AS SEEN IN THE JULY/AUGUST 2005 ISSUE

So here it was, the time of year when my family and friends all get together and head down to the Florida Keys for lobster mini-season. When I say family and friends, I’m talking about fifteen adults and eleven kids all under the age of 10.

Anyone that has young children knows packing for a trip like this isn’t easy. We bring along a ton of gear for just about every kind of fun under the sun, snorkeling, fishing and of course lobstering. When everything is said and done, there really isn’t a whole lot of room left over for everyday necessities such as toys.

As my husband, Scott, and I were loading the truck the evening before our big trip, our 4 year old daughter, Sammy, notices that daddy hadn’t packed her favorite Scooby Doo fishing pole. I’m talking about one of those bright colored $10 specials that you buy at your local Wal-Mart just to keep your kid quiet while you finish shopping. She practically begged him, saying she would leave all her toys home if she could only bring her Scooby Doo pole. He agreed and happily loaded it into the boat with all the other fishing gear.

We left the following morning at 6:00 a.m. sharp for a four hour drive to our annual rendezvous with family, friends and paradise. Only 30 minutes away from home, the kids already started asking the famous question, “Are we there yet?” I should have taken that as an inclination of what was to come.

Minutes after arriving in Marathon, we were greeted by the fiercest thunderstorms we had ever seen. It poured like cats & dogs for two days straight. Constant thunderstorms with so much lightning, we didn’t even dare put the boats in the water. We were all stuck in itsy bitsy hotel rooms with eleven very bored kids. This isn’t how I picture paradise. I swear, if it rained one more day we may have come home minus a couple of kids!

On day three of our five day vacation, the heavens opened and finally let the sun shine through. Finally, we were all free. We were ready to go out and have some fun! It was time to head out to do some serious yellowtailing.

We loaded the boats with snacks, juices and a handful of our favorite adult beverages. Well, here it goes. When it came time to load the gear for the big snapper kill, my husband decides to leave my daughter’s Scooby Doo pole behind. He said there wasn’t much room left in our 20’ flats skiff after loading up all the coolers and tackle. I said, “No room for a two foot long fishing pole?”

Needless to say, about a half hour after launching, Sammy notices her pole was missing and decides to throw a full-on temper tantrum. Come on, we’re all parents, we’ve all been there. Well after spending two very miserable days trapped in our room, we were ready to do just anything to keep her happy. So, to make a long story short, Scooby Doo gets to go fishing too.

Putting aside the hour long delay, it still felt great to be on the water and finally on our way to our favorite reef. As soon as we arrived my husband started to get the chum and gear ready and I made sure the kids were caked in sun-block. To keep Sammy happy Scott tied a small hook onto the Scooby pole and gave Sammy a few pieces of squid so she could fish too. You know, just like mommy and daddy.

The yellowtail started hitting almost immediately. Sammy was having the time of her life catching an assortment of grunts, small snapper and triggers. She was the proudest little girl to have ever caught a junk fish slam. Boy, she was about to teach us a lesson we will never forget!

After only a couple hours we caught plenty of fish and were ready to head back to enjoy our fresh fish feast. Sammy still had a few pieces of bait so she continued to fish while we cleaned up and prepared for the ride back to the boat ramp. 

All of a sudden, Sammy shouts that a REALLY, REALLY, BIG fish ate her bait. We both turn around to see her holding on to the bent Scooby Doo pole as hard as she could. She was screaming and laughing at the same time. We hadn’t been paying much attention as we were busy cleaning up, so either of us actually saw how big the really, really big fish really was. My husband grabbed the pole, which now looked like a coat hanger and gave it a couple of quick jerks. He told her that it wasn’t a fish and that she had hooked the bottom. He handed the pole back figuring the skimpy line would break, but it didn’t.

Convinced she had hooked a whale, Sammy held on to the rod and played with the reel for another ten minutes while we finished cleaning up. On a few occasions, I asked if she needed any help and each time she politely said “No mom, it’s my whale.”

Taking my husband’s word for it, the guy who has a ‘World’s Best Fisherman’ plaque hanging in his office under a stuffed deer head, the entire time we’re convinced Sammy’s line is stuck on the bottom. Suddenly, Sammy screams “THERE IT IS MOM, THERE IT IS.”  We look over the side and couldn’t believe our eyes. It was a huge grouper!

Mr. World’s Best Fisherman suddenly freezes in disbelief. Finally, he reaches out, grabs the thing by the gills and heaves it aboard. The big brown grouper was as big as she was!

Sammy was so proud for catching this gigantic fish. We asked her what she wanted to do with it and she said she wanted to let the whale go so it could go make baby whales. We let it go alright, right into the cooler! 

We weighed the fish as soon as we got back to the hotel. The grouper weighed twenty one pounds! Sammy wasn’t very happy we kept her whale, but she quickly got over it as soon as everyone came to see our proud little girl and her huge fish. ‘Til this day, no a single person believes that 4 yr old Sammy caught that big grouper by herself with that tiny hook and a small piece of squid on that silly little Scooby Doo pole. Do you?

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