Nice Fish!

It was looking to be a lean year with not much fish in the freezer. Had heard that people were catching fish off the wharf so with some encouragement from DW I dragged myself out of bed at 0500 and went to the wharf to join the other bleary eyed fishermen. The morning was quite cold but spectacular as the sun rose over the horizon silhouetting the fish boats as they circled offshore. The fishing was slow and after an hour and a half of catching nothing but "weed fish" and "bottom fish" I was getting tired and thinking of packing it in. I cast out and thought here we go on the bottom again and then I felt a few tugs so I quickly set the hook. The fish started to run, and run, and run..... It was pandemonium as I was running down the wharf trying to keep up and everyone was reeling in and trying to get out of the way. By this time a nice crowd of spectators had gathered so the pressure was on not to make a mistake. Finally the fish was close and it was time to think about netting it. You have to picture this wharf - it is about 40 feet above the water and supported on wood piles that are encrusted with barnacles with sharp edges. The trick is to keep the fish from the piles and pull it over a net that is lowered from the wharf. All this while about 50 people are watching. After several nerve wracking misses with the net we had it and hauled it up. Seeing the fish 40' down in the water didn't do justice. When put on the scale it was 43 pounds - the biggest of the year from the wharf. I felt like I had won the lottery and enjoyed my 2 minutes in the spotlight.

Anyhow I got my name up on the board for the rest of the year and if nobody catches a bigger fish I get some sort of award. Guess the family won't go hungry this year. Who says that you need a big expensive boat to catch fish!