"Alright," said the captain on the intercom. "everyone drop your lines. Just about 15 feet or so..." He paused for a few seconds. Half the people had their bait already cast in the water. "Nevermind, pack it up yall. There's only one down there anyway." So everyone brought there lines back up. No one caught anything, at least on my side they didn't. So the engines pressed on for another 2 minutes before stooping again. When we did, I heard a splash and when I looked the anchor was benign dropped. When it hit the dirt a deck hand pulled it tight until it had a good grip. The captain gave the signal that it was OK to fish.

When I dropped my line, the reel kept going even when it hit the bottom and it all tangled up. But I didn't care at first because something was pulling. I brought it up in 30 seconds, and it was sure enough a red snapper. I had my dad take it off the hook and we measured it on the black line below the rail, which was 16 inches. That was the size limit. Nope to small. Only 14 inches, I had to let it go. When it hit the water, it flipped on its right side and swam almost straight down. I saw it swim down and disappear into the ocean.

The first fish my dad caught was undersized too. It was a baby sand shark about 1 1/2 feet long. He called out "Deck Hand" as the captain told us too if we need help. A man wearing a white had and shorts, who had a dark tan all over can to him.

"Do you wanna keep it?"

"Nah, I'll wait for a bigger one" The hook came out the sharks right cheek. The deck had a pair of wire cutters and cut the hook in half and the shark fell back into the water. He Glanced around real fast...

"The Cap would've yelled at me if he just saw me do that. Let me go swap you rod out, Sir." The deck hand headed towards the back of the boat. Meanwhile, I rebaited my line and was now dropping it back in. The Deck hand was back in no time at all. "My name is Adam. Just call out my name and I'll be here to help ya out."

"Alright, I'll do that" When mine hit the bottom again I pulled the line out some more to get rid of the whiplash. As I did so, I noticed that the line seemed to drift under the boat. Nope! The boat was drifting of the line. But that didn't bother me much, because I was still reeling them in.

We didn't get any keepers the first stop, but the second time I got one 16 inchesright on the dot. That looked to be huge compared to the ones we caught last time. I guess the size limit got bigger sense then. About 5 inches more. My dad and I were constantly talking to this man and his wife by us but closer to the front of the boat. My dad got his line tangled up with another mans line to the right of him.

The third time we stooped, I saw the captain walk down the small staircase from the top floor to the deck.

"There some big ones out here" About 20 minutes after that, after reeling in another keeper (not a red snapper but a vermilion snapper, look almost the same) I heard some commotion on the other side. Sense we were practically at the front of the boat, we could see the other side of the front too. I turned around and saw two deck hands with a gaff each.

"Pull it on Board!!." I heard one of them say. Then I saw one hell of a big fish being pulled onboard. It was about 5 feet long, gray and a white bottom. It had a head like a catfish and the back part of it was like a shark. I heard someone say it was a ling. The deck hand weighed it in as a 49 ponder. I didn't move much. I guess it must've been tired from the fight.

I had rebaited my hook and dropped it in the water. I didn’t wait long before something started to pull. I started to turn the handle on the reel, but nothing was happening. I was turning it around and around and the line wasn’t coming in. It was as if there was a loose screw on it.

“Reel it in Fred! Reel it in...Co’mon Fred! Reel it in!!.” My dad kept saying that “Dad Look I’m turning, its not going anywhere,” it was kinda odd because I hadn't have a second of trouble like this before. Someone reached over and clicked something on the reel.

“Try that, now my man.” It was a deckhand, not Adam, but was wearing clothes just like him and had dark sun glasses too. Yeah, that sure helped. Whatever he did had tightened the drag. My dad and I and the couple all said something big was gonna come up. My rod was bending like crazy. This aint gonna be no little guppy I told myself as I was reeling. Whatever it was, it was going under the boat and towards the back of it. I saw my line in a tangle with some other guys line down about 10 people. When it reached the surface, there were two fish. A small one, probably undersize, and one was huge. Probably 2 or 3 times the size of the another one. They were both red snapper. The same deckhand gaffed the fish and pulled it onboard. I knew on of them was mine because my line was being dragged in that direction. I was pretty sure the big one was mine for I did much fighting just before. I waited for about two minutes. While the deckhand was unhooking and unraveling the fish. Then someone just pulling on my line again.

“Who’s line is this?”

“Mine!” I said out loud and raised my hand.

“Your the winner.” He threw the weight overboard and their was no hook on it when I reeled it in. But the brought another one and tied on the end of the weight for me. He caught the hook through his glove, but took it out quickly. Then he went to rehook the other kid’s line. A grabbed my stringer and walked to where my fish was.

“So, this one was mine?”

“Yup.” I never thought I be so lucky as to catch a fish this size. It was even more amazing to see up close. It seemed even bigger and more amazing.

“So do I just string him up now or what?”

“I’ll put him in the freezer for ya...Whats your number again?”

“11.” he said OK and he wrote it into the side of it with his fillet knife. He said it weighed about 30 pounds My dad thought that it was good that I caught a fish that size, but he was disappointed that I had already caught 3 and he had caught a ca'zillian lines from other people.

After that I went inside to get a Pepsi. The cook was asleep with his hand on his stomach. I guess I woke his up. He asked what was going on. I just told him I caught one of the largest fish you’d ever seen. I went back outside and drank it really fast. There was a 3 year old girl there telling the deckhand everything she saw that was wrong. She point out the little holes in the hose, the whiplash in other peoples lines. I think the deck hand was getting annoyed by it. I just watched her as I drank my drink.

My dad got caught on something a few minutes later. Hes had his line caught on other peoples line a bunch of times already, so I was unsure at first.

“Reel it in dad! Co,mon dad! Bring it onboard!” I was making fun of him I guess.

A deckhand , the one that had just helped me out, was sure that he had a shark at the other end, so he stood by to handle it. Sure enough it was a shark. I could see it as it can closer to the surface. It was pretty neat to see it trying to swim away and at the same time my dads rod is bending and being pulled. When it was finally on board, the deckhand had to stand on the head and tail to keep it from moving. Then he scratched my dads number into the side of it with a knife. Then he picked it up at both ends and threw it in a garbage can where the rest of the sharks were. I guess hes now happy that hes at least caught one.

The anchor was reeled in and we moved on to a different stop. It was the same rutine. Drop the anchor, get it succored, captain give the go ahead and everyone starts fishing. This would be our last stop. My dad and I both struck a fish. Mine was 16 inches again. My dad rod was bending like crazy just the way mine was before. I told him that and took a step back. I guess I never notice how much my rod was bending because I was busy using it. The fish seemed to be a few inches smaller than mine. My dad reeled it onto the boat. There was no deckhand this time. He kept bragging that his was bigger than mine. I told him otherwise and reminded him that I had caught twice as more than him.

The couple right by me had been fighting something for a few minutes. I watched as I came to the surface. She kept telling us to look at it. It looked to be a shark at first, but then it squirmed onto its side and its scales reflected the sunlight in a rainbowish kind of glare. It was either a really dark blue or black color, longer than a share by a foot or two. I saw its head as it came outta the water. It opened its mouth in an attempt to escape. Dame that fish had teeth. They were easily visible, even from way down there. Unfortunately its attempt worked and it was one of the ones that gotta way. I think it was a barracuda of somesort.

The Captain then told everyone to pack it up. "Were late. About 99% of the time I'm late." So everyone brought in there final catches and went back into the lounge. Others went on the sun deck. Before the boat started again everyone walked to the back of the boat with there catches strung on their stringer. There were two deckhands and two freezers. The sharks and biggest catches were already in and were at the bottom. Everyone handed there stringer to the deck hands and the deckhands put 'em in the freezer. The metal plates with the numbers on them were hanging on the outside. The engines started up again and we made a u turn back home.