Third problem
Off on another charter (tips are good this year)
Again we head to Herring Bay for spot. We anchor up and are filling the livewell with bait. One of our customers gets his line hooked on something on the bottom
No big deal, we will just break off the bottom rig and retie another one. John tries to snap the line. The line is just strong enough to "move" whatever it's hooked into. John calls me over and I take over trying to free the line. It feels like a dead cownose ray
It had weight, it was not swimming away, but we were gaining line on it. John grabs the line and does the hand over hand retrieve. I wind the reel and get back as much line as possible. We get the "object" close to the surface, and SNAP, the line breaks. Back to the bottom goes the object along with our bottom rig.
I always have more rods made up than we need, so I hand the customer another rod and I rerig the one with the broken line. We catch all the spot we need and start across the bay.
Captain John says to me, the boat's not handling correctly. She seems sluggish and the fuel burn is up. I shrug my shoulders, and we continue across the bay.
We slowly search for some fish on the meter. We work our way along a break and finally see what we want. John goes to back down, and when we hit reverse. Clunk, Clunk, Clunk
WTF Pieces of an old float pop up around the boat. John says, "Where the ---- did that float come from?". I told him it wasn't from where we were. There were no other floats around us. We were in deep water (32ft). I don't know where it came from.
Again we hit reverse, we can hear the line slapping the bottom of the boat. Holy Crap, how can we have another line wrapped. In forward, we didn't hear much. We catch some fish and slowly head back across the bay.
Captain John is just frazzled. He says, we have another charter tomorrow. I don't know if I can get it shorthauled and the line cut off or not. I can get a diver, and maybe he could get it off tomorrow morning. Perhaps we can move the charter to an afternoon trip.
I ask if he knows a diver? Nope. Just have to look one up in the commercial trade book. I said give me a moment. I go below and call Skip. Hey buddy, are you fishing tomorrow? He asks why. I explain what happened. He says, "I'll be right down with my dive gear". Talk about friends!!! I tell John, how about we get it fixed tonight. He thinks I'm crazy. I hand the phone to John and he and Skip arrange to meet at the slip.
Skip shows up. He gets in his dive gear (see photo) and slips under the boat. We watch his bubbles at the stern. Then they run up along the side to the bow. Then they go out from the bow, around the outer pole of the slip and into the causeway that leads to our slip
Where was Skip going? The bubbles came back to the stern. Skip pops up and says, "You won't believe want I found".
Skip hands me a line and I start pulling it in; and pulling it in; and pulling it in. At the end was a plastic tube and the rebar bottom of a ghost pot
(see photo) Attached to the line was our bottom rig!!! We had hooked a ghost pot fishing for bait, and had lifted it up just high enough to get it near the surface. When we broke it off; the current must have carried the line under the boat and got caught in the rudder. It wasn't wrapped around the prop, but I can hardly believe we didn't wrap it while backing down into the slip.
I can't thank Skip enough for getting us out of a tough spot. We didn't have to cancel or change the next days charter, and John slept a lot better not worrying about what was under the boat.
I have some good friends that I have made through fishing. I hope I am as dependable as they have been to me.
So there you have it. It reminds me of the song they used to play on "Hee Haw"; "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all, gloom despair and agony on me"
Actually; we were very fortunate that nothing worse happened, and we should count our blessings. Thanks for listening.
5th (Marty)