By: Capt. Chasten Whitfield
Our day on the water is here and I had a date to take out our fishing guest Justin, who is 7 years old. Justin has a rare chromosomal disorder. Our day, as it usually starts, began early before daylight to prepare and our first mission was to collect our bait off the grass flats by my house. We use fish food as chum and throw a cast net on the pilchards that are attracted to the chum. After a short time, we had the live well full and it was off to the boat ramp to pick up my fishing guest. Justin immediately wanted to drive the boat, so we let him steer us to the first fishing spot we had mapped out. He drove like an old boat captain! After safely arriving at our first destination, we anchored up along some mangroves in about 3-4 feet of water. We took a hand full of the pilchards we had caught earlier for bait and threw them near the bushes to stimulate the predator fish to start eating. Justin caught his first fish which happened to be a lady fish This lady fish fought hard and made a lot of leaps from the water trying to throw the hook. Justin was so excited that he was jumping as much as the lady fish was jumping! He reeled in that fish like an old pro. His next cast landed near the bushes and was met quickly by a small gag grouper which he was also able to bring into the boat. Justin wasn’t quite ready to release this fish back into the water without a couple of quick pics. Justin wasn’t scared of anything and even helped us chum at our next destination. Justin caught a little bit of everything on our fishing trip – jacks, trout, little grouper, and snook during our trip. We fished the flats, mangrove shorelines and a few docks along the way and he learned how to throw chum with the chum bat. The last thing on Justin’s check list was to drive the boat back to the ramp so once again that is what he did. We finished the day with a great time and good company. You can catch some of our adventure by clicking on the following link:
