Finally.

It was amazing. I hooked it up, and fought it for about 20 minutes. The idea is to tire the fish out without snapping the line, and eventually you're able to pull it into the boat.

It was strong. You also can't have any slack on the line, so you reel down, and pull. Reel down and pull. Then you let it run and jump, and you get all excited because it's a beautiful fish and it's all yours. Everyone on the boat is excited and yelling commands and advice and admiring your fish, too. Reel down and pull. Now your wrist hurts and half of your back aches and you wish the stupid fish would get tired all ready so you can let go of the damn pole. And the tarpon finally lets E grab him and lift him into the boat.

And your first tarpon is about 30 pounds and you look into his mouth and are amazed. It's indescribable. So you run a finger along his scales and take pictures with him and then put him back in the water. The fish is not only fine, but now he's got a great story to tell all his tarpon buddies.

High fives and hugs all around.

This picture is best one I could find that looks the closest to the one I caught. Cool, huh?

Poor Neal wanted to hook one so badly, but didn't have any luck. Don't get me wrong, he caught fish. He must have pulled in 7 or 8 jacks, which are cute, but nothing great. I did take a hilarious picture of Neal and E holding a little jack and smiling proudly, like it was the catch of the day.

E said later that it's unusual for anglers to reel in the first tarpon they hook up. They're tricky little buggers. But you know what? Once I had it hooked, it never occurred to me that it could get away. Losing that fish was not an option. I was telling this to Neal and realized I sounded like a shitty country song. If That Fish Had Broken My Line, He Would Have Also Broken My Heart.

We saw another manatee. I know they're big fat fatties, but this sucker was HUGE. Far bigger than the boat. It looked like Dumbo was swimming along next to us.

E also let me drive the boat home, which was really fun. I have to get me one of those suckers. Captain Jamie. Yeah.

He relinquished the wheel and I motored us home. I tried to hit Neal in the face with a wave, but the water was too calm. E was shouting directions at me for most of the trip, until the very end, where he tells me to aim for a certain spot on a beach in the distance. I point us that way, and we're buzzing along, when I realize we're getting awfully close to that beach in the distance. I'm wondering what to do next when E leans in and shouts, "OK, Jamie. You have 2 choices. You can either SLOW DOWN, or run us up onto the beach."

He wanted me to cut the gas. I knew that. Heh.

We finished up that kickass morning with a yummy brunch. I can't wait to see the pictures.

I know some of you like the fishing stories, but I want to warn those of you who find me smelly and boring when I talk about this stuff - I have a tournament coming up Thursday, so this will be like Jamie's Week of Fishing Adventures. TNN, here I come.

I get free pizza for lunch today! I love Pizza Mondays.

Sitting around the station - Me, my boss, and a DJ. Boss is looking at the paper, and I'm waiting for a source to answer her phone, half-listening to them talk about the headlines.

Boss: "Check this out. The porn industry has a list of things they will not show, so the feds won't shut them down."

DJ: "Yeah? What"

Boss lists several porn scenes, while the DJ laughs. I notice that male-on-male penetration is UNacceptable, while girl-on-girl action isn't mentioned.

Me: "How come man-on-man is taboo, but the don't say anything about female-on-female penetra-- Hello? Hi, this is Jamie, a Keys radio news director..."

Yep. The woman picked up the phone while I was in the middle of THAT sentence. I didn't think Boss and DJ would ever stop laughing.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Find out what was Friday night's Valentine's surprise from Neal! You'll laugh! You'll cr-- Well, you won't cry. But you'll laugh.