A major league moment in the Florida Keys

Posted to: Outdoors Sports

Wanda Lewis of North Carolina shows off a permit she caught in the Florida Keys. (Courtesy photo)

Get hooked
Off the Hook is a Sunday outdoors feature highlighting the tales (fact, not fiction) of anglers from Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina. If you have a story to tell, send pictures and ideas to Pilot outdoors writer Lee Tolliver at lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com, or call him at (757) 222-5844. Be sure not to miss Lee’s Fishing Forecast each Thursday at HamptonRoads.com/outdoors, and in The Pilot.

By Lee Tolliver
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 5, 2009

Wanda Lewis has enjoyed some pretty impressive fishing trips to the Florida Keys.

In a little more than a decade, the Poplar Branch, N.C., resident has caught and released more than 200 tarpon on her journeys south.

"She's pretty good," said Capt. Pat Bracher, a Keys guide born and raised in Virginia Beach. "She does great."

On her most recent trip, taken two weeks ago, Lewis made the skipper proud - registering two grand slams in one day.

A Keys grand slam consists of catching a tarpon, bonefish and permit in the same day.

It is said to be one of angling's most difficult accomplishments.

But Bracher makes it look almost easy. His clients have caught 485 slams in 14 seasons.

Even so, it's been pretty rare for one angler to catch two of them in one day.

So it's no surprise that Lewis is calling this her best Keys fishing trip.

"I had 31 tarpon in three days one time," said Lewis, a 52-year-old Outer Banks bait saleswoman. "And I even had two grand slams during my 2004 trip.

"But never anything like two in one day."

Lewis said that an added bonus to this outing was that of the 21 tarpon she caught, most of them were big fish, ranging from 110 to 140 pounds.

"Lots of fun on a TLD 15" reel, she said. "Lots of big fish this time. I didn't catch many bonefish or permit, just two of each.

"But that's all I needed to get the slams."

While Lewis has accomplished quite a bit during her fishing trips to the Keys, she gives all the credit to Bracher, a First Colonial High School and Old Dominion graduate who has been a Keys guide for 22 years.

Bracher's brother, Arch, runs the Pelican charter boat out of Oregon Inlet Fishing Center on the Outer Banks.

"I usually go to the Keys in July," Lewis said. "I hadn't been in a few years because of some surgery I had. But Pat told me that, if I could, work it out to come down in June this time. He told me that the fishing had been fantastic.

"Well... I saw more tarpon this year than I ever did in any July. Pat is one fishing man, and he really knows what he's doing."

With two grand slams in one day, Lewis evidently does too.

Lee Tolliver, (757) 222-5844, lee.tolliver@pilotonline.com

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