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• Where to Fish
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I’m alternating between cranking, cursing, and praying as the fish turns and peels off a football field’s length of my preciously gained line, then seems to have shaken the hook when the line goes slack. But he’s still there. He’s swimming toward the surface, and in a few minutes I see the electric gray of his flank. Nick and Zeher are ready with gaffs, and the 125-pound sword is eventually in the boat, thumping and thrashing. There is a lot of emotional yelling from everyone on board.

I’ve done it. But I realize something else.

Among all the backslaps and grins and handshakes, I know that these men and all the other guides on this trip are happy not just for my accomplishment but for their contribution to it. Like me, fishing makes them feel good about life. Besides, my 50-species one-week midlife slam became a personal challenge for them; a test of their fishing knowledge and prowess. Helping me attain that goal was a way of proving their ability.

“You did it!” says Nick.

“We sure did,” I say.

Day 7: A Bone to Pick

My last day here is with Capt. Vic Gaspeny, a bonefish and tarpon fishing legend on these waters. My 16-year-old son, Joe, is with me, and he wants to catch his first bone. I’ve never caught one either, but after the largesse of the week and hitting my goal of 50, I’m content to watch.

Gaspeny anchors on a flat within shouting distance of U.S. 1 and casts out lightly weighted shrimp from four rods. One of them twitches less than 10 minutes later, and Joe is soon running miniature laps around the boat, trying to keep a straight line angle to the bone. Gaspeny eventually nets the 4-pounder.

Joe repeats the exercise a few minutes later, and again soon after that. He’s caught 11 pounds of bonefish in about an hour, and when a rod twitches for the fourth time, I grab it. Joe and Gaspeny laugh. “Change your mind, Dad?” asks Joe.

“One for good luck,” I say. The bone tears off, the spool spins, and I think, I never caught a tarpon. Could I catch 60 tarpon in a week?