Today I had the pleasure of sharing a half day of fishing with Isri Persaud,  his wife Rani, their daughters Niv and Babita, and Niv's boyfriend Ted. Rani was celebrating her birthday and was looking to enjoy for a good day on the water and catch a few fish to take home for a birthday fish fry.
    We all met up at the usual 7:00 AM departure time and ran up the Banana River to Canaveral Locks and en route encountered porpoises and manatees as is normally the case. First stop was to pick up some live bait down near the steeple in Cocoa Beach and everyone enjoyed doing the "Pogy" pickup.
    Next stop was 8A reef where we slow trolled the pogies and had a lot of fun catching our limit of kingfish. We had steady action with the kings throughout the day and Niv and Ted did most of the angling. I was lucky to have Isri spend most of the day working as my mate rather than a fisherman. He has had his own boat in the past and is no stranger to offshore fishing, and handling the gaff so I was happy to step back and let Isri take care of business.
    The highlight of the day was the "tag team" of Niv and Ted double teaming a cobia between 45 and 50 pounds that became a very welcome guest for Rani's birthday fish fry.
    It's days like these that really show how blessed I am to be able to do what I have chosen to do after my retirement from my corporate job. I get to enjoy a beautiful day on the water, get to meet really great people, enjoy the day with them, and with a little luck send them on their way with a few tasty treats for dinner.

Final tally for the day:
12 Kingfish.
1 Remora
1 Cobia between 45 & 50 pounds