Here Fishy-Fishy...
On Sat. Sept. 23, 2006, I went fishing for the FIRST time in my life. Three of my coworkers invited me to go with them on a half-day trip (6:30am to 12:30pm) on a sport fishing boat run by H&M Landing in Point Loma. I rented fishing gear for $9 and paid $37 for a spot on the boat. Here we are on the boat:
I thought I might get seasick, so I took a motion sickness pill before we left. (The water was pretty calm, so I probably would have been OK even without taking medicaiton.) On the way out of the San Diego bay, we stopped to get live bait (anchovies). That's when I took these pictures:
It would take about 45 min to get to the fishing areas that are west of Point Loma. Here's a picture of Point Loma as we moved west:
When we finally stopped to fish, we were given some instructions by the crew on how pick up the live bait, hook it, and drop our lines. Basically, you put your hand in one of these bins that have the anchovies, cup your hand under the fish and lift up to get one. Try to get as active a bait as possible. Slippery little things, but don't squeeze too tightly. If one falls to the deck, you can't use it anymore so you just throw it overboard. Once you have one, you jab the fish hook through its eyes! Pretty gnarly when I did it the first time.
We also used cut up squid for bait. (The red stuff in the picture is NOT squid. It's a mackerel that was cut up as bait.)
We were fishing for fish that swam near at the bottom so we had to make sure our weight on our line went all the way down. The fishing that day was BAD. The boat went to 4 or 5 different areas where the boat's fish finder gadget said fish were, but nothing was biting. On top of the fish not biting, there was maximum capacity on the boat so everyone was shoulder to shoulder on the rail. This led to tangled lines, which did not help in keeping the fish close to the boat.
At the end of the trip, each of my co-workers caught at least one fish, but I came up empty. Here's a Sculpin my coworker caught. It has some sort of poison on the spines on its back, but apparently it tastes pretty good.
My coworker gave me the mackerel he caught to take home. I gave it to my mom.
I had better luck on my second fishing trip this past Saturday. That'll be in my next blog.
I thought I might get seasick, so I took a motion sickness pill before we left. (The water was pretty calm, so I probably would have been OK even without taking medicaiton.) On the way out of the San Diego bay, we stopped to get live bait (anchovies). That's when I took these pictures:
It would take about 45 min to get to the fishing areas that are west of Point Loma. Here's a picture of Point Loma as we moved west:
When we finally stopped to fish, we were given some instructions by the crew on how pick up the live bait, hook it, and drop our lines. Basically, you put your hand in one of these bins that have the anchovies, cup your hand under the fish and lift up to get one. Try to get as active a bait as possible. Slippery little things, but don't squeeze too tightly. If one falls to the deck, you can't use it anymore so you just throw it overboard. Once you have one, you jab the fish hook through its eyes! Pretty gnarly when I did it the first time.
We also used cut up squid for bait. (The red stuff in the picture is NOT squid. It's a mackerel that was cut up as bait.)
We were fishing for fish that swam near at the bottom so we had to make sure our weight on our line went all the way down. The fishing that day was BAD. The boat went to 4 or 5 different areas where the boat's fish finder gadget said fish were, but nothing was biting. On top of the fish not biting, there was maximum capacity on the boat so everyone was shoulder to shoulder on the rail. This led to tangled lines, which did not help in keeping the fish close to the boat.
At the end of the trip, each of my co-workers caught at least one fish, but I came up empty. Here's a Sculpin my coworker caught. It has some sort of poison on the spines on its back, but apparently it tastes pretty good.
My coworker gave me the mackerel he caught to take home. I gave it to my mom.
I had better luck on my second fishing trip this past Saturday. That'll be in my next blog.
posted by bert wolfe at
9:59 PM
|
10 comments
