Annual tradition continues.

For the past 3 years, over Easter Weekend, the Broomes travel from Tampa to spend the weekend at the Fish Camp.  Then on Easter Sunday, we meet up with Victoria's brother and their mother, sister-in-law, her father and step-mother for brunch.

The Broomes arrived Thursday afternoon and everyone met at the Fish Camp for dinner and to hand off Pat (mom) to Tad and Bonnie for the weekend.  We enjoyed a yummy lasagna dinner and hit the hay relatively early since we were planning a full day of fishing.

It had shaped up to be a beautiful weekend!  The temperatures were warm and the winds low.  We made our way out and thankfully did not get stopped at the railroad bridge.  With it being the start of a holiday weekend, there were already a lot of boats on the water. 

We went to a bait spot and did not find the kind of bait we wanted so we motored to another location where we were very successful.  Victoria was pulling them in hand-over-fist!  Once the livewell was full, we headed out to where we could start our drift.

We drifted and drifted. Repositioned a few times and continued drifting.  With no success, we decided to troll for a while.  (By now we had been fishing for about 5 hours and the natives were getting very restless.)  As we were nearing the end of our trolling time, we passed a boat where a lone fisherman was fighting a huge sailfish!

No time was wasted changing out the baits and getting the live ones out quickly!  And it wasn't very long before we starting to see there was something BIG that was interested in our little bait.  Ken was ready for battle!

He fought the sailfish for quite some time while Frank manuevered the boat so as not to stress the fish out.  Ken was finally able to get it to the boat for an official release and photo opportunity.  What a beautiful sailfish!  (And Ken's first.) 

Guess that was all the excitement (and fish) we were going to be allowed that day because we didn't catch anything else.  All in all, it was a fun day.

On Saturday, we ventured to a Nautical Flea Market and enjoyed being outdoors and finding a few 'treasures'.  We then went to lunch at a restaurant on the water.  While we were there, we took advantage of the opportunity to say hello to a Captain we hear on the radio quite often, another Captain Pete.  In fact, we drifted right near them as they were pulling in a rather large amberjack.  It was nice to put a face with the voice and to thank him for the information he willingly shares regarding the fishing conditions and locations.

On Sunday, we continued the tradition with Easter Brunch at the Dolphin Bar and Shrimp House.  Everyone loves the "make your own Bloody Mary Bar"!  And the food is pretty good too. 

It turned out to be a fun weekend, with great weather and wonderful friends!