In anticipation of the upcoming weekend, I went out to catch a bunch of pilchards, the staple offering when targeting Florida’s estuarine habitats. I know artificial “gurus” claim live bait is for kids, but ever since I was brutally snagged by a topwater plug equipped with three razor-sharp trebles, I squirm at the thought of handling any form of fake and don’t even allow them on my boat.

Every sports legend has one. A moment in which he or she rises above all expectations, breaks through the shackles of mortality and becomes a sports hero. It’s this very moment that a legend is born. I was born on November 18, 1974, and as a strange looking baby my arrival had little public fanfare. On July 18, 2003, I was reborn as a fishing legend!

In anticipation of my 40th birthday, I decided to do something special - book myself a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Florida to catch a trophy tarpon. My wife chose the same day to inform me that we would instead be celebrating the birth of our fourth son on or around my birthday. I told her that "gift" was not particularly original and with three sons already, hardly a once-in-a-lifetime event. She told me to “stuff it,” so I set my sights on the following year and dutifully booked us for some birthing classes instead.

There’s nothing like hooking and landing a monster fish, and I have had my share of great catches over the years both with and without a television camera peering over my shoulder. Now, everyone has heard about goliath grouper. Their shear size, relentless power, and most of all their tenacity, place these beasts in a league all their own. This is why I jumped at the opportunity when a young guide called me and said, “Henry, do you want to do a big-fish show, a really, really big-fish show?”

A number of years ago, my buddy John and I decided to take a trip to the pristine Everglades. Billy, a friend of John’s, operates a rustic fish camp that I was told was quaint, remote and just “perfect.” It was located in a little town called Everglades City. Maybe you have heard of it. It’s like a spot in the desert. Even if you’ve seen it before, an unmarked route makes for challenging navigation. Thank goodness John was familiar with the backcountry or we would probably still be driving around the wetlands.

Since sport fishing’s primitive days, Bimini has been considered a premier angling destination and served as a home-away-from-home for many generations of loyal guests including: famous movie stars, politicians, world leaders, artists, novelists, sports figures and musicians. Bimini is still recognized as the Big Game Fishing Capital of the World and lies a mere 42-nautical miles from Miami.