Fishing!!!

I guess I must have more than 1 mouse living in my trailer with me. They do all look the same. I’m always very careful about cleaning up immediately following a meal, not leaving any food out of the fridge or the 2 cabinets that entirely sealed, and my garbage can tightly sealed for just that reason, and, of course, the numerous bugs that forever inhabit my surroundings. So far I’ve killed 3 using glue traps. I can’t find any real mouse traps, you know, the kind that you hear go snap when one of the little critters tries to make a meal of the bait. So I bought what all the grocery stores carry. Plastic trays with a gluey surface infused with a peanut butter smell. And I add a bit of the real thing so they are sure to get greedily hungry. The bad thing is that they get stuck to the glue on the plastic and squirm about, sticking various parts of their bodies to the tray, kind of like the old Mister Twister game where the players put a hand or foot on the color circle that the spinning arrow identifies, until I send them to mouse heaven. That can be hours. It’s not a very humane way to handle the problem. If it were a person the ACLU would be all over that form of execution. Personally I’d rather let the machine do the dirty deed. So, normal mouse traps are on my shopping list for my Christmas visit to the states. No telling how many I’ll have to send off the glue trap way until then. Everyone I’ve talked to says that I’ll never be mouse free as long as the weather is cool because they will gnaw their way into a place they think is warm and safe. Here I thought I had done a good job of sealing all the holes but it was just the hot weather that kept them outside. These guys have no fear either! I was sitting on my couch at the kitchen table watching a movie Thursday night (11/5) and saw one climbing over the stuff I have stored under my kitchen table, just 2 feet from me! I banged my hand on the table top and it went running. And I’ve seen them scurrying between my linen closet and bathroom which is only 10 feet away. So that means I’ll probably have guests until next February when the temperatures will head back into the high 90’s…

Fishing has been fun and on Thursday (11/11) a group of us took a trip to the reef for the big ones and caught 15! The group included Matt and Angie from Tennessee, who are staying at Kismet until next Friday; and, of course, Tricia and me. I’ve been catching the usual at the lagoon, nice eating size but nothing to write home about so I was looking forward to trolling for barracuda again. I hooked 6 different type of fish, and landed 5, starting with the 1st fish to be caught, a small needle nose gar, that went right back home. I also caught the 2nd fish which was a nice barracuda. Matt jumped right in and we started catching barracuda left and right. He had never been salt water fishing so it was cool to watch the fun he was having. My next surprise was a yellow snapper, a nice looking fish with a yellow strip down its side (I caught 2 of them and Matt caught 1 too). Next came a nice (see the pictures) mutton snapper. I didn’t know what I’d hooked and everyone was watching me fight it. It was making tremendous runs that I had trouble stopping. I’d also mentioned that it had been a long time since I’d caught a king mackerel. Don’t you know it, the next fish was a really nice 30 incher that gave me such a huge fight. In between those we caught a bunch of barracuda. I know I’m going to get some emails from you fellow fisherman but I hooked and almost landed a 5 foot, 20 pound barracuda. Everyone was in awe of that baby! Tricia struggled to get her camera out but missed the shot when our captain lifted the monster out of the water, it spit the hook, and he dropped it! I was heartbroken, as was everyone else. Some of our fishing was done in down pours. Matt and I were fine but Tricia and Angie were hugging each other to keep warm. Angie did try her hand at fishing though and hooked a barracuda that was too strong for her so Matt landed it for her. Toward the end of the day we went to Bread & Butter Caye for Matt and Angie to snorkel and for us all to have lunch. No one was home but since we know the owner, Dwayne, and caretaker King we are welcome to use the place. We no sooner got on land then I was fishing again and hooked and landed my biggest barracuda of the day, and for a few minutes the biggest fish of the day. While I was pulling it in I saw 4 other barracuda swimming around it, one bigger than the next. I gave my rod to Matt and he did hook and land the biggest of all the fish. It’s funny that we caught the biggest fish from dry land. I took my rod back and tossed another bait filled hook out that was immediately slammed by a fish! The 1st run was a full 50 yards straight out to sea. Then it jumped and we got a look at a really HUGE tarpon, easily 4 or 5 feet (hard to tell from that distance bit we all agree)! There was no way I was going to stop that baby! It had the line screaming off my reel and was headed straight out to sea. It jumped completely out of the water 2 more times. The 3rd time is when it broke my line and headed for deep water. I think all of us were cried when that happened. It was the biggest, heaviest, fish I’ve ever hooked. I’m still crying over the 2 that got away. After that Matt and Angie snorkeled and I couldn’t catch a thing. Soon we headed back to Kismet, in another downpour, and a fresh fish dinner. I filleted enough for dinner and by then it was dark and raining once again so I’ll have to do the rest in the morning. But we had a great time and Matt has some whopper fish stories to tell everyone when he gets home. I'll add more pictures on Facebook.

And so, life goes on for the Fatboy in Belize… As always, stay well, keep happy, and practice peace. I am!!!