I was blessed with another chance to go fishing from a boat and once again in salt water. A good friend invited us to join his new family boat for an outing.
It was a beautiful day and the last day to catch sockeye salmon before the season closed. Both our entire families were on board.
Here is my daughter with my buddy?s son. They are about the same age.
We drove all around the bay before we settled down to fish. My buddy doesn?t fish and he knew as much about fishing as I did about molecular biology.
(My little girl was proud to field test my homemade leash. Yes sir, she was jigging with a baitcast reel and an 8?6 Lamiglas Heavy action rod.
Here is another shot of my little girl using her friend?s rig.
Because I don?t have a boat, I didn?t have trolling gear to do what everyone else was doing in the bay. So my plan was to use universal lures, like jigs and spoons so that we?d have a chance to catch something and anything. I set him up with my 8?6 Okuma Celilo Steelhead rod and 301A Cardiff. I handed it to him because he was right handed and knew he?d feel more comfortable. This meant that I would have to fish opposite handed since my other reel was a RH Abu G. I?ve learned to fish the opposite way (i.e., with the right hand doing the cranking) bass fishing, but bass lures are light compared to heavier salt-water lures. I was hoping I wouldn?t be coming home with a blasted left bicep that would lead to the application of ben gay later.
I tied on a heavy jig, gave him a few tips on how to ?work? it, pitched it out, and handed him the rod. I then proceeded to set my rig up. No sooner than I started to complete tying my knot did my friend shout out, ?I think I got something!? And he most certainly did. A typical rockfish is what he caught. He swung the rod over to me and I carefully unhooked it. Everyone on the boat was excited; so excited that it wasn?t until I released the fish that we realized we didn?t take a picture of it!
My buddy was pretty pumped up. It was not until he made a cast that I realized something. I had not given him the scoop on using a baitcast reel. Yep, you guessed. At least it was a lovely cast. I tried to say, ?Use your thumb to stop it,? but I was like a deer in the headlights. I uttered not a single word As soon as the lure hit the water I heard the whizzing, thruuppp sound and a dead stop. Bewildered as he stared at the spool, my buddy asked, ?What in the world? Why did it tangle up?? I was chuckling inside knowing full well it was my fault. Fortunately, Bill Dance?s bird?s nest removal tip made short work of it for me and we were back in business in less than 5 minutes.
Next, I proceeded to teach him the same thing I taught my little girl. Thumb on before the cast, make your cast and no matter what happens, use your thumb to slow/stop the spool before the lure hits the water or anything else. He did not encounter another bird?s nest the rest of the day. Wow, that?s not too shabby for someone using a bait cast reel for the first time!
Here I am with my son and part of the Seattle skyline in the background.
I was not to be left in the cold. Shortly afterward, I let my buzz bomb fall all the way to the bottom. Man was it deep!!! I think just a little more than 2/3 of my line was out! As soon as my lure hit the bottom, I jigged quickly to prevent a possible snag and voila! I felt the take and set the hook. I could tell it was not huge but I really didn?t care. It took what seemed to be a million years to recover all of the line and what a pleasant surprise! A flounder, I think. We got a picture of the little fellow before letting him go. I was stoked. It was the first flounder. I was hoping a salmon would be next but any other species would have been just fine too. About 20 minutes later I got another hit and it turned out to be what I think is a Pacific Hake. It is very trout like in both shape and size. Unfortunately, I lost it on the swing into the boat. Darned barbless hooks! They are law in the salt in WA State with a $75 penalty per barb if caught with them. Mind your trebles or else you?d be paying enough to buy a Fuego or a new Curado and a couple new lures.
flounder caught on a buzz bomb
A Hake
The next act was for my buddy. He hooked into something huge and he called me over to feel the tugging. I was thinking that is was probably a big salmon maybe a King instead of a Sockeye. The rod was bending pretty well and my buddy seemed excited and nervous simultaneously. And the fight was on! The only advice I gave him was to let the fish take line if it wanted but even then to keep the line taut. In the end however, the line broke and the fish won this battle.
My buddy started obsessing about wanting to hook into another big fish and I was happy to get him set up with another lure. Personally, I was done for the day (fishing wise) as I was just feeding off on his newfound mission.
It was about 5:00 pm and the original plan was to fish until 6:30 and that changed to 7:00 and then to 7:30 pm. Can you relate to the, ?one more cast/try syndrome? I admired his determination that bordered obsession.
We finally had to get back before it got too dark and although we didn?t get the big fish hook up, all in all it was a great day. I really felt out of my element fishing the salt, being that I am primarily a bass angler. I am glad however that the decision to use universal lures was a good one, if only to spark the passion, flame and interest of fishing in my buddy.
He said come hell or high water; we?re going to fish Lake Washington next Sunday. Hmmmm. Largemouth, Smallmouth, Trout, Perch, and Crappie just to name a few species? Sounds good to me! I?ve never targeted smallmouth so that would be nice indeed. Now that is something closer to my element so I ought to be better able to get him into some fish. I have a few spinning rigs he can use and I think the kids will also be tagging along on this trip.
Thanks for reading.
-ib
