How Did Our Boat Get It's Name?

Many years ago when our daughters were young, my wife and I spent every possible free day out in the Gulf with our daughters fishing offshore, especially with the Fort Myers Beach Tarpon Hunters Club chasing poonies all summer long. My family loved to be there enough to endure my insistence on a 5:30 am departure. My wife Liz would always sleep until we had finished catching bait, finding the fish, and hooking up. She then, at the sound of a screaming drag, manage to awake, and beat any of us to the rod with the fish on it!

The morning ritual of bait catching was a was something Jennifer and Wendy enjoyed. Back then, there were no commercial"sabiki" rigs. These are special bait catching rigs with several hooks, beads, and different types of feather or mylar strips for attraction. We used two rigs I made. One was four jigs on dropper loops for blue runners, mackerel, and what ever else we could get to bite it. The other was six gold hooks on dropper loops and a large jig on the bottom. Jenny's favorite job was running the boat. From the moment she could see over the dash standing on the seat, it was her job while Wendy and I caught the bait. Not many eight year olds can manage a twin engine offshore boat but she did, and did it well. She is a natural boatman, and fun to have aboard as this is my only chance to relax and just ride! I guess the apple does not fall far from the tree as her son, Dylan now age four, loves to run the Magic Hook, almost as much as he loves using the gold hook rig.

Wendy's loved using the gold hook rig. Catching a half dozen fish at a time, and the constant action, and not needing to tip the hooks with bait made her day. In fact she bait fished all day long never tiring of it. As long as it wiggled and bent that little bait rod she was very happy and entertained. Other than a stop at the beach on our way home, this was our kids idea of a great day on the water. Forget the tarpon, sharks, or what ever else, they loved the boat driving and bait fishing. This of course was great for us and our fishing as we always had a livewell full of very frisky baits! (All that time spent with the little hooks was well spent. She is now the best light tackle jig fishermen I have ever seen (Much better that her father for sure). Wendy was always perplexed at the thought of catching fish without a bait on her hooks. Liz expanded the mystery by showing us all how to catch the impossible spadefish on nearly every cast with just a gold hook. Wendy always had the same question for Liz during our weekend adventures. "Lizzy, why do the fish bite my hooks without any bait on them"? Liz issued the same answer, every trip for several years. "Those are Magic Hooks". Weny always just accepted the answer as fact. A few years later we had just purchased a boat and were trying to pick a new name for it. Several names were being bantered around over dinner when Wendy, now all grown up and married settled the issue quickly. "Dad, the boat's name is Magic Hook"! Of course it is. A credit to all the great times we had and still have, on the Gulf together.

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