Are relationships with wild fish a thing? The short answer is, yes. In fact, I have long-standing relationships with fish. It is not uncommon, really.
A rather famous relationship between people and a fish was explored in the movie “Grumpy Old Men.”
Most folks who have an aquarium at home or at work have relationships with fish. Anyone who feeds a fish develops a relationship. I feed fish, too, come to think of it, but there’s a catch.
“Billy Badbass” was one fish I had a long-standing relationship with. Billy lived at the west end of Santa Cruz Island in a rocky lair to be proud of. Positioned in a rough patch of water, it could only be fished maybe one day in four days due to sea conditions.
The angle of the entrance to Billy’s lair made it so easy for him to bite a bait or lure, move over about two feet, and saw off the fishing line against the rugged rocks at the entrance.
That bass was big and tough and smart. As far as I know, Billy Badbass is still out there dominating that choice lair and laughing at silly fisherfolk.
I have caught and released the same fish numerous times. It happens when a person fishes an area as many years as I have. In some cases, I’ve known it was the same fish because of a unique scar pattern (fish collect scars in the mean streets of the sea).
I can recall a time or two when I’ve caught and released a fish enough times that I suspect it worried about other fish whispering about our relationship.
One day I was fishing a structure spot in shallow water near Santa Barbara. I kept getting bit in the same spot and then deftly taken under a part of the rocks where I’d bust my line trying to free it.
After five identical incidents, I changed my position and set the hook in a different direction, and did a better job of keeping the fish away from the line-hungry structure.
I brought up a surprisingly large and feisty cabezon with five new hooks in its mouth, with each hook sporting a short length of fishing line with a curly end from busting off.
It was a legal cabby, and I could have taken it for dinner (they are great tasting), but instead I carefully removed all of those hooks, had a talk with the critter and let it go. Yup, that constitutes a relationship.
Divers are known to have relationships with fish. I’ve heard stories from urchin divers about playing with lingcod the size of the diver’s leg … jigging a shiny urchin rake in front of the lingcod until the fish is annoyed or intrigued enough to bite it.
Also, stories about individual sheephead following a diver around and making friends to get first dibs when an urchin was accidentally broken. Fish make interesting friends.
