Harder than it looks
Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:35 am
Just getting started in this business (and into fishing in general). Its tougher than it looks.
I have been out 5 times (by the Soquel hole in Monterey, CA), and have caught 6 small ones (total) that I had to return. In this last trip I caught one 27 1/8 salmon and I was so happy! my first landing I thought (over here the minimum length is 27 inches). The problem is I cant tell when a fish bites. There is no shaking, no bells ringing, nothing. I get bloody hooks, one fish that was already half dead from how long it had been hooked, fishes with damage in the mouth, but I dont know until I get bored and pull the line in. Maybe its because they are all small. I cant tell. Same with this one.
Right after bringing it in into the boat, the boat started going in circles, so I threw the fish on ice and investigated. In retrospect I was lucky it happened then. My last two trips I have made too tight of a turn and have tangled my port and starboard lines snapping the steel lines, lost a weight and gear the one time and I thought I lost another weight the second, but it got wrapped around the other weight. It was difficult bringing them in. Needless to say now I have only two lines in good shape so when this happened I only had one line left on the water. I am thankful for small favors.
I thought I lost my freeman auto pilot, but I had lost rudder control instead. The rod controlling the rudder had snapped. Reaching down to the rusted piece left by the rudder worm gear I twisted it by hand to steer for about an hour until I got close enough to shore for the waves to calm down (I was 6 miles out). Pulled my poles in but was sideways to the waves and one of the poles crashed on the tree and broke the cross member. I then tried to fix the rudder by putting a piece of hose as coupler, but it was too soft, I barely had enought control to make it to the harbor and a side dock. I fixed it there some more, enough to have enough control to bring it in to the slip. Ah, made it! I thought, all this trouble is no matter since I will have my first landing.
I got the fish out of the box but it had kind of frozen in an S-shape and now was less than 27 inches. Argh! I tried to straighten it out.. not much luck. Ok, I had to gut it anyway, maybe that will straighten it out. I start gutting it on the slip and my neighboor looks in and says I should be more circumspect, I could get into trouble. I say why? (I thought he was talking about how small my fish was) He said he thought it was a silver. Huh? I said. He said, you know.. a coho? I have him blank look. He got closer and said, look here in the lower jaw you see this little bit of white? you can't keep that, you better take it home or you'll be in trouble.
Well, there we go. I have now a fish waiting to be barbecued, I have donwloaded some salmon identification charts (not very explicit, they show a whole white lower jaw, mine was white just at the hinge of the mouth) and I am shopping for 1" rod, couplers, trying to figure how I am going to reach the top of the mast, going broke, and writing on my log: still no fish landed.
I have been out 5 times (by the Soquel hole in Monterey, CA), and have caught 6 small ones (total) that I had to return. In this last trip I caught one 27 1/8 salmon and I was so happy! my first landing I thought (over here the minimum length is 27 inches). The problem is I cant tell when a fish bites. There is no shaking, no bells ringing, nothing. I get bloody hooks, one fish that was already half dead from how long it had been hooked, fishes with damage in the mouth, but I dont know until I get bored and pull the line in. Maybe its because they are all small. I cant tell. Same with this one.
Right after bringing it in into the boat, the boat started going in circles, so I threw the fish on ice and investigated. In retrospect I was lucky it happened then. My last two trips I have made too tight of a turn and have tangled my port and starboard lines snapping the steel lines, lost a weight and gear the one time and I thought I lost another weight the second, but it got wrapped around the other weight. It was difficult bringing them in. Needless to say now I have only two lines in good shape so when this happened I only had one line left on the water. I am thankful for small favors.
I thought I lost my freeman auto pilot, but I had lost rudder control instead. The rod controlling the rudder had snapped. Reaching down to the rusted piece left by the rudder worm gear I twisted it by hand to steer for about an hour until I got close enough to shore for the waves to calm down (I was 6 miles out). Pulled my poles in but was sideways to the waves and one of the poles crashed on the tree and broke the cross member. I then tried to fix the rudder by putting a piece of hose as coupler, but it was too soft, I barely had enought control to make it to the harbor and a side dock. I fixed it there some more, enough to have enough control to bring it in to the slip. Ah, made it! I thought, all this trouble is no matter since I will have my first landing.
I got the fish out of the box but it had kind of frozen in an S-shape and now was less than 27 inches. Argh! I tried to straighten it out.. not much luck. Ok, I had to gut it anyway, maybe that will straighten it out. I start gutting it on the slip and my neighboor looks in and says I should be more circumspect, I could get into trouble. I say why? (I thought he was talking about how small my fish was) He said he thought it was a silver. Huh? I said. He said, you know.. a coho? I have him blank look. He got closer and said, look here in the lower jaw you see this little bit of white? you can't keep that, you better take it home or you'll be in trouble.
Well, there we go. I have now a fish waiting to be barbecued, I have donwloaded some salmon identification charts (not very explicit, they show a whole white lower jaw, mine was white just at the hinge of the mouth) and I am shopping for 1" rod, couplers, trying to figure how I am going to reach the top of the mast, going broke, and writing on my log: still no fish landed.