A Tale of Two Fishes

Bill and Darcy

Thursday was a bittersweet day for us -- Our friend from back home, Bill, was heading back to Nebraska after working here for a year, and we took him and his daughter, Darcy, on a little fishing expedition prior to their departure on Friday. We just wanted both of them to have a good day since the circumstances involving Bill's termination of employment had been stressful.

So, my very excellent husband rented a pontoon boat for several hours and we set out on the bay, full of hope. While Vince has been fishing at least a dozen times, I had yet to go on a fishing foray, so I was looking forward to this trip.

Mr. Grouper addressing the net

It was a glorious day -- vivid blue sky, about a million shades of turquoise reflected in the water, and a pleasant breeze blowing. I took on the role of photographer, so Vince, Bill, and Darcy all began casting lines in the water. It only took about 15 minutes before Vince had a bite, and he quickly reeled in a Nassau grouper. Unfortunately, GTMO follows Florida's fishing laws, and this particular fish is a protected species that must be released. And, those who have eaten it say that it is absolutely delicious. So, we did the right thing and let Mr. Grouper go back in the water.

A couple of views of the Nassau grouper, including one looking down his throat!

We kept close to the shoreline, since many fish feed in the grass beds there, and it wasn't much longer before Vince again (the lucky guy) was yelling "Fish on!" which seems to be the catch phrase (pun intended) used to give a head's up to everyone else. This was obviously a bigger fish than the grouper and it took about 10 minutes of the fish fighting and Vince reeling to get him in the boat. It was quite interesting to watch the team effort that takes place -- Bill had to drive the boat in different directions to help accommodate Vince who was working on the uncooperative fish.

Short video prior to getting the fish on board ( -- I'm finally able to get a video uploaded!!!)

Vince and 11+ lbs of fish

We were all so excited -- this fish looked huge -- and Vince thought it was a yellow jack. Dinner was now guaranteed for that evening! Since neither Bill nor Darcy had caught anything, we spent some more time out on the water -- unfortunately, Bill got skunked, although Darcy had a huge shark take her lure. We actually were able to see the shark leap out the water and Bill estimated it at about 40 pounds. It was so much stronger than the line that it easily got away, but it was exciting for those few seconds to see it. Finally, we headed back to the marina with Vince's one catch, and leaving behind Mr. Grouper. (I wished we could have kept him!)

At home, Vince proudly showed his catch to our neighbor, Bob, who immediately identified the fish as a crevalle jack, not a yellow jack. While both fish are in the same family, apparently the crevalle jack are considered at the bottom of the list for desirable fish to eat. Bob routinely uses these fish for "chum" -- he grinds them up and uses them as bait. Since we had been counting on having fish for dinner with Bill and Darcy, I thawed some yellow tail that Vince had caught the previous week.

Even though I knew that neighbor Bob knows what he is talking about when it comes to fish, I looked on-line to see what others report about crevalle jack. And, he was indeed correct. Crevalle jack is known for being quite the fighter -- one website said to allow an hour to reel in a 30 lb. crevalle. But it is not considered to be any kind of eating delicacy -- it's considered strong tasting and somewhat "gamey" in flavor.

However, I persisted in my research, and found one person who recommended marinating it in buttermilk overnight. After Vince had fileted the fish, -- the flesh was a bright red -- he had given most of it to Bob for chumming, but we decided to place the rest of it in a yogurt marinade, since that was what we had on hand. Vince added a little cream to the yogurt, and we let the fish swim in that overnight. The next day, the yogurt mixture had turned pink and the fish had lost most of its redness. We grilled it for dinner, along with a steak just in the case the fish was inedible. BUT, we were very pleasantly surprised -- we both thought the fish was quite good and couldn't think of any reason why we wouldn't want to eat it again.