A Fish "Tail"

It was a long, strange ten-week hitch.  My relief captain got promoted to captain of another boat and that left us short-handed.  My pilot "pulled" 6 weeks and moved into the relief captain's hitch and position.  They didn't have anyone to take the pilot slot so I rode over 'til they found someone.  I wish I had pictures of the several 5 gallon buckets full of catfish we caught, to show yall, but my camera broke and I didn't get their picture.  I wish I had a picture of the monster that got away, but it broke the 80 lb test nylon line we were using, before I could get a picture of his bucket-sized mouth.  I wish I could tell yall what a fight this 20 + lb fish (in the picture with some five gallon buckets) gave us on our jug-line, but I can't on accounta da dock man caught it and gave it to us.  What I can tell ya about this fish, though, is his flesh filled 3 gallon zip lock bags and it took us a couple weeks to eat him.

Here is part of him after being dipped in my spicy mustard, egg wash, rolled in corn flour and deep fried.  Served up River Cajun style with a pot of white beans and rice to keep him company.  We also got a redfish that I filleted out and made a sauce piquant with him.  Sorry no pictures of that one, as we got him after my camera took an unexpected trip to the deck without me.  Well, I'm finally home again and look forwards to playing with Peg for a couple weeks.  Next hitch I'll be heading out with a new and better camera.  Maybe I can keep this camera from jumping off the dash board and bouncing down the stairs outa the wheelhouse. I'm already shuttering in anticipation of the fishy tales I'll be bringin' back home next time.