Well, hey everybody—this Flashback Friday takes us back offshore in the Florida Keys on one of those days where there’s nobody out there but us… so it’s either a really good day or we’re insane. I’m Elizabeth at the helm, Captain Dan’s running a simple trolling spread (feathers, plugs, a little assortment of lures), and we’re doing the classic plan: find the bait, troll the right water, and mark anything that looks promising. Truth talk, I wanted tuna for lunch this week—didn’t have to be huge, just a nice tuna. We started with plenty of weed and even a “beautiful weedfish” (and the tiniest little jack hiding in the salad). Later we dropped a big 500g jig down in about 650 feet just to see what lives in the abyss, then got into some mahi action—small schoolies with a couple nicer fish mixed in. But the real story of the day was late afternoon: birds everywhere, bait popping, and the bite turning on around 5:50. We boxed bonita for chunk bait, and then finally stuck a solid blackfin tuna. Big takeaway: offshore is teamwork and patience—when the birds show up and start diving, you pay attention, because that’s fish time.