The good the bad and the ugly

 

This week was a learning experience.

Just think it’s the end of June 2012. The salmon are biting pretty well. The cod, well, they are a little beat up because of the wind and cold water.

This is the time of year that you can really get some cool scores of all kinds of fish.

That being said

Monday, while pouring led balls I looked at my props and found I spun a rear prop. ( nibral Volvo )

Hard to get repaired 2 shops pointed me to Bay Ship Alameda

I called Bay Ship and talked to Jeff. Got it in on Tuesday, late. He got me out of there on Wednesday eve.

(1 day) No biggie!

I canceled Wednesday and got ready for the slay fest. The weather was predicted to be good. 10kts

Thursday we ran to Arch rock to fish some rock cod with live bait. Incoming tide was bad, cold water and not much life. We managed a ling a piece about 20 assorted rock cod. Just Slow!

I hung around until about 2pm and on the Marin coast bouncing from rock to rock.

At 2:30 we packed it up and ran to the last #’s I heard on the radio.

Salmon bound!

From Arch rock I ran out to N buoy and looked until I found some whales. In between N and W I found them. The weather Started getting rough (Gilligan's Island) making it uncomfortable to tack up swell. I headed down swell toward S buoy. I found a crab pot buoy that had fish all around it. I made 3 tacks lost 15 sinkers and landed 6 nice fish before I pulled the plug at 5pm.

Weather going home was krap at best. One guy who had been puking all day threw a bucket of bile at my feet. Man, I dumped his bucket all day. Offered him ginger ale and ginger snaps. No Takers .He was miserable to say the least. Why won’t people listen? Take your pills the night before dammit!

I gave them all I had.

Finished late, cleaned up and told Petey we were salmon fishing tomorrow. 6am rollin ! Gooood weather!!

Friday got here too quick.

Armed with 35 sinkers, 6 trays of assorted baits, small chovies, large chovies and green label herring.

4 great passengers, I met last year sturgeon fishing. Zack was the deck hand on their sturgeon trip and they were still talking about what a great guy Zack is.

This trip was scheduled around Father’s day . A youth pastor, his father, and 2 buddy’s from the church.

The water was flat on Friday. We rolled out to the grounds very comfortably at 20 knots. The fish were already found but in our quest to find the best, I ran up to where I finished the night before. I Found Jelly.

We picked up and ran down to the fleet that had stopped on 2-3 whales. We started wackin em immediately. From 0830 until 1130 it was game on. A big red Hot spot and Purple haze Hoochie with a green pucky was poppin. Then slowly all the boats show up. The whales disappeared.

In 2 hours’ time our spread had changed to 2 big ass hot spots and some Water melon junk, Red Crocodile crap and only a few crow bar baits out.

We were hitting them too hard. I went back to all crow bars and the slay fest started again.

Fish 6,7,8 came on the same circle.

Fish 8 will be one I will remember for the rest of my life.

The father to the youth pastor was tussling with a wild ass fish. He started on one side was taken to the other side. He made it to the rail on the starboard side. Pete netted the fish and the guy had a heart attack. Falling like a large wood timber. The next 2 hours it was a battle to save the man’s life.

Coast guard was called. I hauled ass toward the gate 27knots, updating the CG every 2 minutes. There estimated time of CG arrival was 40 minutes. They met us, mid channel markers, with EMT's that jumped on the boat like spider people. Clawing and pawing while doing the best they could possibly do.

Long story short we wound up at the cg station with my diseased at 1255hr. The EMTs were still working on him when we got there.

If you’re going out in the ocean be prepared.

Listen to your captain. If he says take pills then take them. If you have a medical condition let the captain know. Know your friends well enough to help and recognize if things aren’t normal.

Pete, great job!

CG thanks!

The guy who’s thinking about taking out an 80 year old, just think about what I said.