I was wade fishing off the bay side of Ft. Pickens, doing fairly well. The speckled sea trout were hitting on live shrimp. It was a very sunny day with very few clouds in sight. I heard the wind pick up from behind me, and a few large clouds appear rather quickly. I'm very familiar with how fast a spring squall can suddenly hit, so I decided to fish my way towards the car. All of the sudden I heard a low rumble noice and as I turned around, I saw a tornado coming across the island towards me! Since I was chest deep in the water, there was nothing I could do but watch. As soon as the tornado came over the water, the spout formed. I was about 100 feet from it and watched as it passed and continued across the bay. Just as it started to hit land, the spout pulled up and disappeared. What a scarey but wonderful thing to witness!

Last summer fishing the flats near Ft. Pickens, I decided to head towards the old pier behind the rangers station. There is a 30 foot hole where the Coast Guard cutters use to dock. If you watch the movie Jaws II, you will see this exact spot. I had caught one legal red and a few specs earlier. I took off the popping cork and put a small weight about 10 inches above my hook. The live bait shrimp were small so I put two on my hook. I felt a small peck on my line and when I started to reel in, a 18 inch flounder was on. When I landed the fish I noticed he had swallowed the hook. A flounder has very sharp teeth that remind me of a wolf. I didn't have my pliers, so I tried to bite the line so the flounder wouldn't be hurt. As I was biting the line, the flounder flopped and bit me in the side of my cheek. Everyone laughs when I tell this story, and I can certainly see why!

In the early spring of last year, the blue fish were hitting in the fast moving tide in the bay. I was fishing on the bottom with a 1oz. trolling weight with live shrimp. I had caught two nice blues and put them on my stringer. Blue fish don't live long after being caught. They were following me as I walked in the surf on the stringer when two large objects came out of no where and charged directly at me. They were two 3-4 foot black tip reef sharks. I waived my dip net under the water which scared them off. They made two more runs at me before I started to walk on water to escape. At the time I didn't realize that the sharks were trying to get the blue fish I had on the stringer. Nevertheless, they ended my fishing that day!