Fishin Fools

We left for fishing Sunday afternoon and arrived Seaforth, San Diego about 7 PM. Got on the boat about 9 and were underway about 10PM. The seas were exceptionally rough that night from an 18 knot wind. It was so bad Paulette almost got motion sickness from me telling her about it. A couple time I was awakened by being thrown around the small berth. The next day the chop laid down and we had great weather thereafter. But I made a terrible fishing mistake. I didn't get new line on three of my reels. I hooked up to enough big fish, but then experienced the dismay of a breaking line: Penny wise and pound foolish. For the whole trip I landed only one fish, about a 30# Yellowtail. I lost more like five. It was heartbreaking.

The highlight of the trip was when one angler hooked into a marlin! Marlin are almost unheard of this far north and I suspect the charter boat had never had anyone hook one before. That fish was prob six feet plus long from bill to tail, and did some fabulous tailwalks across the swells for the first few minutes. These are not a merely the fish jumping out of the water and going back down. The fish literally stands vertical on its tail and seems to walk across the waves for what seemed like five to ten seconds at a time. When I got my camera the fish dove deep and was never to be seen again. The fisherman had the estimated 150 lb marlin on only 30 lb test line, so it was doubtful from the beginning whether he would ever get it in. Marlin are usually fought with huge equipment and a special seat called a "fighting chair." His rod looks very small for such a huge fast fish. Sure enough, after about a half hour the fish broke the line and a collective groan went up from everyone on the boat (We all pulled in our lines so as not to get in his way while he fought the awesome fish). I had never seen a marlin in person, much less one doing their famous tail walk across the ocean surface. That was an awesome first hand experience to put in memory. These first two pictures are of our angler standing in the bow with a pole that looks like it is about to break. The guy in the yellow hat is my friend Mike, who invited me to go fishing with him.


I couldn't find video but finally located this pix on the web as a demo of what we saw for a few minutes. The fish in the pix seems to be about the same size as the one the guy hooked on the boat. Still photos don't do the wave dance justice.


I had a fabulous time, came home this morning totally wiped out. Tonight is a study night and I need to get up around 4AM Wednesday before teaching, then will head home about 8 AM, finish loading, and drive 400 miles to Sacramento, overnight, and then another 350 miles Thursday. I'm thinking I overextended. I forgot my ambitious life is trapped in a 60 year old body.