There’s nothing like being out on the water on a boat. I’ve been lucky in my life. I was introduced to boating when my dad got this hot, little red speed boat. I was just in grade school. As my age increased, so did my love for fishing…and I have seen and experienced some pretty amazing things out there.

I have spotted a giant sunfish lounging on the ocean’s surface and an enormous shark headed right toward our gear from high atop my flybridge perch. I have gotten into a school of goggle eye tuna on the Outer Banks and been delighted and amazed by the iridescence of what seemed like hundreds of squid, while en route to The Canyons in search of tuna. I have been overjoyed to have ridden in a 13-foot Carolina Skiff when an entire pod of porpoises decided to put on a show just feet away. I will even admit to having yelped in horror when I mistook the head of a humongous sea turtle for the illusive Nessie (Although I’m not sure how I thought the Loch Ness Monster made it off the coast of Cape May.).

Then I moved to Florida, which is the absolute best place for fishing in my book. The weather is amazing, so you can fish all year; you’re closer to the big water and big fish than you are in other places (like New Jersey, where I am originally from); and here, in New Smyrna Beach, there are so many choices for types of fishing. We are virtually surrounded by beautiful bodies of water. We have the ocean if we want to go sportfishing; inshore fishing for bonefishing or along the mangroves for tarpon; and the rivers if you are hunting for that trophy bass.