Most weekends, Capt John has a catering gig, therefore we rarely run weekend charters. However, today we had a group that was only available this weekend.
Fishing during the week has spoiled us. Not as many boats and lots of fish for the picking. John made the call to head out a half hour earlier than normal to get a jump on the competition.
Everyone arrived just before 5:30 and lines were cast off. As we headed across the bay, I noticed the cockpit seemed larger than normal (how large is that on a 46 ft Markley
). It struck me like a tons of bricks. We left the cooler and ice back in the parking lot of the marina
. John thought I got the cooler, and I thought he got the cooler
.
I slinked into the cabin and said "John, we have a problem." A quick U-turn was made and the cummings motor was roaring. Wow, Patent Pending can fly when she has too
.
Back at the dock, I did my best to do an impression of a "stress test" on the treadmill. I haven't run that far since high school!!!
We get the cooler on the boat and we're off again. Well their goes our early morning jump start. One of the customers comes back and opens one of the coolers they brought onboard for a drink, and what is sitting right on top of the cooler; a bannana
. I reach down and pick up the bananna and say, "Who brought a bannana onboard." Oops, my tone of voice must have conveyed displeasure as no one claimed the offending fruit. I yelled into the cabin from the stern and John turns around just in time to see me fling the bannana into Davey Jones locker.
I give a quick tale about bannana's being bad luck on a boat, and everyone seems glad to have the "spell" broken and looking forward to a good day of fishing.
John hit one of his favorite spots, and before all nine rods were in the water, we had "fish on". A quick photo was taken of the 17 inch fish before it was released ( if anyone ever see's a picture of a rockfish with a HUGE thumb in the picture, it was because of the telephoto lens used for this picture
).
We had plenty of action, but most of the fish were just under size. We picked up 3 keepers in the low 20's, but decided to head for more rewarding waters.
We headed south and once again found plenty of fish, but again not the quality we had hoped for. Once again the rods were racked and we made our own breeze as we headed to more fertile grounds. I like these little trips to new areas because it gives me a chance to grab a bite to eat and replenish some fluids.
I always like when the boat comes off plane rather quickly. This usually means John has seen something he likes on his sounder. Sure enough, quality fish started coming over the side, some two at a time. The guys were having a ball with three rods bouncing at once more often than not. Now we were quick releasing low 20's and keeping true "rod benders". The guests were having a ball, and I was shaking fish off the hooks like crazy. Spreader bars were laying all over the gunnels as I was trying to keep up with releasing fish and getting rods back in the water.
Earlier in the day, you would hear the guests say "who's up" and they were taking turns with the fish. Now; they were pretty much standing behind a rod and just waiting for it to go down. Everyone sort of "picked his own favorite rod".
We had reduced the rods to the most busy seven (the deepest). After I counted the fish in the cooler twice to make sure we were not over, we did "catch and release" for a while.
On the ride back home, I asked if they were upset that I had thrown somebody's bananna overboard? They laughed and said they might always bring a bananna from now on; just to be able to throw it away on the ride to the fishing grounds.
Once again, John's lures were "hot, hot hot". Back on shore, I bought four spreaded bars and 14 lures for some friends of mine. I just might tell them there is a "special" way they need to be fished, just so they take me along when they use them
.
5th (Marty)