Why do we spend so much money on gear
Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2011 7:33 am
One evening I am trolling off of Whale Bay, the ocean is nice and there is going to be a nice sunset. So I am running gear after dinner there is a small clatter of coho on the gear and of coarse a handful of smilies, which were really frownies cause we were shaking them and of coarse they were nice fish. So I was fishing a 36crlp hootchie and a nice king came up in the middle of the gear and by the time I shook the fish the hootchie was gone and only a bare hook remained. Now it was getting on into the evening and being the last line, there was a nice pile of coho on deck that needed to be dealt with so I reset that line bare hook and all. I cleaned my coho and got them down below by the time all this was done i had made the corner off of Lauder and boats were headed into Still Harbor, so I started stacking the gear. There were some Coho on the gear along with some nice Kings as the evening bite of frownies was starting, so along came that bare hook and wouldn't you know it there hung a 25 pound King. I was a bit dumb struck as looked at that fish hanging on a bare hook, this was before the dog fishery and the idea of catching a salmon on a bare hook was completely foriegn to me. I pulled the rest of the gear and cleaned the deck up as I chugged for Still Harbor, watching the sunset over my sholder. Now I didn't know many of the guys in the Sitka fleet then and didn't have a radio parnter to tell my story to, so I poured a drink once the anchor was down and contemplated that fish on the bare hook. One of my weaknesses in life is I am a bit of a hootchie junkie there is no way I can walk into a gear store and not walk out with some hootchies even if they are some off the wall color that will probably never hit the water. So as I had my drink I thought about how stupid it is that under my bunk there is a small fortune in hootchies and in my gear cabinet there is just as much value in spoons and flashers and yet I can catch a fish on a bare hook, my head spun.
A long time ago when I had the little Antares I had bought a pack of odd ball hootchies from I beleave it was Wells Fishing Supply out by the NSRAA office (I may be wrong on the name but most of us know where I am talking about) so I threw the pack of hootchies in my storage bin and forgot about it. A couple years ago I was winter fishing off of one of my favorite winter drags in Clarence Strait ( and yes Eric that is as specific as I will get) so there wasn't much happening yet I thought there were some fish around. So I started digging through my bins of hootchies and I came up with this old pack of hootchies and though I might as well give it a try I wasn't catching anyway and had nothing to lose, so I tied one up putting a north pacific 100 inside and went out and threw it on a line, the line no sooner got out on the pole and it was jerking with a fish on it sure enough it was on that hootchie. So I went inside and tied up another one and put it on a main, and same thing another nice fish, so of coarse the whole pack was tied up and placed on the gear, well I wound up with 15 kings that day and made $1500, so you just never know what is going to catch fish and that is why I keep feeding that hootchie addiction.
A long time ago when I had the little Antares I had bought a pack of odd ball hootchies from I beleave it was Wells Fishing Supply out by the NSRAA office (I may be wrong on the name but most of us know where I am talking about) so I threw the pack of hootchies in my storage bin and forgot about it. A couple years ago I was winter fishing off of one of my favorite winter drags in Clarence Strait ( and yes Eric that is as specific as I will get) so there wasn't much happening yet I thought there were some fish around. So I started digging through my bins of hootchies and I came up with this old pack of hootchies and though I might as well give it a try I wasn't catching anyway and had nothing to lose, so I tied one up putting a north pacific 100 inside and went out and threw it on a line, the line no sooner got out on the pole and it was jerking with a fish on it sure enough it was on that hootchie. So I went inside and tied up another one and put it on a main, and same thing another nice fish, so of coarse the whole pack was tied up and placed on the gear, well I wound up with 15 kings that day and made $1500, so you just never know what is going to catch fish and that is why I keep feeding that hootchie addiction.