~STORY BEHIND THE DAY ~ EPISODE ONE “A DAY TO REMEMBER”
~ January 23, 2021 - Hawks Cay Resort - Duck Key, FL
Captain Brandon Simmons - “What a day! So it started out I got a call from Rich Tudor and Tom Rowland hosts of the TV Show “Saltwater Experience” about taking them out along with a special guest a few weeks prior. The special guest was a young guy from the North East, Steven Roda. Steven had entered a contest that HUK Fishing put out a few months ago. Out of the 20,000 contest entries Steven was the lucky winner. He won a two day stay and two days of fishing with Tom and Rich… I met up with the crew around 7:30 am at the Hawks Cay Resort Marina. The day was already off to a great start when I left my house, not a lick of wind when I walked to my truck to head to the marina. I knew it was going to be an epic day due to the conditions. So we got everyone on board and started heading out. I had found a spot a few weeks back 25 miles out of the marina in the Gulf of Mexico that was holding big schools of Cobia, thousands of Jack Crevalles, Monster Mangrove Snappers and last but not least…. MASSIVE Goliath Grouper. When we showed up you could see the boils on the surface for what seemed to be miles long with how flat calm the water was. I rigged Steven and the guys up with some live pinfish on an 8000 size reel with a heavy rod knowing we were going to get into some of the big Cobia. It didn’t take long and we were bending rods, catching everyone a nice Cobia. After the Cobia action slowed down Tom decided to play with the Jack Crevalles, taking the hooks off of a top water plug, skipping it across the surface watching them explode on it. It really was something you have to do or see if you ever get the chance. We ended up catching a couple Jacks and keeping them for bait, yes bait… We used them to catch Steven his first ever Goliath Grouper. If you know anything about Goliath Grouper you know that they can grow up to 500 pounds plus. They are HUGE! We dropped the first live Jack down and it wasn’t two minutes and Steven was hooked up. The first Goliath he caught was a “small one” 40+ pounds.. The second drop was when we got tight on the beast. Steven ended up getting the monster boat side and boy was he excited. There is no better feeling then seeing a customer catch a fish of a life time. Before we left the spot to head back to the marina I decided to go ahead and chum up the big Mangrove Snappers that had been swarming the boat. We caught 5 or 6 good size mangroves and went back to the Marina to clean fish and get ready for the next day. It was a day to remember for everyone!”
Steven Roda - Tom Rowland - Captain Brandon Simmons | Holding up one of the many Cobia that were caught.
Tom Rowland ~ Lifting one out of the water to get the hook and release the fish back into the water.