I love telling stories from my charter trips on the Santa Barbara Channel and around the Channel Islands. I often find life lessons in the actions of passengers. Here is the story of one of those times.
 
We were fishing on my charterboat WaveWalker and had a family group out at the oil platforms off Santa Barbara where yellowtail (a hard-fighting member of the jack family) had taken up residence during a warm-water period.
 
The plan of action for the trip was to spend part of our fishing time trying for yellowtail and then switching over to lingcod and rockfish at nearby 4-Mile Reef. This plan makes for a nice combination of glory fish and bread & butter fish.
 
We had jigged up a bunch of mackerel, using Sabiki rigs. Catching bait can be a boatload of fun and we were all cracking up as the mackerel were coming aboard fast and furious.
 
Then we powered the boat up on the step and raced to the rigs where we soaked those mackerel baits on four different fishing rigs — liveline, Dink hook, sliding sinker rig, and dropper loop rig. We had the water column stacked nicely.
 
The daughter’s rod bent suddenly, and I could see at a glance that the bite had all the markings of a savage yellowtail hookup. It was a heavy fish hell-bound for the legs of the oil rig as she valiantly tried to stop it.
 
It was a wild moment as yellowtail strikes almost always are, but I felt she was doing things just right and had leverage on her side. She was a strong gal in her teens, and I believe she was on her way to boating that grand fish and feeding her family.
 
Unexpectedly, her dad jumped up, rushed up behind her, grabbed her rod, yelling, “Don’t lose it!”

As he grabbed her rod he made a sudden jerky movement and the hook pulled free. The fish was lost.
 
The gal looked devastated. The dad just kept saying, “I didn’t want you to lose it.”

I held my tongue and to my credit, I didn’t throw the dad overboard for shark chum. You know I wanted to. My crew member Captain Tiffany just looked up at me silently with an exasperated expression.
 
Sadly, we’ve seen similar scenarios play out way too many times over the years. Parents and professionals teach children, help them grow up and take life into their own hands.

A little help here and there can be a wonderful thing. But whether it be a fishing pole or most anything else in life, let your kids fight their battles, winning some and losing some for the learning experiences. But don’t jump in and grab the rod of life out of their hands!
 
Okay, as a charter captain, father of three and a grandad to enough kids to crew a mega yacht, I had to get that one off of my chest.

Thanks for listening, or reading.