If you’ve bought any shrimp lately, you know that these crustaceans can be very expensive. Depending on the size of the shrimp and how far commercial shrimpers have to go to find and catch the shrimp you buy, at the beach XX jumbo shrimp sell for $12.99 a pound and medium-sized shrimp sell for $6.99/pound. So, a shrimping trip for four people that produces five to 10 pounds of shrimp per person produces enough shrimp to just about pay for the charter if you had to buy the shrimp. If you enjoy fishing, a shrimping trip can produce plenty of lively shrimp and croakers to catch an abundance of speckled trout, redfish, flounder and sheepshead for a great fishing trip, whether you’re fishing the back bays or from the surf. If you’re fishing off the beach with live shrimp, you have a very-good chance of catching pompano – one of the most-prized fish caught by surf fishermen.

To create a family trip of a lifetime, consider the possibilities of taking an early-morning shrimping trip with your family. My special-needs son, Hunter, not only enjoyed picking out the shrimp and throwing the bycatch out into the water for the birds and dolphins to eat. He had fun being in the boat watching Captain Mike Wilson work the net and picking out the shrimp, as did his mother, Denise, while I shot pictures and made videos. After the shrimping trip was over, we took the live bait and went to the Gulf Intracoastal Canal to fish, a navigable inland waterway running approximately 1,050 miles from Carrabelle, Florida, to Brownsville, Texas, all along the gulf Coast. The Waterway was designed primarily for barge transportation. Although the U.S. government proposals for such a waterway were made in the early 19th century, the Intracoastal Waterway (the entire 3,000-mile length is from Boston, Massachusetts, to Brownsville, Texas) was not completed until 1949.

Because of heavy winds and high waves going out in the Gulf of Mexico to fish often may be too rough to have an enjoyable trip. However, the back bays where we shrimped and the Intracoastal Canal where we fished were calm and highly productive. We caught speckled trout that weighed from 2-3 pounds last week nice-sized within the slot limit that we could keep to eat and a pompano. But more importantly, we came home with photos, videos and memories that would last a lifetime. That’s the most-important element of a family shrimping-and-fishing trip, because those memories will stay with us long after the fish and shrimp we’ve caught have been eaten and forgotten. We also had an opportunity to give our special-needs son an exciting outdoor adventure.

Check out Captain Mike Wilson’s Bama Slam Inshore Adventures at. https://www.facebook.com/bamaslam.inshore or call, 251-747-6941.

“Bama Slam Charters” – https://youtu.be/f3TMt5WJW8w

“Why I Became an Inshore Charter Captain” – https://youtu.be/MQopcHfBSOU

Captain Alex Crawford’s Pan-Fried Pompano Fillets

We want to thank Captain Alex Crawford for sharing his expertise in cooking pompano.

Ingredients:

4 fillets (about 3/4-pound total weight)

1/4-cup flour

1/4-teaspoon salt

1/4-teaspoon white pepper

1 large egg slightly beaten

1 tablespoon 1% milk

1/4-cup Italian-seasoned bread crumbs

3 tablespoons butter

Preparation:

Combine flour, salt and white pepper. Dredge fillets in mixture. Combine egg and milk, dip fillets in milk mixture, and dredge in bread crumbs. Melt butter in non-stick skillet.  Add fillets, cooking 5 minutes on each side, until golden brown or until fish flakes easily with fork.

You’ll enjoy John E. Phillips’ book, “13 Seafood Recipes You Can’t Live Without,” available in Kindle and print versions at http://amzn.to/17oChz0.