like to make Frog Egg Soup.

Here's how I do it.

First, find yourself a pond with frog eggs in it.

(Note: You can substitute salamander eggs, but you need to change the name of your soup.)

 

Gather up a bowlful of those delicous black eggs and head back to the kitchen.

Set the frog eggs aside and make a good soup base. I like to use onion, bell pepper, datil peppers, garlic, and bay. Toss in some salt, black pepper, cumin, and a dash of oregano.

Cook this down until the veggies are soft and the flavors are blended.

 

Add the liquid of your choice to finalize the blending and bring the deliciousness up off the pot bottom.

You can use broth, water, a little wine ... I like to use this golden fizzy water that comes in bottles.

 

After that, all you have to do is pour in the frog egg centers, add a little more water to soupify it, and stir it occasionally.

Did I mention you need to shell the eggs while the veggies were cooking? ... No? 

Well, you do.

Just take each egg individually and squeeze gently until the clear gel "shell" pops off.

That's all there is to Frog Egg Soup.

If you think this sounds good, you should hear my recipe for Hoppin' John.

Shrimping On The St. Johns River, Florida

Begin anything with the end in mind.

In this case, the "ending" on my mind was our heirloom Selmo salad on a plate next to a pile of fresh river shrimp with a dish of my home made datil pepper sauce along for the ride.

But back to the beginning ...

I grew up in St. Augustine and spent lots of late summer nights shrimping on the St. Johns River. When I was a kid, shrimping was done at night, with a boat staked to two poles, hissing lanterns hung from the side of the boat, and lots of shrimp bait to toss in the river.

After staking, lighting lanterns, and baiting, you cast nets into the dark water until you were wore out or the washtub was full.

Shrimp bait consists of fish meal blended with whatever the shrimper thinks will attract shrimp.  Some folks added cat food, others rocksalt ... it's a very personal thing.

Somewhere between me leaving home for college, the National Park Service, and eventually life over hear on the wild coast of Florida,  ... shrimping switched from only at night to mostly a day time activity.

That does simplify things, but the shrimp tend to be deeper in the daytime. This fact required some modification of our traditional cast nets.

You see, in deep water, a cast net which opens into a circle as you throw it, may actually become a cone with a tiny base by the time it hits bottom.

The smaller your net coverage, the less shrimpossibilities.

So, clever beings that they are, the shrimpers added webbing to the net just above the leadline. This acts as a wing of sorts and keeps the net open longer as it sinks.

The last time I shrimped, in 2007, the shrimp were in 22 feet of water near Palatka and this webbing was vital.

This year, even in the daylight, they are holding shallow.

Not so vital.

You can see the webbing in my castnet below.

That's not me throwing it of course, I am taking the picture.

My friend Denny loading up for another cast, you can see the fruits of his last cast scattered about the deck.

We had found a "honey hole" thanks to a friendly boat that came zipping up to where we and about 10 other boats were casting and catching a few shrimp per cast.

They picked us out of all the other boats (we had a pleasant boat to boat conversation earlier in the morning) and excitedly told us of a spot up river where they had caught their limit in about 15 minutes.

The limit is a 5 gallon bucket.

We zipped up there immediately.

When we arrived, the shrimp were leaping out of the water as the boat slid to a stop.

Oh yes, this must be the place.

Each cast brought up 50 to 100 shrimp at a time.

In no time we had our limit and were done.

Sweet!

These shrimp moved into the river last spring as juveniles and they have been fattening all summer.

Soon, they will feel the pull of the ocean and the need to spawn.

Then, in a great bottom creeping flood that we can only imagine due to the murky tannin stained St. Johns water, they will move out of the mouth of the river and into the ocean.

Should a tropical storm come before that deadline and dump lots of fresh rain into the river, they will leave with the rushing flood.

Shrimpers know that a season that may stretch into October can be short circuited by a single tropical event.

They watch the Weather Channel during hurricane season ... and they fret.

Once in the ocean, the shrimp will run the gauntlet of shrimp boats, predatory fish, seabirds, and just about anything with a mouth.

It is their misfortune to be incredibly delicious.

Heading Shrimp

How these beautiful shrimp got to my kitchen is the subject of another post ... probably the next post ... if nothin' don' happen.

 

This is my SOP for heading shrimp.

• A bowl of shrimp still wearing their little heads.
• An empty bowl to receive their little punkin heads.
• A bowl with ice to receive their little headless abdomens.

 

 

I must have headed 6 or 7 bowls this size ... 5 gallons in all.

 

Here's the end product, one giant blue bowl full of headed shrimp ready for freezing and one bowl full of shrimp heads ready for the compost pile.

 

I kept out a big pile of shrimp for a boiled shrimp supper and froze the rest in quart bags that contained a half teaspoon salt, 70+ shrimp, and water to fill the bag.

 

FRESH shrimp frozen that way stay delicous for YEARS.

 

Last week we ate shrimp from a bag that was frozen in 2006. They tasted like they were just caught.

Encasing them completely in water is the secret ... to be honest, I'm not sure the salt does anything, but it is tradition and what could it hurt?

 

Soon come ... a post about catching shrimp.

This Morning's Giant Diamondback Rattlesnake

Mrs. FC called me almost as soon as she drove out of the driveway this morning ...

"There's a BIG (insert other name for a donkey) RATTLESNAKE on the side of the road before the stop sign! It was on the road, but slid off when I slowed to look at it."

"Wow! Still there? " I responded.

"Yes, it's rattling at me right now."

In 3 shakes of a dead rattlesnake's tail I was there.

The snake, all 5 feet of her, was stretched out in the roadside grasses. She was calm and still and watching us, but not rattling by then.

She was right ... this was a huge diamondback.

 A five foot snake is one thing, but a five foot diamondback, like a five foot shark, looks a couple of feet longer when you are face to face.

What was really impressive about this girl was her girth ... GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY! She's got some bodacious curves.

 I took a few pictures, but I really wanted this snake off the roadside and us gone too, before we attracted the attention of someone lacking in diamondback appreciation skills. I had brought along a big dowel stick for this purpose.

 I wonder if she just ate or perhaps she is pregnant. I didn't ask her ... she's deaf after all.

Plus, I work with women and I know better then to make the dreaded, "When is the baby due?" faux pas.

As the video shows, we were successful in shooing her off the road and into the safety of the brush. This was an area of nothing but forest for hundreds of acres and this snake was right where she belonged ... well, almost ... she definitely was too close to the road for her own good.

While you might treat her differently if you found her in your backyard, this snake was nowhere near human habitation and deserved to be left alive.

And on this day, she was.

Three Minutes of Scalloping, a GoPro Underwater Video

Here's a short underwater video of our scalloping trip to Steinhatchee last weekend.

A few notes about the video:

The single larger striped fish that scoots off into the grass when I chased him is a sheephead.

The school of fish that cruise by for quite a while are pinfish, mostly.

The tide was ebbing and the grass flats were only a few feet beneath the surface.

The deeper sandy bottom scenes are at the same location, but those were shot in a deeper channel that cut through the shallow flats. Depths in the channel were probably in the 8 to 10 foot range and a frisky current was draining the surrounding flats through that channel.

Such channels are natural highways for the fishy predators on the flats, but my girls are fearlessly hunting scallops in "the highway".

I love that.

Most of our scalloping time was spent over the shallow flats, but this channel with it's deeper, sandier bottom was a lot of fun at the end of the day.

At the end of the video, you will hear me yell, " I raised fish!".

I was talking to Captain Denny (seen standing on the boat) and I wasn't talking about aquaculture.

 I was talking about my kids.

I'm sure y'all noticed my halo in the opening shot ... as if you had any doubts.

How To Clean Bay Scallops

STEP ONE:

Catch the scallops. (Do not forget this step)

STEP TWO:

Keep them alive as long as possible. A mesh bag with a float ring like the one above can be tied to the boat while you hunt scallops.

If you are not keeping them alive, put them on ice immediately.

Definitely use ice to transport them home, whether you cleaned them on board the boat, or are taking them home whole to clean.

STEP THREE:

 Slide a knife blade in between the shells near the hinge and move the blade against the inside roof of the shell to separate the single delicious adductor muscle from the top shell.

This will allow you to open the shell completely.

STEP FOUR:

Now open the shell. You can see the top of the cylindrical white adductor muscle surrounded by brown mantle and viscera.

The mantle and viscera are edible, but traditionally in America, only the white adductor muscle is eaten.

(BACK OFF NOUVEAU CUISINIANS! I SAID TRADITIONALLY! YOU FOLKS CAN EAT THE WHOLE SHELL IF YOU WANT, BUT THIS IS ABOUT CLEANING THEM THE LOCAL WAY.)

...Now, where was I?

... oh yeah ...

STEP FIVE:

Gently scrape the knife blade over the adductor muscle to pull the mantle and viscera off of the prized white meat.

STEP SIX :

Now simply run the blade along the inner shell to separate the attached end of the white adductor muscle from the shell.

This is a great step to let kids do, only ... DON'T GIVE THEM A SHARP KNIFE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! WHAT KIND OF PARENT ARE YOU?

A spoon works great for scooping that attached muscle from the shell. When our kids were little, we would do the knifey part and pass the shell-muscle combo to the kids who were armed with old spoons.

Many hands make short work!

The reward!

Late season scallops have had time to grow and the muscles are much bigger than those at the opening of the season in mid summer.

You get more meat while taking less scallops!

Taking less scallops means more to spawn for next year.

 

Why, ... these scallops are naked.

Let us clothe them in flour, salt, and pepper so they be not ashamed of their nekkidness.

Go light, light, light on that breading.

Fresh scallops have a delicate flavor and you don't want a heavy breading masking their essence.

(Yes, you can do all kinds of fancy things to scallops, but we like them southern fried)

Go figure ...

Stand around the stove and eat them as soon as they are cool enough to pick up.

That's all there is to it.

Now you may hear of people using shop vacs to slurp away the visceral mass ... heehee, yes some folks actually do that.

What's even lazier is some folks PAY to have locals in scalloping areas clean their catch.

That tickles me just to picture it.

Give me a break people ... this is not rocket science.

(I know, because I teach rocket science.)

 



*Hands courtesy of Mrs. FC, the quickest scallop cleaner on the nature coast.



How To Scallop At Steinhatchee, Florida

Scalloping along the Big Bend region of Florida is a very popular late summer activity from the northwest end of the "bend" at Port St. Joe, to the southern edge of the bend in Pasco county.

Due to our location in the middle of the scalloping area, we usually go either to Crystal River or to Steinhatchee for our scalloping fun. I tend to be partial to the Steinhatchee area, because it's usually productive with beautiful clear water, and because we have so many family boating memories from this place.

We had not scalloped for about two years due to our 13 year old outboard motor finally giving up the ghost. At this point in our life, with 3 2 kids in college, buying a new motor is not in the picture, so our beloved "Summer School" sits on her trailer, waiting.

This year, my pal Captain Denny Voyles came to our rescue. One day while we were fishing together on his beautiful 24 foot Old Pro boat, he said, "Hey, we ought to get your kids and go scalloping this summer".

Well, you don't have to ask us twice.

So it was that yesterday found Denny, me, and my two daughters, Katie and Emma, floating on a warm, clear, green sea ... chasing scallops.

Wild hair 1

Wild hair 2

If you are scalloping at Steinhatchee, you will launch your boat in the river and travel out to the Gulf of Florida. There are marinas that will launch your boat or even rent  boats.
For boat owners, be aware that there is a brand new, beautiful boat ramp on the north side of the river where you can launch for a $5.00 fee.

Once in the Gulf, you turn left (south) or right (north) depending on your own "where they are" information.

When in doubt, scan for clusters of boats flying red and white dive flags. Then head that way.

Just remember, that dive flag means there are people underwater in the area and you need to keep your distance and GO SLOW. 

The scallops will be lying above and under the rich seagrass beds in anywhere from knee deep to 10 feet of water.

Once your dive flag is up, you hit the water with snorkel, mask, and mesh bag for collecting your scallops.

Emma and Kate with a scallop.

A mess of scallops.

This is only about 4 gallons of whole, in the shell scallops.

Legally, we could have kept 10 gallons of whole scallops per vessel, but, really, this was plenty to clean and to eat.

We take what we need, and that doesn't always mean taking the maximum amount allowed by law.

It is especially important to not be a scallop hog since the state of Florida has recently become more focused on economics than biology when it comes to scallop populations.

For two years now, they have opened the season earlier and ran it later.

In the early part of the season, when scallops are small, you might take twice as many scallops to hit that 10 gallon limit.

The longer season puts more money in coastal businesses in the short run, but what kind of long term damage does that do to the scallop population?

(Whoa, almost ranting there buddy)

I will post a separate post on how to clean scallops in a following post.

Beautiful water and beautiful skies.

Even if you don't find any scallops, you win.

 

The water over the seagrass beds was a little warm.

This is a screen shot of Denny's depth finder screen.
Yes, that is the WATER temperature.



Heading back in after a great day on the water scalloping.



Captain Denny at the helm.

Thanks pal.



Emma, Kate, and me.
Remember to slap on lots of sunscreen when you go scalloping ...
...especially on your back.

When you snorkel, your back is exposed to the sun for hours. I bought one of those clingy workout, quick dry shirts just for snorkeling and it worked great. It's snug so it fits like a wet suit, but it's thin so you don't get any drag in the water like you do if you are wearing a regular T-shirt.

I still used sunscreen on my back ... no need to make my cute dermatologist any richer than she is already.

So there you go, nothing to scalloping if you have a boat or a generous friend with a beautiful boat.

Next up, ... how to clean and cook  those little critters.

Also, if you want to charter Captain Denny for great Gulf fishing adventures, check out his website. There is a link to it on my sidebar.

Just expect to catch fish if you do.



Here's Your Stinking Answer!

P.U.
These have a really foul smell.



It's a stink horn fungus.

I knew it was there, long before I saw it in the lawn.
The name is apt.



A Pink Puzzler

What could this be?

I have scheduled the solution to post at 1800 hours EST.

Oh By The Way ...

Oh by the way ... I passed my Florida Teacher Certification Exam in Chemistry last Saturday ... proving once and for all that the 53 year old human brain can be as flexible as a pole dancer in a yoga class, if it needs to be.

And mine needed to be.

You see, teaching chemistry is a requirement of my new role as the entire high school science department at Cedar Key.

Normally, I could have taught chem for one year before having to take the test. It's called "teaching out of field".

In my case, because I taught it for one semester 5 years ago as a favor to a desperate principal, I did not have that year.  Back then, a host of subs and replacement chem teachers had run screaming from the building, and the principal came to me and said, "What would I owe you if I asked you to take on Chemistry next semester ? ... oh, you would lose your planning period too, that's the only period we can do chem."

I took it on, the kids and I learned as much chem as we could in one semester and that was that.

That little stint as a chem teacher came back to haunt me this year since it counted as a full year for me so passing the chem test was a requirement of my job.

Oh By The Way ... even though I use plenty of chemistry concepts in my other science classes, I had not thought about stoichiometry, oxidation-reduction rates, heats of formation, molarity, electron orbital geometry, or organic chemistry for about 30 years.

So about 3 months ago, I dropped my night time novel and began reading chemistry at bedtime.

About 2 months ago, I got my hands on a Chemistry Exam prep book, favorited a bunch of chemistry tutor websites, and began making flash cards and solving problems.

About 1 month ago, I kicked it in to high gear, told the family I could not go with them on the summer vacation to the mountains, and began spending whole days right here at this table crunching problems.

About two weeks ago, I became a shadow, a ghost, a flickering memory of a Dad, husband, human being ...

One week ago today, I checked in to a La Quinta motel, 3 miles from the test site in Jacksonville, and went in to DefCon 1 mode.

Saturday morning last, I took the 2.5 hour, 100 question computer based test and I beat it.

And now summer is almost over.

Oh by the way ... that was the final hurdle in my grand plan. You see, when I left my old teaching position at my former school, it created a vacancy ... a science teacher vacancy.

Just as a certain someone graduated from USF with a degree in secondary science education ..an honors degree too!

Oh by the way ... my daughter Emma is the newest science teacher at the school I left and they don't even have to change the name on my old box in the teacher mail room!

Not that she didn't have other offers (they are still coming in), but she wanted to come home to teach in rural Florida.

Oh by the way ... don't you love it when a plan comes together?

Owlapalooza Two: Pond Owl

 

The view from the front porch.

The tall rock way out there on the pond rockpile is a barred owl.

I believe he was daring the pond frogs to make an appearance.




Here's a closer view.

I was sitting in the living room with Bear when the owl swooped by the front window and landed at the top of the pond waterfall.

The big guy was not happy when I went outside without him to photograph the owlian invader.

Of course,  if you've watched the video already, ...

... you already knew that.