"Do we have any oars onboard…anything that could function as a paddle?"

This is an inquiry a boat captain never wants to hear, especially when drifting helplessly 20-miles offshore.The dreaded “vessel in need of assistance” call had already been made, and now Jeremy and I were simply awaiting the costly arrival of help from one of the local marine towing companies. The embarrassment of our rookie-type blunder was sounded across the VHF—we were out of fuel. To make matters worse, it was not only our fuel tank that was empty but also our 200-quart fish box.

WAAAAVE!” For several panic-stricken moments, Jeremy must have thought this would be the last word he’d ever hear. At the very least, he had to have second-guessed our foolish undertaking of that afternoon. I surely did. But you see, there is something about the annual fall mullet run that makes both fish and angler do crazy, death-defying things. And this blustery day was no different.

I recall my father providing my first fishing lesson when I was a young, easily frustrated angler. "Patience is a virtue," he would repeat. At the time, I had no idea what virtue was, but knew enough to associate this refrain with a lackluster day of fishing. As I grew older I either acquired this virtue or caught more fish. Maybe it was a little of both. Regardless, it was the first of many adages that I would validate through my fishing experiences. But surprisingly, while many sayings have stood the test of time, there are many I would debunk.

My mom once said to me, "Brent, don't make your highs too high or your lows too low. For every crest, there is a trough."

Like other sports, fishing has the amazing ability of both exalting and humbling its participants. Any single fishing trip can yield "the best of times" or "the worst." In fact, at the age of 13 I learned that a lone cast can provide both!

In anticipation of the upcoming weekend, I went out to catch a bunch of pilchards, the staple offering when targeting Florida’s estuarine habitats. I know artificial “gurus” claim live bait is for kids, but ever since I was brutally snagged by a topwater plug equipped with three razor-sharp trebles, I squirm at the thought of handling any form of fake and don’t even allow them on my boat.

Every sports legend has one. A moment in which he or she rises above all expectations, breaks through the shackles of mortality and becomes a sports hero. It’s this very moment that a legend is born. I was born on November 18, 1974, and as a strange looking baby my arrival had little public fanfare. On July 18, 2003, I was reborn as a fishing legend!