“There once was a fish with the deep sea smile and it lived down deep in the sea a mile…”

Sunrise Surprise

When Jake called me up and asked me to fish the 83rd Annual Boatman’s Deep Sea Roundup there was no way I would turn him down. Simply because Jake is a great angler and sportsman, he is fun to fish with and can hang ten while throwing shots on the fly. Win-win situation even if we lose!

Early on Day 1 shortly after false dawn we landed this beauty of a redfish but my livewell pumps had died recently and we decided to ice the fish and hope she didn’t shrink too much by the 2pm weigh-in…

Official length and weight of this fish was 27.25inches (half an inch smaller than when alive) and 7.6lbs… Very likely a winning redfish!

Treat all Life with respect and everything becomes a gift.

On Day 2, we met at the dock well before sunrise again, this time Jake brought along his lovely bride Whitney, and Jake’s desire to see Whitney catch her first redfish on fly took priority. It was a gentleman’s gesture, and for me, there seemed to me to be no better gift than to give her the bow and shots at tailing redfish in the early morning hours of dawn. It was an honor for myself even to have participated and love seeing the beautiful expressions on everyone’s face when they get that redfish for the first time!

We still hunted for that lurking trout (21 inches was to beat from day 1) and Jake even spent the remaining time on the bow letting excessive amounts of mid slot redfish swim away untouched for that 1 chance at another tournament winning redfish and he displayed a level of patience that you don’t see often.

Captain and Crew! Yoop yoop!

Nonetheless, our 27.25in redfish on fly from Day 1 held up and we took 1st place in the Fly Division. Overall I would say this event was more than a success and a super fun time worth doing again and again.

“…And now, you see, our smiles shine down in the sea, at least a mile”