BAR TALK

OK, so after a long day of cleaning and wiping down rods and reels, ditto those PIA fold up bicycles. Mine has another flat. Must have a "thorn" in the tire causing a second flat. I took down all the numbers because neither of our Walmart specials will shift so I am on the hunt for new shift cables as well. When I get those I will again take on the task of changing the tube and the shift cables. Anyway, the day is done so I headed out to Whale Harbour for some of their tasty wings and coldies. You can learn a lot at a bar if you just keep your mouth shut and listen. There were some semi locals sitting at the end of the bar talking fishing. One was a kind of loud mouth gal who fishes out of a 26 footer. "If a woman just had a center console." Says she is heading 30 miles offshore tomorrow even though the winds are going to be up a little tomorrow. One guy said could be 4 footers, she said "that's not rough". Was hoping to catch a Bonito. Did not want any other tuna because her dad specifically wants a Bonito. Says they are the best. Whatever. They all then realized they were from Connecticut which is where real fishermen live even though they were all now living full or part time in the Keys. Besides a lot of other things I have already forgotten they started talking about scallops. The best way to eat them is fresh and raw they say. Not sure about that. The only way I can eat them is well done. But what I really learned is that starfish love to eat scallops. In fact in Connecticut if you bring in a 5 gallon bucket of starfish, you can pick up another 5 gallon bucket of scallops. The starfish hovers over the scallop and drills a small hole in the shell and sucks out the meat. In fact, when you see a scallop shell on the beach and it has a tiny hole in it, that is what it is from. I could not confirm the hole drilling, but they do hover over them, wrap their legs around them and pull on the shells until they finally give up. They do the same with oysters. And I just thought they were pretty decorations. Scallop fishermen consider them predators. They used to pick them up and cut them into pieces and throw them back in the ocean. They then realized a starfish can grow it's legs back even if it only has one left. Wow, seems like we should be studying these guys. So, next time you see a starfish, don't let him hover over your foot or any other precious part of your body.

CTM