Episode One

Renowned angler Meredith McCord teams up with Capt. Justin Leake to co-host the eighth season of “Chasin’ The Sun.” In the premiere episode, the duo begins to second guess their angling skills when tarpon refuse to cooperate.

The Gulf of Mexico has been crystal-clear and glassy-calm lately, perfect conditions to sight fish for the elusive “silver king.” Huge schools of tarpon are making their annual migration westward, just a few hundred yards off the sandy beach, so they’re easy to spot. Within minutes, both Justin and Meredith get hookups but their battles end quickly. Tarpon are difficult to hook and even harder to land.

Capt. Leake admits that those early strikes caused some overconfidence. “We made a couple of big mistakes,” he says. “First, I talked about how good the fishing has been and then we started thinking about how easy it was going to be.”

Frustration mounts as eight fish are hooked...and eight fish are lost. But Meredith knows just one fish can change an entire day. “The thing I love about fishing is that every cast is a new opportunity,” she says.  “You must have optimism to be a successful angler.”

Ultimately, optimism and a heavy dose of patience are rewarded with spectacular acrobatics and boat side encounters – a truly epic day on the water!