Of course I can come up with a way to connect offshore sports fishing to farming. It’s about food, passion, hard work and dealing with governmental regulations. Here’s my fishing group from this weekend offshore on the Vitamin Sea. Pictured (l-r) are the @FarmPodcaster (my wife Cindy), yours truly, my daughter Chelsea and Gary Cooper, Southeast AgNet/AgNet West. We had to take a day to get away from it all. However, you can’t get away from government regulations even when they make no sense.

For example, this past weekend was basically the end of the season for federal licensed offshore sports fishing guides like our boat owner/captain. No more red snapper, grouper, etc. fishing until whenever they decide to allow it next year, although there are some varieties that are still allowed. This was actually a short “extra” season they allowed for a couple of weeks that was surprisingly announced soon before it started. These fish though are the staple for the people who have grown up on the water and make their living guiding people like me to get an unforgettable memory, not to mention freezer meat. Unfortunately, the commercial fisherman have different regulations that are more relaxed than for sports fishing. These regulations are complex, confusing and you can’t depend on them not changing abruptly for no apparent reason. It’s just another example of a bunch of people who make rules about something they have no personal knowledge of. Kind of like farming in that way.

BTW. We got our limit of red snapper, some nice Mingo snapper, grouper and a filefish. Can’t wait to do it again (next year) with Captain Chris and his assistant Eric, who were excellent to work with.