A very fun couple (who wish to remain unnamed) recently chartered my boat, WaveWalker, and we went out for a highly enjoyable day trip to catch some fish.
They caught a good number of rockfish, lingcod, calico bass and sand bass, and the trip was going well. Then her rod bent deeply and the fish dang near yanked her right outta the boat. I told her, “Don’t worry, when that fish starts to pull you overboard, we’ll grab yer ankles. Just hang onto the rod because if you let go of that rod I’m letting go of yer ankles!”
The fight lasted a good 15 minutes as she slowly brought up the big fish with a fairly soft drag setting, so as not to pull the hook. The fish made some runs back towards the bottom, but the lady followed my coaching very well to bring it back up each time.
When that whopper came up to color we all caught our breath. It was an exceptionally large sheepshead, which is a fabulous-tasting fish.
My crew member, Capt. Tiffany, grabbed our jumbo net (which is almost shockingly large, so we call it our “net of optimism”). For this fish, we needed it, and soon it was safely aboard, and there were high-fives all around.
The couple wanted us to leave the fish whole so that they could invite friends and family to dinner and eye their prize. No problem — we just gutted and gilled it.
Back at the dock, they realized that they had forgotten to bring along a cooler and ice for such a magnificent fish, so they quickly packed up and headed for the store.
After shopping, they put the ice in the cooler in the parking lot and figured they had better snap a few good pictures of that fine fish and the successful angler.
They snapped the pics using their smartphone and immediately sent it to their Facebook pages, Twitter, Snapchat and everywhere else they could think of. They were proud of that fish and wanted to share.
Upon logging on after their two-hour drive home, they were shocked to see large stacks of derogatory and teasing replies to their posts from their friends and relatives.
Sure it was a great photo of the angler and her catch, but with that big Ralphs sign in the background, no one believed that she went to sea and caught that fish.
(I asked for that photo and implored them to let me publish it, but that wasn’t about to happen.)
If you want to impress your followers, always watch your background in fishing photos!
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
