... Kurt recently turned 13 and when asked what he wanted for his birthday his request was for a fishing trip. When his parents contacted me with regards to the birthday charter I have to admit I chuckled a bit because it so reminded me of myself at that age. Kurt got to invite 2 of his friends to share in this birthday present, Matt & Jake. I was really looking forward to fishing with these young men to see first hand if they displayed tendencies of becoming total fishing maniacs. The day started with chaos on the boat casting at small Jacks and Ladyfish tearing up minnows in the St Lucie inlet. When the action died we moved out onto the beach to target Tarpon. Armed with live mullet we worked an area holding Tarpon. Soon we were seeing rollers and got a hit on a mullet but no hookup. In typical Tarpon fashion they were showing themselves but not cooperating so much on the eating side of things. Finally a decent fish woofed down a mullet and Kurt was off to the races. After a bunch of nice jumps, a few trips around the boat and some fine angling the Tarpon was landed, some photos taken and the 45 to 50 lb fish released. Gauging by the excitement from the landing of this fish I was getting the feeling that "the force may be strong with these ones." In a display of true fisherman character talk soon changed to that of bigger fish, sharks were mentioned and I believe my mission had been defined. On the way to the shark spot we ran across hundreds of small Jacks, a bunch were caught and a few kept for bait. It wasn’t long at the shark spot and a Spinner Shark was hooked up, one spinning jump and he was off. Not long after that another with the same result. Shortly after Jake was hooked up to a nice size shark and ready to do battle. 30 minutes later a 150lb class Bull Shark was landed, hook taken out and released. Jake was the most experienced angler of the three and handled the shark with skill and determination, it was obvious that this wasn’t his first fish. Jake had to deal with some equipment issues which made the effort that much more impressive, nice work Jake. Kurt was up on the next big shark. Kurt hasn’t caught that many really big fish however the way he handled his shark was impressive too, I believe he learned a ton by watching Jake. Another Bull Shark about the same size as the first was also released. By this time Matt had been taking notes and was ready for a big one of his own. Matt was the least experienced fisherman of the three, until today. Matt got the toughest fish of the bunch, a really really big Nurse shark. Not the convenience store sized Nurse shark, more like the Costco sized Nurse Shark. It just sat deep and wouldn’t come up. Jake came to his friends aid and the two man assist was born, with the two of them on the rod they did a fine job in getting this oversized Nurse to the boat. It definitely rivaled the Bulls in weight. It was just about time to come home when a 35lb class Tarpon hit a live mullet and Jake made short order of getting it to the boat for a few photos & the release. After watching these three young men land fish that weighed way more than they did I knew that no test for "Midi-chlorians" was necessary, the force is definitely strong in these ones and they are well on their way to achieving "fishing maniacs" status ... sorry parents, it’s not my fault, just fueling what was already there! The Mullet run this year has been delayed by the really warm weather this fall, on the way back in we saw a number of nice schools of mullet but no predators on them. I believe this means that the fish are still a little north of us but because it is so late when the run starts in earnest it is going to be insane while it lasts. Because it is so late I think it’s going to be short lived. Over the next 2 weeks we should see a marked increase in action, so don’t miss it. This is typically the best Tarpon fishing of the year!