--- Quote from: Boardlftr on June 10, 2024, 05:55:31 PM ---New member here. Haven't been fishing in a couple years. Have no pics to upload as of late, only the love of fishing. Looking at kayaks, and thinking about where I'll be fishing at now 65 yrs. I remember the first party boat trip I took, at 15 yrs old, took A/C transit bus from East O to Berkeley marina for an 1/2 day trip on a boat called the "highliner", the skipper was a big dude named Lauren. I gave him the $15 bucks fare, showed him my fishing license, and off we went. The boat had a cap of 15 passengers, that there were 4. I thought we'd be heading to the beaches near Pacifica for striped bass and was disappointed when he said " tides aren't right for the stripes right now, but don't worry son, I,m going to put us on some fish". We went under the gate, the breakers crashing over the south tower as motored past, making the turn south to start a drift about 100 yards off seal rocks. I took my pole to the live bait well and the skipper hooked a live anchovy up through the nose and said "fish here" pointing to a spot on the rail where he could keep an eye on me. He said "it's a sandy bottom, if you feel anything, pull 8" from your reel, point your tip down, when your line goes tight, Haul back on 'em and set it hard". Not a minute later my heart stopped , my line had tightened, I gave it some slack, and set the hook. My pole bent way down, I thought I was snagged on the bottom, but the skipper yelled down " there's only sand down there, you have a halibut! I did everything I cou!d to lift the rod tip, but it held fast until the the shipper yelled down from the flying bridge " if you don't get that f===king fish up, I'm cutting it loose!==damned if I'm crashing my boat on the rocks over your fish. You gotta get that fish up now!". I tightened the drag lifted hard and the fish came up, finally. It was 42lbs, just 4lbs short of state record at the time. I caught another that was 28lbs. The skipper asked if I wanted to come out on future trips and get paid $20 to clean the fish, and wash the boat after fishing.I went out every summer day that I could until I turned 17.
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Cool story, thanks for sharing! Welcome aboard!
NowhereMan:
--- Quote from: SpeedyStein on June 10, 2024, 08:05:11 PM --- --- Quote from: Boardlftr on June 10, 2024, 05:55:31 PM ---New member here. Haven't been fishing in a couple years. Have no pics to upload as of late, only the love of fishing. Looking at kayaks, and thinking about where I'll be fishing at now 65 yrs. I remember the first party boat trip I took, at 15 yrs old, took A/C transit bus from East O to Berkeley marina for an 1/2 day trip on a boat called the "highliner", the skipper was a big dude named Lauren. I gave him the $15 bucks fare, showed him my fishing license, and off we went. The boat had a cap of 15 passengers, that there were 4. I thought we'd be heading to the beaches near Pacifica for striped bass and was disappointed when he said " tides aren't right for the stripes right now, but don't worry son, I,m going to put us on some fish". We went under the gate, the breakers crashing over the south tower as motored past, making the turn south to start a drift about 100 yards off seal rocks. I took my pole to the live bait well and the skipper hooked a live anchovy up through the nose and said "fish here" pointing to a spot on the rail where he could keep an eye on me. He said "it's a sandy bottom, if you feel anything, pull 8" from your reel, point your tip down, when your line goes tight, Haul back on 'em and set it hard". Not a minute later my heart stopped , my line had tightened, I gave it some slack, and set the hook. My pole bent way down, I thought I was snagged on the bottom, but the skipper yelled down " there's only sand down there, you have a halibut! I did everything I cou!d to lift the rod tip, but it held fast until the the shipper yelled down from the flying bridge " if you don't get that f===king fish up, I'm cutting it loose!==damned if I'm crashing my boat on the rocks over your fish. You gotta get that fish up now!". I tightened the drag lifted hard and the fish came up, finally. It was 42lbs, just 4lbs short of state record at the time. I caught another that was 28lbs. The skipper asked if I wanted to come out on future trips and get paid $20 to clean the fish, and wash the boat after fishing.I went out every summer day that I could until I turned 17.
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Cool story, thanks for sharing! Welcome aboard!
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Yes, very cool story!
LoletaEric:
--- Quote from: Boardlftr ---New member here. Haven't been fishing in a couple years. Have no pics to upload as of late, only the love of fishing. Looking at kayaks, and thinking about where I'll be fishing at now 65 yrs. I remember the first party boat trip I took, at 15 yrs old, took A/C transit bus from East O to Berkeley marina for an 1/2 day trip on a boat called the "highliner", the skipper was a big dude named Lauren. I gave him the $15 bucks fare, showed him my fishing license, and off we went. The boat had a cap of 15 passengers, that there were 4. I thought we'd be heading to the beaches near Pacifica for striped bass and was disappointed when he said " tides aren't right for the stripes right now, but don't worry son, I,m going to put us on some fish". We went under the gate, the breakers crashing over the south tower as motored past, making the turn south to start a drift about 100 yards off seal rocks. I took my pole to the live bait well and the skipper hooked a live anchovy up through the nose and said "fish here" pointing to a spot on the rail where he could keep an eye on me. He said "it's a sandy bottom, if you feel anything, pull 8" from your reel, point your tip down, when your line goes tight, Haul back on 'em and set it hard". Not a minute later my heart stopped , my line had tightened, I gave it some slack, and set the hook. My pole bent way down, I thought I was snagged on the bottom, but the skipper yelled down " there's only sand down there, you have a halibut! I did everything I cou!d to lift the rod tip, but it held fast until the the shipper yelled down from the flying bridge " if you don't get that f===king fish up, I'm cutting it loose!==damned if I'm crashing my boat on the rocks over your fish. You gotta get that fish up now!". I tightened the drag lifted hard and the fish came up, finally. It was 42lbs, just 4lbs short of state record at the time. I caught another that was 28lbs. The skipper asked if I wanted to come out on future trips and get paid $20 to clean the fish, and wash the boat after fishing.I went out every summer day that I could until I turned 17.
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Great intro. Welcome. :smt001
Sailfish:
Welcome aboard Boardlftr :smt006. Thanks for the nice introduction story.