First Father/Daughter Fishing Trip..
Capt. Mike Pankey
April 26, 2009
Panama City - Saltwater Fishing Report
I would like to start off this report by saying thank you to Rob and his daughter Christina for another great adventure !
This made the second trip that Rob and I had fished together, with not much success on the first trip. But this one was going to be different... He was bringing his 14 year old daughter with him. Before booking the trip he had some concern in the fact that she had never fished before. Over the years, I have learned that sometimes "no experience" is better than a bunch of bad habits that we all form over a lifetime of fishing.
When we got to the boat ramp, Christina was very excited, and it didn't take me long to realize that she was a very competitive young lady and was quickly letting her dad know how she was going to kick his but!!! We made about a ten minute run to the first spot and eased in on the trolling motor .The mullet were jumping and we had two Osprey flying around us. These two things are always very important, for it seems that when Mother Nature is awake and active, usually the fish will be as well!
I baited up their hooks and Christina wanted me to cast her bait for her. After doing so, she looked at me and asked, what do I do now??? In the simplest way I knew how to explain the process, I told her that when you get a bite, snatch back on the rod. The handle on the side of the reel makes the round part on top of it go around and that brings your line in. Well it didn't take long and it was game on... she was hooked up!. Her first fish ever was a 20" speckled trout! She was so excited that she had caught the first fish before her Dad and she was letting him know about it! But dad was right behind with a small trout.
I think Rob could have caught a world record fish at that moment, and it wouldn't have even come close to how proud he was of his daughter Christina. We sat there for a while and caught a few more fish and then decided to move down to another spot that I had in mind.
By this time, Christina had figured out that if I cast her bait for her, that I would get it in the "magic spot" and she would get a bite. After getting anchored up, I put a pigfish on Christina's rod and threw it up to the outside edge of the grass line. I then handed her the rod. It wasn't 15 seconds and that pigfish's quality of life went downhill fairly quickly. She set the hook and instantly the fish ripped off a bunch of line and then stuck her head out of the water and started to wallow around. This is always a sign of a good trout. After fighting it for about 5 minutes, the fish came along side the boat and was a pretty good fish. I quickly netted it and when Christina got a look at her fish she went nuts!! I put the fish on the hand scales and she weighed 4lbs 12 ounces and once again, Dad couldn't be prouder, but took another verbal beating! ( it was getting deep)
Some days it seems like mother nature just flips a switch and all activity ceases. Mullet stop jumping, birds quit flying, and usually the fish follow along. Unfortunately, that was the case that day. We were able to catch a handful of fish, but most importantly, we had another young person hooked on fishing and a Father that was so proud of his daughter, he was about to burst.
I don't usually believe in luck, but over the years, I have become a firm believer in beginners luck!! I love to take first time anglers. As the Guide however, it can be a very stressful job because fishing is exactly that... fishing!! Some days it seems that you can't do anything wrong and some days you can't buy a bite.
Target Species:
speckled trout & redfish
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