Funny Things Happen in the Keys

Ben Sargent

Let me start out by saying that Key West is an awesome place. It’s every bit as funky, cool and relaxed as people say it is. It wasn’t long after I arrived that I mastered riding a moped with one hand on the handle and the other holding shaved ice. Needless to say, I loved it there!

There were, however, two odd events that occurred during my time in the Keys that I need to tell you about, one of which remains an unsolved mystery.

I was pretty successful with my fishing for this episode (except for a snapped rod) so I wanted to show off my catch of two vermillion snappers by shooting a segment delivering the catch to our chef. I mounted the camera to face backwards on my bike and set off. The chef was eagerly awaiting my catch when I arrived, and I was pumped to show off my fish. I reached down to grab the bigger of the two fish (ready to brag), but to my surprise, there was only one fish on my bike. The larger of the two fish somehow vanished! But I wasn’t too worried — I had recorded the whole event.

As I played back the footage from the ride, the moment the fish slid off into the road was captured clear as day. I quickly circled back to the exact spot where the fish had landed. But here’s the mystery: There were zero signs of the missing fish. There was not a person, bird, cat or any other type of fish eater in sight. And no fish! I had some explaining to do to the crew, and still had to cook with the chef. Luckily, we nailed the banana-wrapped snapper on the first try.

As for the second unusual occurrence, I’m going to let that be a surprise for when you tune in. I will tell you that during filming, I was visited by a very large sea creature. It was an amazing moment that almost scared both me and the cameraman to death. It’s a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Tune in tonight to see what happens and to draw your own conclusions about what happened to my fish.

Thank you, Key West. Thank you!

Catch Hook, Line & Dinner at 8pm ET on Cooking Channel.

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