When my wife, DeeDee, and I set out to buy our first “big” boat, the biggest boat I had ever captained was 21 feet. Our goal was to find an affordable boat large enough to spend a few nights on. I wanted to fish from this boat, and I knew overnight trips including my wife [...]
The Cobia Are Coming
The cobia are on the move in their annual westward migration. Throughout late March and the month of April, boats cruise the beaches of Alabama and the Florida panhandle looking for the large brownish backs of cobia moving west along the surface. For this type of sight fishing, it’s best to have a bright sunshiny [...]
Cruising the Islands of the Bahamas
One of the neatest parts of boating is the freedom to go anywhere you want—provided you have deep enough water. The feeling of standing behind the wheel, master of your destiny, is sure to chase away the challenges of day-to-day life. One past summer, our boat, Vixen, was already positioned in Tampa for its annual [...]
Finding Heaven in Green Canyon
To me, each offshore bluewater trip is special in its own way. But perhaps my favorite was one we made on Vixen to Green Canyon with my daughter Brittany. Green Canyon is an area 120 miles off the mouth of the Mississippi River where the water is some 3-7000 feet deep. On the way out [...]
World Record Breaking Girls
If you look in the most recent IGFA World Record Book, you will find that my daughter, Brittany Wilem, holds the world record for female small fry king mackerel. I know this because every year she checks as soon as the book arrives in the mail. She then turns the pages to check on her [...]
What’s Snow Got To Do With It?
Well, I hope you had a great Christmas and are now embarking on a new year that will bring everything you hope for. I enjoyed a quiet one, just spending time with my family. It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit wearing shorts and flip-flops in 70-plus-degree temperatures. The cold snaps we had did help, but I must [...]
Letters from Skippy
[NOTE: After my daughter left for college, she was homesick. Since we frequently talked and texted, it didn’t seem to make much sense to write letters like back in the Stone Age when I was in school. But then it occurred to me that she might get a kick out a getting letters from her [...]
The Dreaded Barbie Video
After having two boys in her previous marriage, my wife hoped for a girl when she became pregnant for the third time. As this would be my only, I was happy to have whatever, though I thought that a boy to carry on the family name might be nice. It was my business partner, Robert, [...]
Spider Wars
I’ve never been a big fan of spiders. Some people loathe snakes; others are afraid of birds or various other animals. But my nemesis was always spiders. I recall walking through the woods as a young boy and seeing a web the size of one of those nets the NFL uses to catch field goal [...]
Adventures in Moving
During my early college years, I could move everything I owned in a vitamin-C orange (that was Plymouth’s name for the high-impact color) 1970 Barracuda, whose trunk was only 50% larger than the glove box. But as I acquired more “stuff” and then got married, I graduated to renting U-Haul trailers to make such moves. [...]
