Gone Shrimping! A Floridian First for Me.

It took a year of preparation. We've been out at least 5 times on the lake to practice our perfect cast throw. Shrimp season was now in full swing, and we just happened to gather a perfect group to take on the adventure.

One of our friends had been shrimping for summers on end with her family. She was as close as a we knew to a shrimping pro and she decided to show us one of her best spots. We pulled up around 7:30. Autumn showing us her spot was rewarding and valuable. The gentlemen parked out front with his fishing pole told us from 50 years experience in that spot, the shrimp would run from 8:30 - 10 pm and not a second after. We spent an hour with the sunset practicing the net and tossing bait. Until about... 8:15. We caught our first shrimp! The group buzzed excitedly as we continued and soon more came up. The thing about shrimp is that they run in large groups so if there's one, there's more!

I hardly believed we would catch shrimp, much less that I would! So when I pulled one up in

our smallest net my tail lit on fire! I was ready to catch more, excitedly the small creature inbetween my two fingers to reach the cooler and then catch more. I just recently started eating shrimp the summer before, having just moved close to the ocean. Now I was catching them. I caught at least 4 or 5 with the net and believe it or not, I actually caught one in the $10 butterfly net, before breaking the poor thing's handle. We shrimped the dock for about 2 hours, with a couple 10 minute breaks in-between to let shrimp ride in with out being startled.

Our beginner group and one pro ended the first night of our shrimping season with 45 shrimp. Fantastic for our first time. Also 2 blue crabs, one of which bit Collins finger quite angrily later on in the night for teasing it.

You bet we went right back to the house to cook the shrimp. I deveined about 2, which was enough for me. Honestly though, I'm excited to do it again! Because the tasty meal we cooked late into that night was worth every effort.