One Thing You Should Never Forget

Odd to have a photo of a mini-flashlight on your blog

right? Maybe so.

This is probably the one thing you do not want to leave behind when fishing the late afternoon/evening tides. Left mine behind yesterday in a separate bag. Big, big mistake.

I'm loading up, need a little extra light to make sure I've got everything secured and in order. I turn on my headlights for a few minutes. Then I'm ready to go and, what do you know, I've got a dead battery sitting on the side of the road near Fort Desoto in the pitch dark.

I call AAA and this is where it really gets interesting. AAA uses addresses and landmarks to send out its trucks. At Fort Desoto, it's mangroves and stars. That's it.

For a good 10, 15 minutes, I had to explain that there was no address or landmarks. After some convincing, I go the AAA rep to use Google earth. She now knows the difference between Sawyer Key and Listen Key --- and launches for each.

I'm going back this afternoon. The wind is supposed to subside, which means the bugs will be ferocious --- they weren't Tuesday, thankfully --- and I'll have my flashlight. I'll even keep an extra in the glove box, because if you think you have enough juice to keep your lights on, you probably don't.