It’s been a busy week for me at work and Tania has been sick all week, so we were unable to get out fishing. Since I do not have a current fishing report, I thought I would share one of our trips from last year where Tania showed her skills as a great fisher woman. I hope you all enjoy the tale!

On August 20, 2022, Tania and I made it out to our happy place. We were at the dock around 6:30am. This morning the dock was busy with 11 boats going out, so we had to wait a little bit to load our boat and get heading out. It was a beautiful morning, and we were excited to be getting offshore.

Once we hit the inlet, the water was a bit sloppy, kind of like a washing machine. We had an east wind with an outgoing tide. I was hoping that once we were out of the inlet it would settle down, but unfortunately it was still sloppy. Tania was not enjoying the ride south, but she was a real trooper and was driven by the hopes of catching a permit today.

We made it to the boils around 7:30am to find three other boats there already. I thought that was a good sign; however, they were near shore and I have caught all my permit near the east buoy. I set up expecting a northwest drift due to the winds. Unfortunately, the drift wasn’t quit what I was expecting. The next drift completely changed from our first drift, I am guessing the churning water and the light winds made it a bit unpredictable.

Well, I cursed our fishing trip today as I caught the first fish. Tania will tell you, whenever I catch the first fish, the rest of the day the bite will be very slow. Today just added credence to this curse. The bite was pretty slow. We saw tons of bait, and lots of fish breaking the top of the water but nothing was really biting. We ended up leaving the boils around 10:30am with two Porgy and a Black Margate in the cooler.

On the way back to the dock we saw a ton of birds diving, as well as fish tearing up the top. I grabbed the only two rods I had paddled tails set-up and Tania and I started to throw. The two rods and reels were our inshore rod and reels. The one Tania was throwing was a Daiwa Saltist Back Bay 3000 and I was using the Penn Slammer 2500. On my third toss I hooked up with something large and had I not grabbed the spool to break my line it would have spooled me. Shortly after that Tania hooked up.

Tania fought the good fight for nearly 5 minutes. The fish took her around the boat a few times, and at one point I wasn’t moving fast enough, so Tania hnd to shove me out of the way! Tania is very focused and dedicated when fighting a fish. At first glance we thought we had a large Spanish Mackerel or a Kingfish. About a minute later we realized it was a Bonita. Once we landed the fish, Tania told me her arms felt like jelly and she couldn’t lift them. I told her it’s a good feeling to catch a big fish on light tackle. I decided to keep the Bonita as I was told by several friends that they are good to eat and that they make good fish dip. I am going to use this one for fish dip. I will try any fish at least once. I will let you all know how it turns out.

At this point we decided to continue to head in. We saw so much life while running to the Fort Pierce Inlet. We saw dolphins, sea turtles, as well as a ton of birds dive bombing bait balls. We were amazed at how blessed we were today to come home with fish in the cooler as well as seeing God’s creations!

Tania and I pray everyone who makes it out this weekend have a safe and blessed trip. The wind should lay down Saturday, but Sunday looks like a better day this weekend. With that being said Tania and I may go out on Saturday as that is the only day we can make it out. May you have tight lines and good times my friends!