Jamison’s account of the deep sea fishing trip (Kind of long, sorry)

First off, I want to thank Chuck for inviting me. Much fun was had… much fin were had too.

I came away from this trip with 3 thoughts;

1. I can no longer sleep comfortably on a floor.
2. Deep sea fishing, as an experience, is fun and adventurous and can not be compared to any other experience. I would not trade that experience for much else.
3. Deep sea fishing as a sport is rather boring and not as challenging as even stocked-pond fishing.

Don’t get me wrong. The physical workout you get from reeling in large fish from hundreds of feet down to the oceans floor is a challenge. My arms are very sore today as a result of the trip. But there is no skill involved. You don’t even have to “hook” the fish like you have to do in fresh-water fishing. Meaning, when you get a bite, you don’t have to jerk your rod up to embed the hook in the fish. You don’t have to trick the fish, they eat whatever you put on the hook, and they waste no time doing it. In fact, you don’t even have to hide the hook in the bait, like you do with fresh water fishing.

Here is how a typical cast went (even though you don’t even cast the rod).
First mate baits your hook. You hang the bait over the side of the boat, drop said bait till the line stops letting out. Wait 30 seconds to 1 minute. Reel in hooked fish. 8 times out of 10, it was a red snapper. 7 times out of those 8, it was too small to legally keep (even though “small” is a relative term, “small” is 15 inches long…).

At least when stock pond, or any type of fresh water fishing, you at least have to trick the Bass into taking your bait. Bass won’t just take a piece of meat hook onto an exposed hook end.

One aspect of deep sea fishing that was rather luxurious and you don’t even realize it half the time is the first mate. We had two on this trip. One was in training (and had such a thick southern accent you could rarely tell what he was saying. I swore that he said once to me “Byow wow now trow ovr aire”. I got so tired of saying “What?” that I would just nod when he spoke to me.) The other first mate was very experienced in his duties. Believe it or not, I didn’t touch one fish the entire 8 hour trip. Nor did I bait one hook. Their primary jobs is to make sure you are fishing as much as possible. If you pull up an empty hook, they are behind you within 5 seconds putting more bait on your hook. If you pull up a fish, they are there to take the fish off your hook, measure it, and throw it back or toss it in the cooler. This was awesome because my first instinct when I catch a fish it to put my thumb in their mouths to lift them up… I think 90% of the fish we pulled up had VERY sharp teeth that I wouldn’t put my fingers near.

Oh, we saw dolphins coming up for air 2 or 3 times very near our boat. 20 yards or so.

One story and this blog is yours;
Most fish are at the bottom. However, when you drop your bait, or are bringing your uneaten bait up, you’ll see a pretty fast, and very large fish try to take your bait… the first mates had a good time playing with these fish, and they looked very cool from above. They were called Bonita, and are part of the tuna family.

I recall hearing the first mates say “You don’t want to get one of those hooked. They will run you to death and get your lines all tied up.” They also added that despite them being in the tuna family, they aren’t good for eating because they are very bloody and very boney. In fact, Bonita was our primary source of non-live bait. So, for the next hour, I forgot about them and when they went for my bait, I avoided them.

After about an hour of catching the same fish over and over, I saw a Bonita go for my bait. I looked over my shoulder to make sure no one was watching me, and I held the bait where it was, rather than letting it continue to drop. 10 seconds later my arms are nearly pulled out of their sockets and the fight was on.

Chuck could tell you more accurately how long I fought with this fish, but to me, it felt like 10 minutes. My left bicep is mostly sore today from that catch because I had to constantly hold the rod up with that arm. This fish would let me reel him in 10 or so feet, then take off about with about 15 or 20 feet or my line and I would have to start over. Eventually, due to this fight in this fish, the first mates told everyone to get their lines out of the water and to back up. Good thing they did because I was going from side to side of this boat, sweat dripping down my face. Eventually, the fish was in the boat and it was a sight to behold because it was a different fish than we had been catching, and the fight was a lot more fun than the others. That “mistake” made the trip for me. The first mates said we don’t want to keep it, but Chuck insisted he wanted to keep it. It is truly amazing the power that God has given fish. This one was very strong.

Fun trip to say the least… the ride back to shore was boring though. My pictures will be posted next week, when I can edit them to smaller sizes at work. Chuick has better pics than I do.