Harlyne had given me a call and said she wanted to do a 4 hr trip and the only thing she really wanted was to catch a redfish for dinner. She said she had not been here for years and loved the taste of redfish.I told her she would get more than just one red plus some other fish to boot. She was suppose to take one last fishing trip with her Dad but he passed before she got back to town, so this was going to be their last trip.
I picked Harlyne up and we made our way to the flats and the flats were alive with mullet jumping, birds diving and baitfish jumping, all good signs of happy fish. She was just a pleasure to take fishing with a very positive and upbeat personality. Before we were even fishing she was enjoying just being on the water and the life that was in it, like a young child it was great and we haven't even wet a line yet.
Now we are set up with two lines out, one with a live pinfish and the other with cutbait. I try to point out some of the redfish I am seeing cruising with the mullet to her and she spots a few but no hits yet. The weight of what this trip means to her in my mind, means this trip has to be special for her and her Dad ( in spirit ). I throw out a third line and start chumming to see if I can get the reds to turn on, ding, ding, ding!!! ZZZZZZaaaaaa the cutbait rod goes off. Harlyne being a small framed lady has her hands full and after a nice battle we land dinner and I say the rest is for fun now. She said it was the biggest red she had ever caught and I congratulate her and back to fishing she goes. Over the next 2hrs she caught some real nice reds and then when the bite slowed we took a ride.





We went to the Gulf as a memorial to her Dad and a dolphin came up by the boat but she did not see it but it came up one more time as if to let her see and then it was gone. I took some photos for her and then when I pulled the anchor up to leave a lone small purple/redish heart shaped shell fell onto the deck. So I gave it to her and said here this must be for you.
With a half hour left on her trip I told her we could get into some mackerel action so she was game. We ended up staying out another hour and she got mackerel and a nice keeper flounder.

This turned out to be great for the both of us. I felt great about the happiness she had experienced on a different level besides the fishing.