By Chasten Whitfield
My name is Chasten Whitfield, I am a 14, I fish and I am a girl, so please don’t turn the page yet. This is an awesome story I think you will enjoy.
It was day two fishing off Ft. Lauderdale on the Mark V with Mr. George Poveromo and Carl Grassi. The water was really calm, and most people say it has to be rough to catch a sailfish. Carl put a shiner on the hook and cast it out in the deep blue water.
The rod was a bit small, but we were looking for dolphin at the time. My brother had just reeled in a small dolphin, his first ever. The rod bent over and the reel started singing. I was thinking to myself, “Wow! This is going to be a big dolphin because my brother just landed a schoolie.” But then it started to go straight for the surface and then boom a beautiful sailfish jumped for the clouds.
This was my first sailfish, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was surprised and wasn’t sure if it would fight like a tarpon and spit the hook when airborne. It felt like everything was in slow motion as it broke the surface of the water, rose to its tail and pushed up as if it was doing a dance for us. “So this is tail walking,” I thought to myself.
I held the reel with both hands as the slow motion came back to reality. George started the engine and Carl placed me on the port side of the boat. I was trying to feel the rhythm of the fish. When the fish finally started to get close, I realized he was pulling as hard as I was. This beautiful fish could break off at any minute because he was on my Penn 5500 with 12-pound test. I began the rhythm George instructed. I really wanted to see him eye to eye, and didn’t want to lose him.
As I brought him boat side, I kept thinking, “I don’t want to hurt him. I don’t want to hurt him.” I was very careful when he came along side of the Marc V. The fish and I made eye contact, and he looked a little tired. I think he knew we weren’t going to hurt him. The best part was while we were reviving him. I felt the strength coming back into his thick skin. Slowly he started powering out of my hands as if he were saying thank you as he eased away.
That was my first sailfish and hopefully not my last. I hope everybody that wants to catch a sailfish goes out and does it. It is something that I will never forget.
My mission is to get more kids out fishing and help the kids that can’t fish by donating my tournament winnings to kid charities. My name is Chasten Whitfield, I am 14 yrs old and I fish. Oh… it’s ok to turn the page now.
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