The Illusive Catch

I have lived in Fort Myers nearly a year and a half and I haven't had any luck catching fish in these "Famous Gulf waters of Southwest Florida." But on Thursday, April 25th, when odds were against me, I had my first stroke of luck.

My friend Chad and I were wanting to go fishing, but we were busy working on a school project that was going on way to long. Fortunately we finished this project and decided it was probably a good day to head to Big Carlos Pass and test the waters. We decided he would drive and we would use his equipment in his car so we didn't have to move tackle from my car to his already crowded trunk.

As we were merging onto the interstate, I realized, I didn't have any of my artificial bait and I didn't want to lose Chad's; lures are disposable for me. I always seem to tie at least one faulty knot each trip we take. "We can use shrimp" Chad suggested. "Let's stop at K-Mart on the way and I am going to buy a lure to use" I responded. "You are determined to catch something on artificial bait, aren't you?" I emphatically responded "Hell yeah."

We eventually got to K-Mart and upon searching in the suprisingly well supplied fishing aisle, I found a highlighter yellow mid-water plug with a blood red head. "This is going to work" I said with somewhat of a sarcastic tone. My history of saltwater fishing did not make me very optimistic.

We stopped by New Pass, a bridge on the way to Big Carlos, but we had no luck, so we continued on to our intended destination. I tied on my lure and Chad tied on his shrimp rig and we began to walk up onto the bridge. "I am going to laugh if this thing works, the one lure I have with me!"

Cast upon cast, I was seeing fish chase my lure, but I had to figure out the proper presentation. About an hour and a half later at 3:30, I felt an unfamiliar feeling. My fishing pole began to vibrate and my drag, which was set way too low, began to click like a gear cog. "I got one" I yelled at the top of my lungs. As I tightened my drag, I was waiting for something to go wrong. Would this fish bite through my line? Do I have another stingray? Sure enough, I pulled a "real" fish out of the water up onto the bridge.

Catching this fish stopped Chad's speculation that I was bad luck to take fishing considering he always catches nice fish when I am not fishing with him. (I was secretly getting worried myself.)

As we put the fish in the cooler, we both thought it was hysterical that with a shot in the wind purchase of a lure that was not even a serious purchase, I caught my first saltwater fish. Now the challenge was to return and catch a fish on my own equipment.