Fishing in Boca Raton, Florida

This was the beautiful sunrise this morning as Bruce and I came out of the Boca Raton inlet. We went north a couple of miles in 120 feet deep waters. The first fish Bruce caught was a nice grouper. Then he caught a yellowtail snapper. Soon I realized I was falling behind here I decided I had better catch something. I finally broke the ice (just a little play on words since we never get any ice here!!) and caught a Kingfish.

By lunchtime we ended up with a tied score. Bruce had caught one grouper, four yellowtails and one kingfish. I caught one kingfish, two mutton snappers, two yellowtail snapper and one lane snapper. All of these were caught on dead bait.

We will be eating well the next few days. Stay tuned for some new recipes.

Honey Garlic Yellowtail Snapper

Recently I caught several Yellowtail Snapper. This time I wanted to make something sweet and tangy so I came up with this recipe. It was so easy I couldn't believe it could be so good!

Ingredients

Whole Snapper
1/2 cup Honey
4 cloves Garlic
3 Chives chopped
Salt & Pepper

Mix together the honey, garlic and chives. Then salt and pepper the fish and place in a baking dish. Spread the honey mixture over the fish on both sides. Place the snapper in the oven and cook 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

Hope you enjoy!

Sea Scallops with Fettuccine

This is another favorite that fortunately we can purchase the scallops fresh at the local market.

It only takes about 30 minutes to prepare this meal. It is really quick and easy.





Ingredients

1 lb Sea Scallops
1/2 stick butter
1 onion chopped fine
6 garlic cloves crushed
1/4 tsp chili powder
Fresh ground pepper
DiGiorno Four Cheese Alfredo Sauce
Garlic Roasted Fettuccine
Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese

Saute' onion and garlic with butter until tender. Then add scallops, chili powder and fresh ground pepper. Continue to saute' until the scallops are golden brown.

Cook fettuccine as directed then rinse in cold water. Warm DiGiorno Four Cheese Alfredo sauce in the microwave then toss with fettuccine. Serve scallops over the fettuccine. Top with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Smoked Fish

Smoked Fish is easy to prepare. It does take several hours to prepare but it is worth it. There are two methods to prepare smoked fish.

The first method allows you to preserve the fish for a longer period of time. Prepare a brime of 1 gallon of water, 2 cups salt and 1 cup brown sugar.

This needs to be mixed until well blended. Place fish in a covered container and soak the fish overnight in the refrigerator.

Another method would be to lightly salt the fish then add garlic powder and Tony Chachere's Original creole seasoning.

Then smoke for a minimum of 3 hours and no longer than 8 hours depending on the temperature of the smoker.

Preferably the heat indicator should be in the middle of the range and smoke for 5 hours. You don't want to smoke it too long or it will get tough.


You may want to prepare
Smoked Salmon Dip.

As you can see I have prepared Smoked Kingfish, Smoked Salmon and Smoked Mackerel. Any of these are actually great as a dip!

Build your own WEB Site

Ever thought of building your own WEB site but didn't know how to get started? Today I thought I would share one of my best tips. This tip has nothing to do with fishing except that it could change your life and enable you to fish all over the world.

Patsy and I started our own site FlyFishing with WildBill. This was a dream of mine for a long time but as you know you have to have the dream first then the plan will come.

Finally Patsy came home from work one day and shared the plan of how we were going to get started. We had no idea how to do this but with SiteBuildIt we quickly learned.

This is a business so you must treat it like one to be successful. We wish you much success in the future.

Why build just a web site?
Build a web site that works!

Take a quick tour and see for yourself

Fried Mutton Snapper

We had fried mutton snapper for dinner tonite. This is one that I caught recently while fishing north of the Boca inlet last weekend before Hurricane Dennis came to town. Not much fishing going on around here now!!

I also made some really good baked beans. I don't really bake them though...I cook them on top of the stove in a cast iron skillet.



You can tell which one is the Mutton Snapper because it is bigger and has a dot on it with a forked tail. Also the others have a yellow tail...therefore they are the Yellowtail Snappers.




To prepare just dip the fish in egg then cover with italian bread crumbs. Pan fry in extra virgin olive oil. Salt & Pepper as desired. We like tarter sauce made with sweet relish and Miracle Whip.

If you would like to see more recipes visit my site
FlyFishing-with-WildBill.com

How to catch live bait

If you are ever interested in catching live bait for either inshore or offshore this is one of the many methods you can use.

Have you ever heard of a Sabiki rig? This is approximately four feet of leader with six small feathered flys and a small sinker attached to the end. Hopefully you will cast into a small school of fish and they will bite the flys.

This is Bruce with a Sabiki rig that allows you to catch six baits at one time. Sometimes you will get different species of bait at one time. Since you can catch multiple bait at the same time this is one of my favorites.

Remember only to take enough bait that you would be using that day and release the remaining live bait on the way back in. If you want to catch bait tomorrow release the extra bait today.

South Florida Sushi

Among other things the seafood is excellent here in South Florida. Tonight Patsy and I went to the Kyojin Japanese Seafood Buffet located in Boca Raton along with Jason (her son) and our friend Robin.

We try to get there at least once a week for the fresh seafood buffet. They have everything you can imagine and the food is delicious.

Their feature items are the Sushi Sashimi Bar, Hibachi cooked to order grill, Japanese and Oriental Hot Food (over 40 items), Snow Crab, Raw Oysters, Mussels and Shrimp Coctail. Then of course there is all the delightful desserts.

The local fishermen provide the fish daily to the restaurant. It doesn't get any fresher than this. We highly recommend this place since they have such a variety that everyone is sure to enjoy the selection of food.

Mexican Mutton

Tired of those same old fish recipes. Want to try something new? This dish was awesome! Of course you can adapt this to your favorite meat if you don't like fish but the Mutton Snapper is better than chicken.






Ingredients

1 lb Mutton Snapper
1 sm onion finely chopped
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 lg Portabella Mushroom
1/2 stick butter
Salt & Pepper
Salsa
Finely Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Sour Cream
Soft Tortillia Shells


Wash the Portabella Mushroom and remove the stem. Then you will saute' the chopped onion, crushed garlic and the stem of the Portabella (chopped) in butter. When the onion is tender then remove from the skillet and set aside in a bowl.

Then cut the portabella into strips and saute it in the same skillet with a little more butter. Once the mushroom is tender remove and set aside.

Then you will add butter as needed and brown the Mutton Snapper. Once the fish is done you can chop it up in small pieces to make it easier to fold up in the tortillas.

Then layer the ingredients on the tortilla shell as shown in the photo, roll it up and serve!



Need more fish recipes...visit my web site

WildBills Hurricane Predictions

Here we go again with the Hurricanes here in Florida. We may possibly get one on the West Coast this weekend.

I would like to make my predictions for this year. I say we will have one in Tampa a catagory two or better. One hitting Ft Lauderdale and one in Daytona. At least in those three cities they need to get prepared. Food, water, basic medical supplies, generators and make sure all the windows are covered. You will need supplies to last for at least two weeks. Get your supplies now while you can. Once they declare the storm is coming the stores are emptied and you can't find the basic necessities.

Remember most of the injuries are after the storm when people are taking down the hurricane shudders and venturing outside with the downed power lines. You have to take extra precaution after the storm since you really don't know the extent of the damages around you.

As you can imagine the fishing slows down during hurricane season. The good thing is you get bigger and better quality fish during the hurricanes because they are hungry. They aren't eating well because the water is distorted.

Have a safe Hurricane season!

Happy Fourth of July

It rained this morning and a little too windy for me and the "little boat". Not a good fishing day.

I took Patsy to the Goldcoast Ballroom for the afternoon. They had an Old Fashioned BBQ with dancing. Kathie, Darrell and Rod were some of the friends that we saw today. We have been dancing with them for years now.

Jeff and Vinnie are the owners of the ballroom and they always have a good show along with the meal. They had a dance team of guys doing a Mambo routine which was really nice. The best was Billie and Katie's exhibition. They were awesome! They are world champions and we only wish we could dance like that!!

We love to dance. In fact that is how we met... on the dance floor. We started out dancing to Country Music and of course they don't really play that at the ballroom but Vinnie always plays one "Two Step" just for us.

Now it's time for the fireworks....

Today's Catch

It was a beautiful Sunny Sunday morning. Of course it was a little too hot here in Florida but a good day for fishing. Bruce and I went out of the Boca Raton inlet and went North. We caught two Kingfish and then hooked a Bonita while fishing for Grouper. This attracted a eight foot Bull Shark. That is the species of shark that attacks humans along the beaches.

Finally I got to release the Bonita and Bruce caught a Yellowtail Snapper. Later in the afternoon when we were coming in before the inlet Bruce caught a Mutton Snapper.

I caught and released an undersized Grouper and Mutton Snapper. The rain clouds were building up so we decided to come in and clean the boat. It has rained here for over a month now just about every afternoon which is unusual for June.

High Power Shooting Competition

Well you can't go fishing everyday so today I went to the range for a high power shooting competition. There were about 30 guys competing in the 100 yard match. I did very well and won first place in the Master classification shooting a service rifle. We were using a 308 M1A.

I started out real well and then I lost some points at the end. Either way I still won the match. I enjoy the shooting competition because it helps maintain my marksmanship capability.

My opinion is that this should be a universal skill. When Americans grew up in a rural setting this was a natural ability. It was not just for sport it was a matter of survival for some people.

I am looking forward to the next match.

WildBill and the Grouper

Just wanted to show you a grouper that I had caught offshore in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. This was a good day for fishing!

If you will notice I have my Nikken magnetic back belt on. For those of you that have discomfort with your back you may want to try it. I have been using the magnetic products for about two years now and it has improved my mobility tremendously. If you are interested just drop me a note and I will tell you more about it.

Mutton Snapper

Well when you can't go fishing you either tie flys or cook. Since I caught several Mutton Snapper last week I made another Baked Mutton Snapper.

This time I grilled the fish for about 10 minutes then added the sauce and baked it for about 10 minutes.

You can tell if the fish is done by pulling back the fin. If the fin pulls up easily then the fish is done. Or another way to tell is if you use a fork and gently pull the meat away from the bone. If it falls off the bone it's done!

Hope you enjoy the recipes! Try them and let me know how your dinner was.