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Probably one of the most fun weeks of my life, hands down. Not better than diving, but almost as fun in a completely different way. Where diving is a zen thing for me, this was "periods of boredom followed by periods of pandemonium" as one of the guys on the boat put it. I was never bored though, as it was all new to me I was at attention the entire time. Who new fishing could be that exciting?
How I ended up on one of the entered boats was a completely random turn of events as I had gone there to do diving and didn't even have a clue anything else big was going on when I first got there. But once I found out I was gonna go out on the water with them I educated myself FAST. I read like 15 old sportfishing magazines and gave myself a crash course in different types of lures, what goes into hooking a bill fish, what happens once you get the fish hooked, and various release methods. With the buy in being in the thousands, I wanted to make sure that once the pandemonium started, I could be as useful as possible - or at least not screw anything up. I asked countless questions, which they didn't seem to mind answering (probably not used to a girl even being genuinely interested), and by the end of the week I feel like I could talk to an experienced angler like I've been doing it for years.
Our boat didn't win any big cash but we did win and place a few smaller categories, enough to recoup the entry fee, mate and captain salaries, and gas costs with a bit left over. We caught and released four total marlin - one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Once you get a bite you have to tease the fish and get it worked up before it takes the right bite to get hooked. Then once it's hooked, they take off before you know it and the insanity starts. All the other lines have to get out of the water asap and the rods taken off the back of the boat because that fish is fighting back and forth with hundreds of pounds of swimming force. Then the boat basically chases the fish in reverse while people take turns on the reel that's placed in a special chair that rotates and is shaped to brace a person's back.
We were not allowed to gaff any fish under a certain size, and all of ours were under the limit or the wrong variety so I didn't see any of the killing stuff (probably for the best....anyone who's been a facebook friend of mine knows what a conservation homo I am regarding ocean apex predators), But I did get to witness the process of releasing and reviving the fish that were not killable via tournament rules, which was fascinating in and of itself.
A couple of side notes:
-lol at how superstitious they all were. I fit right in. One day I made everyone wear blue, one day I made a blueberry pie to feed to the ocean gods for good mojo (that day we got three marlin, our best day. We were joking at one point that if we caught a fish that placed us overall they were going to say it was bc of the pie and I was going to be getting requests from all over the country). One guy was doing goofy dances on the back of the boat (so sad I never caught that on video), as well as a few other more crude suggestions that I am sure you can all imagine from a group of six guys on a fishing trip lol.
-My conservation homo side is now a lot more forgiving of sportfishing as a whole. In each of those magazines there was at least one article about conservation efforts, research on minimizing stress on released fish, and slamming various wasteful commercial fishing practices. Every one of the guys on the boat was passionate about sustainable practices and preserving life for future generations. In the entire tournament only four fish were gaffed and killed. Hard to say how successful every release was, but I know all four of ours swam away looking healthy enough to fully recovery quickly.
-One of the boats in the tournament was named "noah's ark," maybe the worst boat name of all time. This led me to decide that if I ever buy a boat, I'm naming it "boat." For some reason when I think about people's reaction to seeing that (or hearing the radio confusion), I crack up. I'm easily amused lol.
Cliffnotes:
I'm hooked on sportfishing (no pun intended) and will likely be adding it to my list of ocean related activities when I can do it without actually putting a dime into it lol. And marlin and glorious magnificent creatures.
How I ended up on one of the entered boats was a completely random turn of events as I had gone there to do diving and didn't even have a clue anything else big was going on when I first got there. But once I found out I was gonna go out on the water with them I educated myself FAST. I read like 15 old sportfishing magazines and gave myself a crash course in different types of lures, what goes into hooking a bill fish, what happens once you get the fish hooked, and various release methods. With the buy in being in the thousands, I wanted to make sure that once the pandemonium started, I could be as useful as possible - or at least not screw anything up. I asked countless questions, which they didn't seem to mind answering (probably not used to a girl even being genuinely interested), and by the end of the week I feel like I could talk to an experienced angler like I've been doing it for years.
Our boat didn't win any big cash but we did win and place a few smaller categories, enough to recoup the entry fee, mate and captain salaries, and gas costs with a bit left over. We caught and released four total marlin - one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Once you get a bite you have to tease the fish and get it worked up before it takes the right bite to get hooked. Then once it's hooked, they take off before you know it and the insanity starts. All the other lines have to get out of the water asap and the rods taken off the back of the boat because that fish is fighting back and forth with hundreds of pounds of swimming force. Then the boat basically chases the fish in reverse while people take turns on the reel that's placed in a special chair that rotates and is shaped to brace a person's back.
We were not allowed to gaff any fish under a certain size, and all of ours were under the limit or the wrong variety so I didn't see any of the killing stuff (probably for the best....anyone who's been a facebook friend of mine knows what a conservation homo I am regarding ocean apex predators), But I did get to witness the process of releasing and reviving the fish that were not killable via tournament rules, which was fascinating in and of itself.
A couple of side notes:
-lol at how superstitious they all were. I fit right in. One day I made everyone wear blue, one day I made a blueberry pie to feed to the ocean gods for good mojo (that day we got three marlin, our best day. We were joking at one point that if we caught a fish that placed us overall they were going to say it was bc of the pie and I was going to be getting requests from all over the country). One guy was doing goofy dances on the back of the boat (so sad I never caught that on video), as well as a few other more crude suggestions that I am sure you can all imagine from a group of six guys on a fishing trip lol.
-My conservation homo side is now a lot more forgiving of sportfishing as a whole. In each of those magazines there was at least one article about conservation efforts, research on minimizing stress on released fish, and slamming various wasteful commercial fishing practices. Every one of the guys on the boat was passionate about sustainable practices and preserving life for future generations. In the entire tournament only four fish were gaffed and killed. Hard to say how successful every release was, but I know all four of ours swam away looking healthy enough to fully recovery quickly.
-One of the boats in the tournament was named "noah's ark," maybe the worst boat name of all time. This led me to decide that if I ever buy a boat, I'm naming it "boat." For some reason when I think about people's reaction to seeing that (or hearing the radio confusion), I crack up. I'm easily amused lol.
Cliffnotes:
I'm hooked on sportfishing (no pun intended) and will likely be adding it to my list of ocean related activities when I can do it without actually putting a dime into it lol. And marlin and glorious magnificent creatures.
