Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2019

33 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.BestOfMP.com | www.ReadMPM.com feature T he burn of sunscreen sweating down into my eyes battles with the burn in my left forearm for the moment’s top pain. The captain yells down from his deck, “Don’t make me tell everyone that the writer lost the best fish of the day!” The mates and crew chuckle. I’ve been fighting, in the most literal sense, with a monster mahi-mahi for at least the last 25 minutes. “This fish certainly does not want to die,” I spit through a wide grin as the animal sees the boat and dives another 15 meters. By this point, I’m forced to take incremental breaks by holding the rod in my right hand for a few moments while the cramps in my left arm clear. We are 60 miles from the closest land — Charleston Harbor — and surrounded by shades of blue water and sky. There is a certain energy on the boat that I can liken to when Williams Brice Stadium played “Sandstorm” prior to the Gamecocks SEC home opener. The fight with my mahi-mahi is exhausting and inspiring. The apprehension of losing such a fish is outweighed by a primal instinct to bring it on board. Which, in the end, I do. Stuart Lackey is the captain of the 54-foot Jarret Bay fishing vessel named The Renegade. The craft itself is a spectacle. When someone aboard posed the hypothetical question, “If this boat was yours and you could change anything about it,” the consensus was to change nothing. Above: Mount Pleasant Magazine’s Cullen Murray-Kemp. Right: Stratton Lackey reeling in a colorful catch. Photo by Thomas Runion. Photo by Thomas Runion.