The date was November 17, 1973 just three days after my tenth birthday. We were celebrating this day by fishing just outside the Lake Worth Inlet, off the coast of south Florida. My Dad was trying to catch me my first sailfish. The day started off great, it was gorgeous out there on the ocean. The sun was shining bright and glistening off the water giving the sea an almost cobalt-blue appearance. And I didn't have a care in the world, for it was the weekend, which meant no school, and no homework. I was ten years old now and doing what I love to do best, fishing with my Dad.

We spent the morning trolling our spread of ballyhoo and mullet with a few knockdowns from bonitos. They are great fighters, but not the fish that I had longed for. Yes, I was a ten-year old boy now and ready to go out on my "Vision Quest" and do battle with my first sailfish! Well, my Dad kept assuring me that it was coming along very soon.

It's funny how Dads are always right. It wasn't maybe five minutes after his last "assurance", that we saw "my dream" come up and crash at the left rigger. I can still see that beautiful strong black bill of my first sailfish as he slashed at the trolling ballyhoo and popped that left rigger pin with a loud snap! I grabbed the rod, threw the Penn International 50 in free spool and dropped the bait back just like I was taught. The sailfish was taking the bait....I could feel the line running out under my right thumb with a quickness. My heart was pounding like a bass drum! I was counting the drop back...1..2..3...let him eat...5..6..wait a little more..7..8...Nail Him! Oh yeah...Fish On!!!

I had set the hook and I was now ready to do battle with my first sailfish. The fight seemed to last forever. It was a tug-of-war that I will keep in my memory banks for a lifetime! I brought the fish to the stern of our 31 foot Pacemaker and the mate grabbed the wire and billed the fish. He pulled the fish aboard and secured it in the fishbox to take to be mounted.

(Note: Back in those days you needed the actual fish to have a fish mount completed. Now a days you would release the fish and just give the taxidermy man the measurements for a mount).

I was in heaven, and I had conquered my "Vision Quest!" I was ready to go to school on Monday and brag to all my classmates about how I (a ten-year-old boy) had done battle with a great pelagic billfish, and won. Oh yes it was a great day to remember.... but unfortunately it wasn't over yet.

We spent the afternoon trolling way offshore in search of some dolphin, or better known to most fishermen as mahi mahi. I was in all my glory and couldn't stop reliving the battle that I had just fought. I was chatting with my father on the bridge when I spotted something floating in the distance. I pointed what appeared to me as flotsam out to my Dad, and he steered our boat right for it.

I later learned from reading the newspaper the next day, that the body was that of a local Miami fisherman who had been on his way to the Florida Keys in a small boat when he was caught in a storm. The newspaper went on to say that there were two other men with him, and they were still missing. I don't believe they ever found their bodies.