READ THE GREAT STORY BELOW THE PICTURE!!!

My son, Michael, and his friend Bob, finished up a job early this past Thursday. They called and asked me to take them out snook fishing at the end of honeymoon island. We launched the Mako, and, after catching a less than adequate quantity of bait, we anchored in a small swash channel. I was using a casting rod with 10 # line and a1& 1/2 foot leader of 30 pound test fluorocarbon. Had a 3/0 light wire circle hook upon which I impaled a greenback. On my second cast, there was a tremendous boil as a 100 pound plus tarpon hit. As the line melted from the reel, Bob hustled to raise the anchor and Michael started the engine. We battled that tarpon for more than an hour and covered approximately two miles of waterfront. Each time we got him close to the boat, he took off again. Made a few nice jumps, but we didn't have a good camera or photographer aboard. When Michael was finally reaching to lip gaff the fish for a release, the line parted as it joined the leader. We returned to our fishing spot, and shortly thereafter I jumped a second tarpon. This one made one high leap and fell down upon my line, breaking it. (remember, we were fishing for snook) After dark, I hooked another fish that made some mighty splashes and four jumps as it circled the boat. Thought sure that we had a very nice snook, but it turned out to be a three foot blacktip shark. Finally, just as we were ready to call it a night, I hooked something else that raced away and took a lot of my line. We chased it for about 400 yards and finally were right on top of the fish. I was unable to lift it off the bottom, and we surmised that it must have been a large ray. We decided to break off the line and head for home. During all of this time, Bob had only two strikes, and each resulted in an immediate cut off. Michael had not a single bite . Yesterday afternoon, we returned to the same spot. My friend Dick caught a five foot hammerhead. Grandson Marshall fought a large snook all the way to the boat only to have the hook pullout. He also caught a 21/2 foot black tip shark, while I spent the afternoon catching three catfish. That's fishing. Don