Tales from the Road: Catch (and Later, Eat) Your Lunch
(Tales from the Road was delayed due to technical difficulties)
So, 6:30 a.m. came a little bit early for me on Saturday, October 4. I’m by no means a morning person during the week, even less so during the weekend. However, this was the day that I was going to go deep sea fishing.
Now given my aversion to boats, I’ve stayed away from deep sea fishing, but since I had such a good time and experience on the dolphin excursion, I was really looking forward to this adventure, with the aid of Dramamine, of course.
Heading back to Harborwalk, “No Doubt” 
charter boat was waiting. While the crew busied themselves getting the reels ready for the group, I decided to take a look around. Perhaps I should mentioned my ignorance in everything fishing. I know what a lurer is, of course; and a reel – enough, I thought, to get by. Boy, was I in for a quick education.
Once we got out and away from the harbor, toward the Gulf (you will know when you cross to the Gulf, it become somewhat warmer and a little rockier), it was time to catch our bait. 
I didn’t know that we were going to catch our bait. When I kept pulling up the small fish, I thought to myself, how small these were and wondered will they even cook. (Yes, it’s obvious I’ve never done this before.) Luckily, kept these thoughts to myself. Once we had a good amount, we headed further out.
The crew was fabulous, especially for a first-timer.They baited the hooks, release the fish off the hooks and didn’t mind adding a hook with a fish took off with mine.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I had no idea what I was doing. Let me put it this way, I knew what end of the reel went into the water and that’s about it. The crew was patient, and had no problems with answering questions (I had a lot), and going over instructions on how to properly cast (three times in my case.)
After catching red snapper, amberine and tarpon (someone even caught a shark), I quickly understood how you can get hooked (no pun intended) on fishing. Those five hours aboard “No Doubt,” went by so quickly, and maybe perhaps the most fun I’ve had on the water. I think I might book a trip next summer.
After we caught the legal limit (yes, there’s a limit), we headed back to the harbor. 
Once we docked, the crew cleaned the fish and the red snapper (and the group) headed to The Lucky Snapper.
Why that particular restaurant when there are so many to choose from? The restaurant, which happens to be on the Harborwalk, will cook your catch. Don’t worry if you didn’t spend all morning out on the Gulf, because The Lucky Snapper also has a menu.
You can start with appetizers, such as crawfish poppers, calamari, blue crab claws or gator tail. There’s also soups and salads, including Lucky Entree Salads, which are larger version of the side salad. For your meal, you can choose from seafood dinners, house speciality, classic plates, steak and ribs, and pastas. There’s also sides, such as black-eyed peas, seasoned rice and (creamy) cheese and macaroni. And if you have any room left, homemade pie. Did anyone say Key Lime?
What happened to our red snapper? The chef cooked it three different ways: fried, grilled and blackened. I didn’t have room to try the fried version, but the grilled and blackened were good. And no, there wasn’t any room for dessert.
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[...] as in helping bait the lure and showing you how to properly cast as many time as needed (on my deep sea fishing adventure in Destin, I had to be shown three times. It happens to the best of us.) The best part is the [...]