My son's first Dolphin

Ryan, my 13 yr old son rolled out with me, my oldest son Austin, and his friend Will, for his first trip offshore yesterday. Sea was perfect. Ran out at 28-30kts.

We pushed out to SW Banks and set the lines in about 160’ and pushed back and forth over the ledge. All the action was in about 170-220’.

He sat there with his belt attached waiting for the big one! First knock-down teased the hook, made the reel scream for a couple of seconds, then spit the hook. Never got him on the rod, but he said his heart was pounding!

Second knock-down yielded him his first dolphin ever. Not a mammoth by any stretch, but nonetheless for him it might as well have been Jaws!

A few minutes later we had another one on the line, and Austin took him like a champ. Nice size bull.

As we were leaving the Banks, I was looking back at the spread and a Marlin came in and destroyed the short line, spit the hook, and went to the right line and played with it for a minute, then went to the WTFB and showed us his head as he politely gave us the one-finger salute and went about his way. What a thrill to see. To bad we couldn’t do anything with it.

Went in to bump the bottom and marked UNBELIEVABLE bottom. Needless to say, I don’t think there is any shortage of “overfished” species out there.