Ignorance is Bliss. "But Honestly, Officer, We Didn't Know"

By Jim Field (photo left to right: Jon, Jim, Dan)

(Nice boots, nice look, Jon.)

Caught with the goods--at least digitally speaking. Well, it was good while it lasted. Chalk is up to mental laziness. Chalk it up to bravado. Chalk it up to stupidity. Chalk it up to being a fisherman from fished-out Delaware, who has no self-control when let loose on fertile fishing grounds. Drug addiction. Sex addiction. Fish addiction. Bottom line: we're not to blame.

On the bright (if ignoble) side, given the January 1 change in regulations, The Crew might now hold a world record for weekend sportfishermen: being the last to post a grouper double-header on rod cranked up from the depths. With the new rules in place, there will be no more of that! Perhaps just temporarily, perhaps permanently.

But you have to admit, seeing a grouper double-header emerge from the deep and bob on the surface, like foundering ships, then reeling them alongside the boat into a waiting net--it was an incredible thing to experience! Too incredible, it turns out.