Tastes like chicken......

It aint a family vacation (at least not in my family) without a fishing trip.  My father is really the big fisherman in the family,  for me its more of an excuse to hang around outside with my family and eat potato chips, but I still find it immensely enjoyable.










 We went crabbing on Monday and did pretty well,  there is a nice crabbing area on rt 64 near Manteo NC with a pedestrian bridge and a dock as well as a shaded pavilion and bathrooms,  it was a perfect place for taking the kids.
 
We got about 16 of the buggers and gnawed on them over the course of the week.

Mack didn't wait for his to be cleaned.





 We also went out on a party boat on Tuesday.  I was a little leery of party boats,  the closest I ever saw my grandfather Lisle and my Dad get to a fist fight was in a dispute over tangled lines bluefishing on a party boat when I was a kid.

The Miss Oregon Inlet

Nonetheless we took the little kids and Alex fishing on Tuesday on the Miss Oregon Inlet, which surprisingly is based out of Oregon Inlet.

The Docks at Oregon Inlet

One thing that has always impressed me about my father is that he is never late for ANYTHING,  he is always early.  The flip side is that you always have to leave early to arrive early  (5AM is too early to get up for anything on vacation)  But none the less we arrived at the crack of dawn.  On the bright side the morning light let me take this pretty picture which has nothing to do with the rest of this post.

Lizard Fish

It was also a funny day in that we brought on a cooler which clearly appeared to be too large to fit under the benches on the boat. That meant we had to leave my favorite part of the trip (beer and potato chips) at home.   After me grumbling about this for about five minutes,  Alex quietly put it on its side and it slid in easily. The boy has a crazy way of seeing the world, but it comes in real handy.

Sea Robin

After some ominous clouds of black dust from the exhaust, we were off and running.

Pig Fish

The fish we caught were, shall we say, petite.  Truth be told it has been very hot in the Outer Banks this summer, the water is hot and the larger fish have all moved out to deeper water,  However what we lost in quality on this expedition, we more than made up for in quantity and variety.

Mack Mora and the puffer fish

Mora caught this puffer fish.  We were about to throw it back when one of the mates asked for it saying that it tastes like chicken.  Just me but why not just have chicken?

By the way Mora smoked me yet again in the fishing category with like a bazillion fish.  Mack and Alex weren't far behind.  I did however untangle about a hundred lines, and ate a lot of potato chips.

No fist fights though.