Several things need to be explained so that you can follow this little “adventure.” Let me start with Mangrove Mike’s. This is a restaurant in Islamorada where Michelle and I (and most swimmers from The Race Club) used to have a good breakfast after the morning session. And as the name tells it, Mike is the owner of this restaurant.

So one morning, like any other morning after our morning session, we were having our breakfast at Mangrove Mike’s sitting at a table near the wall. And on this wall, like on most walls in Mangrove Mike’s restaurant, you can see pictures of Mike and his friends and their catches from the fishing trips.

Michelle was looking at these pictures and told me that her goal was to be on that wall with a big catch in her hands. With that new goal in her head, she asked Mike if it might be possible for us to join him on one of his fishing trips. As he loved the idea of seeing us two fishing, we set up an appointment for the next day at midday.

Before I start telling you the story about our fishing trip, I just want you to know that neither Michelle nor I had ever been fishing before (so we were real beginners!).

With great expectations and pretty excited, we went the next day after the morning session to the docks of World Wide Sportsman to join Mike with his boat.

First thing we had to do was to catch the bait. To get that, we drove out in the ocean and stopped at a little island. And it seemed that we had chosen a good day. Already after a few minutes we caught enough bait. So we drove to our first spot of the day. It was really a good place for fishing. We had a lot of fish on our lines but either they were too small to take them out or we couldn’t take them in. And one of Michelle’s catches was eaten by a bull shark. So after 2 hours fishing without any success, Mike decided to change our place. But also on this spot we had the same success as before, or lack there of. Nothing to catch for us today.

We got back in the early evening, sunburned, and still, you will not find us on the wall in Mangrove Mike’s. We definitely need another try to achieve that goal.

Nevertheless, we had a great afternoon and a lot of fun!

Hey fish! It’s not over. We’ll be back!