John “JD” Donohue
A Family Affair
Each month when I start brainstorming for this column, my goal is to share a few helpful tips that hopefully make your time kayak fishing a bit more productive. This month, I am going to share a story that may not help you catch more fish but will hopefully make you smile, especially if you are a parent.
A few weeks back I received a call from my good friend, Josh Harvel, inquiring if I was planning to fish the IFA tournament out of Sarasota, Fla. I was surprised he was going to travel from Cape Coral to participate, as he and his wife Renee, had been traveling non-stop coaching and supporting their talented 14-year-old son Matt as he pursues a promising baseball career.
I had to ask Josh what prompted him to make the commitment to fish the tournament, and he replied that Matt had been talking too much smack, claiming he was ready to whip dad in fishing. Once I heard this, I was compelled to join them just to document Jr.’s quest to overtake his multi-time champion dad as king of the Harvel fishing family.
We began tournament day before first light preparing to launch into Josh’s home waters of Matlacha in southwest Florida. The Harvels roll up as a well-oiled machine. The boys trailer in the kayaks, and Renee comes in the support vehicle, making sure that they have everything they need to maximize their time on the water, as every minute counts on tournament day.
As we pedaled toward our destination, Matt began painting a verbal picture that centered around all the new gear that would be coming his way with the big paycheck he was preparing to pocket. His bravado was that of any athlete with confidence in their skills. Of course, his greatest attributes lie on the baseball diamond, which left Josh and myself just smiling as we took it all in.
The tournament-day tide started out quite high, so the usual pounding of the potholes with jigs was not an option; instead the topwater plug was the lure of choice. We scouted for the redfish telltale, frolicking mullet and found them pressed tight to the mangrove islands. The islands were loaded with fish, but they were all snook, great fun to catch, but not part of the redfish/trout aggregate that it takes to win in the IFA. After getting freight-trained by a beast of a snook, Josh made the executive decision to start drifting the flats to locate the desired quarry.
The action on the flats was a bit slow, but Matt was able to get on the board with a 16-inch trout. This process continued with several upgrades by the father/son duo. After being distracted by a stunt plane overhead doing stalls and barrel rolls, my attention came back to the water as I saw a small shark smashing what I thought was bait. Matt saw the same thing and decided to liven up the otherwise slow day by launching a jerkbait toward the shark. Boom! He was hooked up. We were ready to see that fin break the surface when we heard him inform us it was a nice seatrout. After he flipped it into his kayak, it measured at just shorter than 22 inches. That fish was good enough for Matt to take home his fourth Jr. Angler Award. Although it was not the bounty we were informed that he would return with, it was good enough for $100 and two Penn Battle II reels. More importantly, he holds family bragging rights… for now.
Take a kid fishing!
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