Beach Fishing With Paul Sperco Palm Beach/Martin County Area

I always enjoy posting the surf reports and talking about the great diversity of species, tackle, techniques ,baits, and locations to fish along our beautiful beaches. On this post I want to touch on a topic that I always bring up at my seminars and like to include in the handouts that I provide for the attendees. I think it is safe to say that one of the main reasons that people visit, vacation, and relocate to our area is the weather. Warm temperatures and abundant sunshine allows us to pursue outdoor activities on a year round basis. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. The bright, beautiful sunshine factor is the common denominator that makes our area paradise but it can also cause skin cancer and whether you are just visiting for the weekend or have lived here for your entire life you should take preventive measures like wearing sunglasses, UPF rated clothing, hats , sunbuffs, and most importantly using sunscreen. Regularly scheduled visits to the Dermatologist for a skin check only takes 15 minutes and can keep you informed about any sun damage. I want to share my personal experience from the last two weeks to let all of you know how important it is. I did my annual skin check two weeks ago at my Doctors office and he discovered a malignant melanoma growth on a unexposed area of my thigh. All of the exposed areas, face, arms , legs, and neck had no issues. It was explained to me that my growth probably began years ago when I was a kid and turned into this situation very recently. All of us "older" folks really didn't have the products and clothing that help prevent these issues now and technology that we use on our kids and grandkids today has certainly cut down on this problem. I spent six hours in the hospital yesterday where the two surgeons removed the growth and took a lymph node out to analyze to make sure it has not spread. As with any problem like this, early detection is the key and I am certainly expecting a clean bill of health when the biopsy comes back. I don't know anyone that I have spoken to that has not had or known someone that has not had some type of procedure done to take care of a skin cancer issue. If I had not gone for my annual check up I never would have known. I will tell you my annual check up will become a semi annual starting now. I will be on the sideline for a short time so if anyone has some surf reports, good or bad , please feel free to send them to me and I will be happy to get your current info up. This is the hottest and strongest sun time of the year so put that sunscreen on and wear those protective clothes to take advantage of our great summertime surf action. Good luck and catch em up