Today my fishing buddies were Bob Starr and his long time buddy Ed Wilkolaski visiting from Lancaster, N.Y. Ed is down for he and his wife to enjoy a little r & r and attend a baby shower for Bobby's wife.
    Started the day with some serious concern about the offshore conditions since overnight we had a tropical depression form in the Gulf offshore of Tampa and the breezes blew all night kicking up the seas to a "very steep" 3 - 5 feet according to the 20 mile buoy. I told the guys that it may be a little rough but since they had made the drive down from Bobby's home up in Palm Coast I decided to see if it was doable.
    After we cleared the inlet we rand down the beach with the sloppy seas on our beam and found the pogies just outside the breakers at the north end of Patrick Air Force Base. One toss of the net and the live well was full. We then took our time running offshore to 8A and were the only boat there until the Orlando Princess arrived after 11:00 AM. Fishing was a little slow and in our half day we were able to get a decent catch of kings, a barracuda and a bunch of Atlantic Sharpnose sharks. The highlight of the day was a double hookup of kings and the luck of the day went to Ed who picked up the rod that had the 40 pound king on the other end. Bobby dispatched his 12 pounder pretty quick while Ed fought his big King for about 30 minutes.
    As it turned out the day was a success even though it was a little bumpy Ed managed to catch a notable Kingfish for himself, a King of a lifetime for most folks.

Final tally for the day:
5 Kingfish with the largest weighing 40#
1  Barracuda
A bunch of Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks released