The fishing was slow, the redfish dour and uninterested, the result, most likely, of a cold front that the Tampa-Sarasota area just could not shake.
The company, however, was stellar. I was with Captain Greg Peterson, the excellent tarpon and redfish guide, and Rusty Chinnis, the indefatigable warrior of these waters in his capacity as the chairman of Suncoast Waterkeeper. We talked as we tossed flies at the few redfish we spotted on the white sand and seagrass flats, watching in bemusement as yet another one turned away from our offering with snobby insouciance.
The redfish might not have been hungry. But we were.
Luckily, Chinnis had stopped by Harry’s Continental Kitchen on Longboat Key that morning and picked up supplies.
On the way back to the launch after our half-day on the water (I had to get on the road), Peterson cut the engine and we floated as Chinnis laid out our feast. We started with cups of beautifully sweet corn salad and then moved on, with gusto, to the sandwiches—roast turkey with cranberry sauce on a croissant, roast sirloin on French bread doused with hollandaise, and my favorite, the Longboat Key, a ham-salami-provolone masterpiece spritzed with just the right amount of vinaigrette.
As we ate, the warm sun emerged from the bank of fog—of course, just as we were leaving—and a squabble of gulls eyed us greedily. And then, just as were administering last rites to our sandwiches, Chinnis produced the coup de grâce. Harry’s is famous for its brownies—for good reason, they’re among the best I’ve tasted—but it was the bourbon cake that stayed with me. It was perfectly soaked in bourbon, not too gooey, with a line of lime-green pistachio cream striped through the middle. I am not usually a dessert person, but I was that day, hoarding one of the slices of the cake to myself.
I felt as full as Henry VIII as Peterson cranked up the motor and idled us to the launch. Fishing trips are not always about the catching, though that end does give purpose to the journey. Our trip had been as enjoyable as any I could remember, with great company and the best boat lunch I’ve ever had.
