In the past 15 or so years of my job deep sea fishing from Port Canaveral, I have become friends with many of my customers. I have so many families and groups of friends that come fishing with us at least once a year and I get excited every time I see their names on the schedule. Asinger, Oliva, Zenzer, Brasher, Peacock, Maxfield, Solomon, Davis, Clark, Little, and Schick just to name a few. I could write about a epic fishing adventure I have shared with every single one of these names.
I have had the privilege to be part of their family vacations for years. I will forever have a spot in there family scrap book and I will tell my children and (one day) grandchildren about our adventures. I have watched my customer’s children grow into young men and woman year by year. A few now meet up with their parents from college to attend the yearly family vacation. A few have gotten married and are starting families of there own. I am sure very soon the next cycle will begin where I take them and there kids fishing but I’m not quite that old yet.
I love my job for many reasons. My repeat customers are truly dear to me. Without their continued support it would be impossible to be successful in this business. I thank each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart.
This story is about one particular family that has touched my heart. I was also asked to provide a product review for Case Knives. This story gives me the opportunity to do both.
Let me tell you just a little about the Asingers. I have been taking this family fishing around winter break for the last 4 or 5 years now. Max, his brother Patrick, and mom Kristin. Kristen, the mom, is one of the kindest souls you will ever have the honor of meeting. She touched my heart a few years back when we got to talking about life and I shared with her how I unexpectedly lost my dad the previous year. I was comfortable talking about it and I was not speaking in a sad way. However, just the thought of my loss and pain brought her to tears and all I could do was give her a hug. She is the type of mother that never misses the opportunity to share an adventure with her 2 boys.
In addition, the family opens their home to exchange students from around the world, so they usually have 2 or 3 exchange students along so they to can experience deep sea fishing too. Mr. Asinger and the motion of the ocean don’t agree so he hangs back on land for the fishing adventures.
Max and Pat are two great young men – always respectful and appreciative. They both do a fine job making their way through this world and truly are 2 boys anyone would be proud to have as sons.
Max is currently doing a internship at Zippo. Zippo also happens to make Case Knives. Max said to his boss jokingly one day “Hey let me send some knives to our Captain in Florida for my family’s yearly vacation.” Boss man said “sounds great, see if the Captain will tell us what he thinks about them”. This sounded like a great idea to me, and I wanted to share my experience with the knives and provide a product review.
I received a package of 5 different knives from Case. It included three different fillet knives of various lengths and firmness, one standard short knife that I would consider a bait or gutting knife, and 1 stunning pocket knife that has an unbelievably good etching of a hammerhead shark into the blade. All the knives came with a nice leather case.
My first impression was “wow!” These are really nice knives but most likely out of the price range for what I would use to cut 1000’s of fish a year, nor would I want to expose them to the harsh saltwater environment.
The first fish I cut with the fillet knives was a king mackerel, a fish that has soft meat and thin skin. The knife cut through the meat with ease. Very important to understand with king fish is that the knife slid or cut through and did not push its way through. This gave me nice clean fillets. Separating the meat from the skin was a breeze with the long flexible blade.
The next fish we had were big amber jacks. These fish are thick and have giant bones along the stomach that you typically cut through with a serrated knife or you cut around with a fillet knife. The knives quickly allowed me to separate the meet from the back bone. First along the top, and then by feeling the backbone with the knife and slanting the knife down I quickly detach the bottom. I cut a slit toward the tail to use as a finger hold and lift the meat away from the fish. Just by lifting the fillet and simply touching the knife to where the meat joins the stomach bones it separated with ease leaving me a giant boneless fillet. Again separating the meat from the skin was easy and with the longest blade I separated it with one motion.
I have used the short bait knife several times to cut bonito into strip baits for trolling. Bonito skin may has well be considered fish leather. This is why it makes such a good trolling or bottom bait, it wont come of the hook. It is very important to have a sharp knife to make the cuts clean and straight. The idea is to make your cut like a long triangle that represents a shiny natural swimming bait. I have made a perfect cut every time with this knife so far.
I do keep the pocket knife with me, even though my brother keeps begging me for it because he wants it as a display piece. I have not used the knife yet for anything other than to show off the the awesome hammerhead etching but it is by my side if I ever need it.
I can honestly say I have cut at least a 100 fish since Case sent me the knives. I have not had to sharpen one yet and with minimal care the blades show no sign of corrosion of any kind. I have looked up prices and at $15 to $30 per knife I am blown away at the quality of the product for the price point.
In my opinion this is a superior knife for the money and I will be using these knives on a daily basis from now on. You can find these knives at www.wrcase.com. Thank you to Max for allowing to to try these knives!