Pompano at Gamble Rogers
Trip Start
Nov 19, 2007
1
137
217
Trip End
Ongoing
Flagler Beach, Florida
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Picked up a few nights at Tomoka State Park and then over to Flagler Beach. We came across a couple of fisherman on one of our walks on the beach and they told us that the Pompano were running. Neither of us had ever eaten Pompano and my first day of fishing landed us a Whiting, but no Pompano.
Hearing how "they are the best fish you can catch" and "nothing tastes better than Pompano", we decided to go to the fish market and pick some up. Jodie prepared it with seasoned (blackening spices) ground pecans and then baked it to perfection. Oh my God...they weren't lieing about how good Pompano is. We are both hooked and now we have to figure out how to catch some.
We headed over to Big Al's Bait and Tackle and asked a bunch of questions. Normally, we would get our answers from Google, but this time most of the articles contradicted each other. So we followed his instructions, bought some new gear and hit the beach.
The bait of choice is sand fleas, a small crab-like critter that resides in the sand. After some trial and error (lots of error), I figured out how to reliably catch them and we were off to the races. It didn't take long and I had something on that was putting up a good fight. Bingo! A Pompano came flopping out of the surf... we were set for dinner. About 10 minutes later I got my second Whiting and that was all she wrote for the day.
That night, Jodie prepared both the Pompano and Whiting in a marinade made from olive oil, nutmeg, lemon and onion powder. Man oh man....where do we have to sign to live here forever? I hate to say "this is the best fish I've ever eaten", but.......it may have been.
Unfortunately, we have to leave tomorrow and head up the coast to Fort Clinch. We both love Fort Clinch, but neither of us have had enough of what Flagler Beach has to offer.
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