The Bait and Switch
Today was another free day for us, there weren't any competitions or training scheduled. The one thing that we had a choice of doing was to go fishing on the Black Sea. A group of around 20 wrestlers and coaches decided to go on the trip.
We got up and had a quick breakfast. We were scheduled to depart at 10:00am. The shuttle showed up right on time and we departed on a short journey to a dock that was only a 15 minute drive from our resort. It was a beautiful day here in Bulgaria. Very hot and not a cloud in the sky. Our boat has a row of tables that ran right through the middle of the deck. We took our seat and we spent 10 minutes traveling to the fishing spot. Upon arrival our fishing guide spent a few minutes teaching us what we needed to know in our to catch the big ones. We used some light colored chunks of meat for flesh. I didn't hear for sure but someone mentioned that it was squid.
Not two minutes had passed before Joe Ellenberger had caught a fish. As he was reeling it in everyone stared to see what kind of large fish he had landed. We were a bit dissapointed to realize that the fish was only about 3 inches long. It turns out this was exactly the kind of fish we were searching for. One of the crew mentioned that they were very tasty.
After the initial catch by Joe Ellenberger a small fishing competition between Ellenberger and Joey Wilson started up as they seemed to be the only ones catching fish initially. The competition was very one sided though. Joey Wilson took a very quick 4-2 fish lead, but with TJ Hepburns help Joe ran away from the competition. You see TJ helped organized a little practical joke on Joey by hooking a few of the fish we caught earlier on Ellenbergers line while Wilson wasn't looking. Joe put on quite a show and even pulled in his line with two fish on it at once. In the end Joe won the make believe fishing contest 10 fish to 4.
Besides these two the only ones to catch any fish were myself, the Starotska boys, Legino, TJ, and maybe a few others, but all in all we didn't catch enough to feed us all. The crew had us covered though. They must have had a little bit of a stock pile underneath the boat. While we were fishing they had cooked up a couple of fish for each of us and served it to us right on the boat will some dill flavored cucumbers and a couple of slices of bread. It was a wonderful tasting lunch.
After we arrived back to shore we loaded up the vans for a quick journey back to the hotel. We have been told that the rest of the day is up to us. I have spent my afternoon walking around the beach and shopping. It was extremely hot out and it did not take very long before I was out of energy. Now it is time to get some food. I think I am going to go grab a doner.
June 4th, 2011 - 17:29
That is so funny! Knowing Joey, he probably did not catch on to the joke. And where did he get the purple underwear or swimsuit?! Love the photos- Cute fish! haha. Glad you are all getting some nice weather and sun.