[Ethan] First trip we go on, I promise you would have given
me the rod. -[Capt. Justin] Oh, yeah.
[Ethan] If you had hooked one, you gave it to me.
This time, like, Hey, man, you're on your own.
"There's the fish.
Present the bait the way you're supposed to.
Do what I taught you to do. And execute it," right?
That's where we're at on this trip.
Oh, yeah. It's a fair battle, all right?
It is competitive. And I'm out here to win.
[Ethan] This is a competition, OK?
You beat me last time tarpon fishing.
Today's my day.
Ethan is going one mission. Bait in water.
Catch, three fish.
I'll tell you what, you're talking about being on
a lucky streak. -Hey!
Yeah, look at that!
-Oh! -There it is.
Yeah, that's a good one.
[narrator] "Chasin' The Sun" is brought to you by Florida Watersports.
Get all you need for the water at FWS.fish.
Humminbird. Simply. Clearly. Better.
Minn Kota.
And by Pirates Cove Marina.
You enjoy the Gulf, we'll take care of the rest.
[soft music]
[Capt. Justin] Appreciate it.
It's summertime in Panama City Beach, and what that means
to me is it's tarpon time.
Well, we got you on them last season, and you weren't a pro
yet, but you got pro status now, so it's time to get some
redemption, put something on film,
and try to rewrite this story a little bit.
There you go. I like that.
[Ethan] The water's absolutely gorgeous, and I think
it's gonna be a tremendous day. -[Justin] It's getting me excited.
Let's get it done, doesn't get any better.
Let's quit talking about it.
Let's go do it.
You know, there's always those three factors I'm looking for
when I'm sight fishing.
It's water clarity, sunshine, and the light winds.
Today's one of those days where we have all three of them.
When we're in 12 feet of water, I can see every grain of
sand on the bottom. That's exactly what we want.
I know visibility is gonna be good, but when we first pull
out of the pass right here, and I can look down and see
those spotted eagle rays just as clear as day, when you see
that first animal in the water, that's when you first realize
how good the clarity is.
And they just swim up and down this beach.
I think they're like plankton feeders, and a lot of times
you'll see them on current edges, like right here at
the pass when you have the bay water flowing out,
and then you have this clean Gulf water where they meet.
Some reason that creates that perfect scenario
for them to feed, I guess.
We live in paradise here in Panama City Beach,
and every day on the water you get
to see something different.
We made it all the way to Regency Towers and Watercress,
and not even a half mile or a little, maybe a mile.
[Capt. Justin] Probably a hundred fish.
Oh, look, that boat's got one.
[Ethan] Oh, yeah, they got him at the boat.
[Capt. Justin] All right, let's join the party.
These tarpon are in a different place every day.
You don't know where a school's going to be at.
It's a feeling of relief because you go, all right,
we're in the game. We have the right bait.
Now we have a big school of tarpon.
I got something to work with here.
Your hospitality, the first tarpon trip I was
with you, was first class.
Hey, and I'm not hooking your bait on for you.
You get you get to pick your own bait.
You you can select one of those or go get you a fresh one.
Our true friendship came out on this trip was like,
"Hey buddy, you're on your own.
"I taught you what to do last time.
If you don't remember, that's your fault."
Come on, get your get your bait in there.
Don't wait for me.
I'm not gonna wait for you.
Hey, when you're fishing with friends,
it's a fair battle.
All right, it is competitive, and I'm out here to win.
Now, I don't feel like it's a fair fight if you don't
know the rules, and so that's why the first trip, I at least
teach you the rules to this game.
That's how you know I really love you, when I start giving
you hard time. -That's good, man.
School seems pretty big. I mean, running from here,
kind of 30, 40 yards back.
Yeah, I just really see a big nod of them right here.
[Ethan] The times that I fish with you, I've learned that every
group has its own mentality, their own MO.
I fought a tarpon last year.
I broke him off, caught hooked up with another one.
He chafed through the leader, fought him for a while.
It's all in the details, right?
And tarpon fishing, it's a very finicky thing.
[Capt. Justin] They feel our presence. Now, they won't leave.
They're not gonna turn around and go back where
they came from because you spooked them.
But what they will do, they'll start riding a little
lower in the water.
They'll give you those indicators that they
don't like what you're doing.
I mean, I'm on the edge here, and they go all the way to
there, and you're dead centered on them.
Like somebody's got to bite.
What is Ethan working with?
I don't know, man, I don't feel anything.
You know, it's kind of a weird feeling.
Big fish.
Come on.
Oh no! I can't slow him down.
[Ethan] These baits are just swimming right back at us.
-And where are the fish? -They're just right there.
It's right here, right?
You can go across me too.
You might have to go on the right side.
[Ethan] What's interesting about this trip that I've got to bring
forward to everybody in the audience is the first trip
we go on, I promise you would have given me the rod.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
If you had hooked one, you gave it to me.
This time like, hey man, you're on your own.
There's the fish.
Present the bait the way you're supposed to.
Do what I taught you to do and execute.
That's where we're at on this trip.
It almost looks like they're parting and going around
their nest.
[Ethan] Yeah, literally what just happened?
Yeah, there's your answer right there.
Yeah, I know.
Boy, that bird's just staring them down.
[Capt. Justin] When I saw the bird start working,
it was kind of an odd scene, but I realized what was
happening is, there's literally a giant school of cigar minnows
swimming with the school of tarpon.
I think that's why we were having a hard time getting
a bite, because half the time we were throwing,
we were actually casting our cigar minnow into another
school of cigar minnows, not the tarpon themselves.
So I was like, "You know what?"
We'll find another group.
So let's just keep moving because in my mind, I want
to find that perfect big group that's happy.
They're floating.
Not ideal.
Run way down the beach.
-Found another school of fish. -Another school of fish.
Two boats on it.
I just knew it was too good to be true.
I won't blame you for being on the boat, but you only have two
options at that point.
You either join the party and go fish a group of fish
with these other boats, or you go do something else.
I have a feeling we're gonna go catch a red snapper.
-They're in season. -Yeah.
Because we've run way down the beach looking for these
fish, we've gotten outside of my snapper fishing
expertise region.
So we are literally, I'm gonna look at this Coastmaster
chart that I have on my Apex unit.
There's a bunch of wrecks marked on here.
I hope they're there.
And I have no idea what's on them.
There's not many times that I get on the water with you that
we're not gonna fish something you hadn't fished before.
So this is a great opportunity for me and you to go see
something new, do something new, and see what it produces.
Something.
A fish!
-What is Ethan working with? -I don't know, man.
I don't feel anything. It's kind of weird to me.
It's got to be a scamp.
Something wrong with a scamp.
Pretty good call there.
-Pretty good call. -I'll take it.
First bait at my new spot.
I don't know if he'll measure, though.
So I'm not sure how we went from trophy fishing to catching
little eating fish.
But if you're gonna catch, you know, the first fish of the day
and it's gonna be really small,
it might as well be something really good.
To me, this is the best eating fish
in the Gulf of Mexico.
So we're gonna get him back in the water really quick so
he can head back down and measure next time.
That's right.
So competitive analysis here.
Ethan, one. Big zero over here.
Cooler full of scams, Ethan.
I'm not gonna be that upset about the tarpon deal.
I don't think I will be either, except for you also
don't have to go back and say, "Hey, I still haven't caught
a tarpon on TV." -But it makes it a little
better that at least you've caught them.
It does make it a little bit better.
In my competitive nature, though you caught
a scamp, I'm like, "All right, I get hooked up."
It might be the same thing, Ethan.
He ain't big, but we might have us a little load
of scamps right here.
It's not much of a fight, so I immediately go,
"Probably another scamp."
Could it be possible?
So I'm kind of excited, maybe even getting a little
arrogant as it's coming up to the surface.
If it is, I'm gonna pull that measuring tape out
and we're gonna start pinching these tails.
While you're bringing this up.
-What, you got a snapper? -Yeah.
I'm reeling in a beautiful, Red snapper at the same time.
Nice.
What have we got here? Oh, it's a white snapper.
It's funny, we don't see a whole lot of it.
It's actually a red porgy.
You're still really not on the scoreboard.
There's a lot of people that are going hungry
at your house right now.
I mean, I get a half a point for the porgy.
-Half a point for the porgy? -Can you fillet a porgy?
Beautiful fish, too.
Got some really cool iridescent colors on them.
The meat is just like, it's almost just clear.
It's so white.
They make good tacos.
You just need two or three per taco.
OK, gotcha.
But you've caught how many fishes?
All right, in all reality, Ethan's out doing early lures.
But, there's always a but.
Do we keep the first four legal ones and go?
Or do we just sit out here and play with them?
Oh, yours came off? Are you kidding me?
I'm not gonna lie, but maybe I felt a little good
when I saw that rod go...
I sure hope y'all saw that.
Ethan had a nice snapper on his rod and it came off.
And just so happens the knot came undone.
And it also just so happens that Ethan did just retie
it himself. That was not my doing.
[Ethan] I want to give you an opportunity
to kind of catch up. So what I did,
I was like, "Well, I gotta act like I'm
still fishing." -Oh!
So let's barely tie this hook on there.
Let it slip.
Give him a little leeway so he can kind of catch up
with your saltwater brim.
But we're going to get there one way or the other.
And even if I have to do it to help my friend's ego, I'm happy
to do it. -Yeah, thanks.
Ha, ha, ha.
We're hooked up over here, but he's not...
I think your fish could eat this one but...
Uh-oh. He's got a big one.
Hold him, hold him, hold him, hold him.
I might not hurt the chunk a few here.
Today was supposed to be about your first tarpon.
Our timing was off just by a little bit.
-Optionality, right? -Yeah.
Keeping our options open, as heartbreaking as it is,
you know as well as anybody, you and I love to get out there
and pull on some reef fish.
Big fish.
Come on.
Oh no, I can't slow him down! Oh, come on!
Get him up!
[Ethan] It's a great opportunity to be able to do that right now.
And it does happen to be red snapper season.
That's what a Panama City Beach red snapper looks like
right there. -[Ethan] Son.
[Capt. Justin] Ha, ha, ha.
-Come on, baby! -That's what I'm talking about!
You hooked up?
We were hooked up over here, but he's not.
I think your fish could eat this one, but...
If you'd have drove over to this spot right here and looked
at the sonar, you'd have said, "Justin, that don't
mark anything."
Why would y'all stop and fish there?
That's why we stopped and fished there.
-Look at this beautiful lane! -Oh, yeah, beautiful lane!
Look at that.
5,000 years ago.
If you paddled out here to this reef...
If I would have looked about like it does right now.
It's just hard limestone bottom.
You have big coral heads growing off of it.
Tons of life!
Look at here.
Of course mine's bigger, but for a lane snapper,
y'all, that's about as big as it gets right there.
We're supposed to be catching and releasing tarpon.
You know what?
We're gonna release these onto a grill.
We may have to go visit Chef Paul again.
That's right.
It seems like whenever I go fishing with Ethan,
it turns into a food fest. -[Ethan] That's it.
Man, he's working on me over there.
What have we got here? Could it be that quick?
Got the two reds? Yep, sure is.
Pretty nice one.
Not as big as the first one, but he's probably 19,
20 inches.
You just got to get off the same public wrecks
that everybody's been fishing.
And go hit some of those little smaller pieces of bottom,
and voila, like that. Got my two.
Uh oh. Hold him, hold him, hold him.
I don't think he's gonna be what you had, but I bet
you he's gonna be close.
All right, slide left a little bit if you can.
We'll try grabbing.
Y'all, this is -- we fish 30-pound test leaders,
and you don't wanna just grab that dude and flip him
in the boat. -Oh, he's barely hooked, too.
Come on, dude.
Y'all see what he's doing here.
He's doing everything he can not
to get that fish in the boat.
Hey, I tried to knock this thing off the hook,
but you know what? I just couldn't do it.
Man, he's...
What y'all think about that?
Paint the summer red.
It's paint the summer red snapper red.
-I like it. -OK.
There we go. Look at that box.
-Just like that. -That's a dude.
All right. Hey.
All right.
We do know how to kill some snappers now.
Ethan is going one mission.
Bait, in water, catch, free fish.
-Here, come grab this. -Here, this is up now.
Here, I'm gonna get this flat line too anyways.
I'm going, hey, make sure everything on the boat
is taken care of.
I need to prep some frozen baits that we can chunk.
I want to have a flat line out, which is basically a larger
bait that we're gonna put, cast out with no weight on it.
So it'll swim around on the surface.
You never know what could show up.
Dang!
Man, he ate it out the end.
Look at that.
All right.
That is a quick limit of red snapper, y'all.
Plus a lane and a white.
You want to go catch a tarpon now?
-Well, on our way. -Too bad we're not qualified.
You get a flat line out there, you get distracted trying
to get your bottom rod down there.
Out of the corner of my eye that you've got your back to,
that flat line I can watch it too, and it wasn't long after
you put that rod on her it was on.
-This is a competition. -OK.
You beat me last time tarpon fishing.
Today's my day.
I don't know, Justin.
It's either an ice king or a Wahoo, so...
-I'd be happy either way. -That's it, man.
Just that speed and the conditions
made me at least get that hope.
I'm like, that might be a Wahoo.
You know what I can tell you, it's not.
-What's that? -We got some color here, so.
It's not a bonito.
That's wild, I mean, to be able to see color there,
because it is a long way.
He's probably still 50 feet down.
Hey, Justin, come here. Come here.
-Come here. -Oh, he's snagged, too.
Here, lighten that drag up.
-Which way, left? -Yeah.
Just, oh, don't even pull back.
Let me back over to him. Hurry.
Chasing the Sun has been brought to you by...
Minn Kota.
Florida Watersports.
Get all you need for the water at FWS.fish.
Humminbird. Simply. Clearly. Better.
And by Pirates Cove Marina.
You enjoy the Gulf, we'll take care of the rest.
[Capt. Justin] The coolest new attraction has just opened up and we got
a sneak peek at Pirate's Voyage.
Amazing.
You've never seen a pirate like me, right?
I'd lash about five minutes out on the open sea, wouldn't I?
Well, anyway, we're going to invite all of you to Panama
City Beach and for our brand new Pirate's Voyage
dinner show.
And it's gonna be opening up for all the great folks that
live around here and for all the great folks
that come here on vacation.
It is a perfect place to bring the next pirate group.
And everybody here in Panama City Beach has been amazing.
They're so great people to work with and they've been
so helpful.
Glad to see all of you and thank you.
I'm just carrying this because it matches my boots.
And I couldn't zip my boots,
so I made them look like pirate boots.
Do I look like a pirate to anybody at all?
[Capt. Justin] You know, it's funny, Ethan, when we used to fish
a flatline, it was 99% for king mackerel.
And when it got bit, you knew it was
a king mackerel.
Now it seems like when you get a good bite on that flatline...
[Ethan] Could be anything.
It could be a king mackerel, and this probably is.
But it could be a blackfin tuna.
It could be a Wahoo.
So I'm thinking, all right, we got a Kingfish.
We catch these all the time.
We got a really, really nice king on.
-Hey, Justin. -Oh, it's a Wahoo.
-Come here, come here. -Oh, he's snagged, too.
Here, lighten that drag up.
-Which way, left? -Yeah.
Just don't even pull back. Let me back over to him.
Hurry.
When we first got that look at this Wahoo, you can see those
stripes just lit up on him.
Or a Wahoo, how about that?
Ethan's first Wahoo, baby!
Ethan had just said he'd never caught a Wahoo before.
Today was supposed to be about your first tarpon,
but being about your first Wahoo, that's just as good.
That's what I'm talking about.
I tell you what, you're talking about being
on a lucky streak.
Hey, y'all look at this hook job.
Right here in the side.
Wow.
-Just fell right out. -Give me some of that, man.
That's so funny.
All right, let's let this guy go now.
Yeah, right.
You know, we are conservationists.
I'm gonna show you where we're gonna let him
go, Justin. -Look at them stripes.
I can't believe he never came up and showed us.
-He just stayed down deep. -Man, unbelievable.
Look how pretty.
Seeing those beautiful stripes on that fish and knowing that
was a fish that I had never brought to a boat before,
and most people haven't.
So even though it's a fairly popular fish to target,
it's still a fairly rare fish.
It's not something that a lot of people have caught.
So it is cool to kind of check that one off the list.
That's awesome, dude. I'm pretty fired up about that.
Are you? Good.
Just because it's like, "Well, ain't he a giant?"
-No, I know. -But he counts.
You know what? He's gonna taste really good.
So regardless of that Wahoo being foul hooked or not,
the snapper slam has happened on this boat, and you know what
the score is. -Yeah, I'm behind.
The Wahoo is game-changer for me, man.
-Yeah! -First one ever.
[Capt. Justin] There's not too often somebody that lives here, I get to put
on a first or something.
But just in the past week, we didn't catch this part
on film, but Ethan did catch his first tarpon with me.
[Ethan] I can check that box, but in the future, we've got
to catch one with this elephant in the room called a camera.
That's videoing what we're doing right now.
And get us a tarpon to the side of the boat.
That's a goal for me.