My lifestyle has greatly changed in the last five weeks. I had spinal surgery on the last day of March. Lots of pain. Recovery is slow. No fishing, no turkey hunting, no bike riding, no long hikes. No nothing! Just a prisoner IN my house, simply chained to my chair. My wife Beth has been a great nurse helping me. But she is the Gestapo when it comes to me doing too much too soon!
But my mind is not chained to the house. I have myriads of great hunting and fishing memories. So I just let them flood in like I am in the boat or field. Some of the memories are old, some more recent.
One of my recent memories came out of our month-long trip to the Florida Keys in February. We only had a couple of days remaining before starting the long haul back to Texas. Beth and I launched my 16-foot ski and we ran to one of the many bridges connecting the Keys. The tide was just beginning to move when I spotted some minnows around a large light pole near the bridge. A tarpon was busting into the minnows. I cast a long silver bass jerk-bait into the minnows and had an immediate hard strike. I was sure it was the tarpon. Wrong! The fish went deep and fought hard. I knew a tarpon would already be in the air. Finally, Beth netted a nice 10-pound Jack Crevalle.
