By: Jessica Hendrie
About a week ago, I went fishing in Fort Lauderdale with Happy Day Today Fishing Charters by Top Shot Fishing in hopes to catch sailfish. Weather was perfect, ideal for big sails. And maybe even a few wahoo. The crew and I tried and tried, trolled and trolled more and more. We put the kites out, loaded up on the goggle eyes, played with the lines for hours and so on. But you know how it goes, not every trip out will land you a fish. Although we may have hooked one or two, nothing ever made it to the boat. Oh well, big deal. It happens. We eventually decided to bottom fish in hopes to catch a snapper or two. I caught a small king fish earlier in the day so that was perfect cut up for bait and within minutes, the snapper started biting. Then the sharks started getting bad. Story of my life. Sharked. Sharked. Sharked. 1 fish. Sharked. After some time of that, I needed something different, and I grabbed the trusted slow pitch. I think you knew where this was headed already. The slow pitch is known to catch any and everything. It’s a smaller rod with a jig that you let flutter down. And boy does it work. I’ve caught so many things using it such as tuna, king fish, even wahoo. Well, this time I figured I’d probably catch those or a barracuda but I didn’t except to catch this big of a barracuda. I’m 5’2 and it was nearly as big as me. I’m so surprised I was able to get it on the boat without it breaking the line with its teeth. But here we are. I did it. He was about 100 feet down and wacked it. Boom! At first, I thought it was a kingfish, maybe. I saw black and purple and he was all lit up and once I saw it was a huge barracuda, it was such a rush. After I got him into the boat, I snapped a few quick photos and successfully released him so he could live another day. The jig was mangled once he was done with it. After that experience, it’s safe to say it was a successful trip out. Happy Fishing!