The ship set sail around 7:30 with me, the father and son from Alabama, the Indian banker from London and his British wife. After briefing us, we headed out into the Florida straits and began to fish.
Within the first 15 minutes, we each had a fish: 2 barracudas, 2 yellowtails and a houndfish. That, however, was all we could land for the rest of the day. It was, however, not as bad as it seems. After making sure we all caught something (by "caught", I mean just reeling the fish in, not much excitement there), we headed out away from the reef for bigger trophies, marlin, sunfish, whatever might have been out there.
"Whatever," to our excitement, turned out to be a 12-foot hammerhead shark. I must tell you, nothing quickens the heart and gives you flashbacks of "Jaws" like seeing a huge fin working it's way through the ocean, 50 feet off. We were told this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, that neither the captain nor the mate had ever caught a hammerhead this size, and we'd have to commit to a full-day's charter if we wanted actually landed this monster. We all agreed, and the mate had us reel in our flimsy lines, and he tried to prepare one of our yellowtails as bait before the beast submerged. Long story short, we couldn't get the bait out in time, and never landed him (and it was still a 1/2 day). We tried to find him but never did, but it was exciting all the same.
I'll definitely be doing the full day next time 'round. Oh, and if you're sensitive, bring your Dramamine.