Friday - Surfcasting: Fish 1, Cindy 0
Saturday - Surfcasting: Fish 1, Cindy 0
Sunday - Headboat Fishing: Fish 0, Cindy 10
Funny how sometimes when you try something new, it’s best to have absolutely no idea what you’re getting yourself into. Case in point: Headboat fishing this weekend - all I knew was Dave asked, “Do you get seasick?” ahead of time. Friday & Saturday were howlers - cold and WINDY. Realized while we were out on the beach Friday night, I’d need another layer for Sunday… Hit WalMart for leggings & bootliners Saturday morning. Even with that on Saturday afternoon I was freezing.
Fortunately, the weather improved quite a bit on Sunday, and I headed out with my 2 sets of bootliners, socks, leggings, jeans, tank top, thermal top, windproof/waterproof shell with fleece lining, fleece head/earband I use for running and a ballcap, and gloves. As it turned out, I was able to ditch the gloves & headband and I was actually thinking it really wasn’t too bad. That’s only because I apparently didn’t know better. :)
Seems the conditions were actually pretty crappy. We were on a real nice 75′ boat w/a nice big heated cabin with lots of places to snooze while we went from point A to point B. (Nice since we got up at 4AM for this adventure.) All we had to do was bring lunch. Rods, rigs, bait and two kickass mates all provided.
We were going out for king mackerel, using live bait. The fact that it took us about 3 hours to get bait fish probably was a bad sign, and even then we got a huge bucketful from another boat that had just pulled in a bunch off their cast nets. As we headed out to the first stop, I discovered my new jacket IS in fact waterproof, after getting nailed by a good spray on one side of the boat.
Got to stop 1, dropped the lines, learned the over/under dance pretty quick, only got my line tangled once. Funny thing - Dave & I started off at opposite ends of the boat, next thing I know, my bait fish has gone and gotten tangled up with the one on the line next to me (when we reeled it in, it was *right* down at the rig) and I look up and who have I gotten tangled up with? Dave. Whole boat (15-20 people) only got 5 or 6 hits and one king brought in. Captain tells everyone to pull their lines and we’re gonna find another spot. Off we go. Drop lines again and I notice that wow, the boat is pitching about a lot, and I am very glad I still seem to have my boat legs, even if it has been years. Drop the lines again, my bait fish wants to go straight to the front of the boat. Over/under dance, get up to the bow, the pitching is MUCH more pronounced there. Mate comes over and says a couple of us are too bunched up and are going to get our lines crossed and can someone crank in and we can recast from the back. I volunteer cause it’s damn hard to stay standing up on this part of the boat. *Just* as I’m cranking in, we hit another trough and I near fall on my ass - fortunately the mate is right there, grabs my rod and tells me he’ll crank it in, I can concentrate on not falling. This guy was awesome. Drop my line again at the back, damn fish goes straight for the bow again. This time, we hit a swell and I bit it and was on my butt. (Found out later I wasn’t the only one this happened to.) Didn’t lose the rod. No hits this round, Captain says we’re going to go bottom fishing now, cause dammit, we’re going to catch some fish. I don’t care - it’s a beautiful day and I’m on a boat.
Tool about again and find a place to stop - I know from the last time, wait a couple minutes and let the boat settle in and then grab a rod… So, I’m sitting there on the seats on the outside of the boat, watching everyone else drop their bottom rigs (1# weight on them - when you drop them, they should go straight down.) and then watched as all the lines went at a 45 degree angle under the boat. Hmmmm… Captain immediately tells everyone to crank in, this ain’t gonna work.
Went to two other spots, and things were actually hitting, and hitting big time. I ended up with 5 sea bass, 3 red snappers, a triggerfish and a grunt. By the time we cranked in for the last time, we were about an hour out from the dock, and I slept the rest of the way back in - amazing how a couple 1000hp engines can create some great white noise.
So, the guys were kinda disappointed with the weather and the catches, but I was ecstatic. First - sunny day out on a cool boat. How can you not like that? Second, I didn’t freeze my ass off like I was so completely ready for. Third, I actually caught some fish! When we got offshore the swells were between 6 & 8 feet and the wind was kicking up a lot more towards the end of the day - I had no idea this was not considered “good” conditions - I was just happy that the sun was out and I could feel all my extremities, and just figured that was what offshore fishing was all about. I’ve been told if I do this again, there’s a good chance I will be able to spend more time concentrating on fishing than on not falling. :)
