The captain rules the day!

After the “Small Fish” article last week, my daughter, Maddie, volunteered to help me break the small fish curse. Happy for the offer of help and the opportunity to fish with my daughter, I quickly accepted. Turns out, she could only fit me into her busy schedule on Sunday from 1:30 to 3:00. Fortunately, Maddie’s availability aligned with a good tide for fishing. Coincidence? Or, outstanding planning on her part?

We launched the skiff about an hour after high tide. As we idled away from the boat landing, I asked her where she wanted to fish. She replied, any creek that is draining into the main river. Running up river, we “scientifically” decided on the first creek to the right. While approaching the creek on the trolling motor, Maddie rummaged through my tackle box and selected a Z-Man TubeZ on a 1/6-ounce Ned LockZ jig. As she tied the lure on her line, I told her that I prefer the TubeZ in cold water situations and the water temperature was a warm 79 degrees. Without looking at me, she held up her hand. Every parent knows what that means. I quit talking.

Once we were in casting distance, she fired a cast into the mouth of the creek. I thought, her casting is a lot better than I remembered. She began a sweep and swim retrieve letting the TubeZ rest on the bottom between sweeps of the rod. I thought, her retrieve technique is pretty good. On her second cast, a large trout ate the lure. As she fought the fish, she laughed and said, “I’m the captain now.” For the rest of the day, whenever one of us caught a big fish, we would ask the other, who is the captain now? For some odd reason, we found this to be funny and entertaining. Collectively, we caught a bunch of big fish, so we had a lot of laughs.

For me, the best catch of the day was a couple of hours with my daughter. She is the captain now.

Contact Captain Greg Peralta at captgregp@gmail.com or call (843) 224-0099.