The Fish “Store”

By Mercedes Sykora

It was mid-morning and it was time to go to the “fish store” for dinner.  Our family of four had been living on board a sailboat in the Bahamas.  My husband, Ron, often referred to the ocean’s reefs as our “store”.  Here, we would catch whatever we wanted for lunches and dinners.  Tonight, we had a taste for both lobster and fish.  We knew where to find the lobsters, but getting a fish had always proved to be more difficult.

Ron and I put on our snorkel gear and followed the kids, Chris (12) and Steffi (10), into the water.  We each had a spear in hand.  I spotted a huge lobster hiding under a ledge.  It was too big for me, so I asked Ron to come over and spear it.  He shot him right between the eyes.  He was almost two feet in length.  There was also a Parrot fish swimming nearby that Chris speared, and then Steffi snagged a snapper.  We took them back to the boat to clean.  We thought we were done for the day. But…

Steffi and Chris stayed in the water while we cleaned the fish and lobster on the sugar scoop.  While Steffi was snorkeling, she spotted a small Grouper and chased him into a hole under a ledge.  She dove down for a better look and discovered a big Grouper hiding in the hole.  She quickly popped to the surface and yelled at us to get the dingy and spears, that there was a big Grouper.  She called to us on the boat to come and help.  I finished cleaning up our catch while Ron and Chris jumped into the dingy.  They dropped the anchor nearby and slipped into the water, as not to scare the fish.  Ron had taken the fish heads from our earlier catch, and placed them just outside of the hole.  This would hopefully entice the big Grouper out.

They floated quietly over the hole for about ten minutes. They had their spears aimed at the hole, waiting and hoping that the fish would come out.  The big grouper would poke his head out of the hole, see them floating and then go back in.  This happened several times, and then he just could not take it anymore.  He came out and gulped down the fish head in one big bite.  Ron was ready and quickly speared him and then Chris followed and speared him through the head.  That was the plan because they wanted to make sure this fish did not get away.  With the fish in hand, they all got into the dingy and headed back to the sailboat.

You never saw three fishermen so happy about their catch!  After planning and much patience, they held up the fish for a photo while still in the dingy.  This grouper weighed about three and a half pounds.  I got some nice fillets from him, and made a wonderful soup from the bones.  We had Steffi hold up the lobster, from earlier that day, to show its size.  All in all, this was a great day at the “store”.