| Laughing Stock | |
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by Ron Brooks
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What goes around, comes around, I guess. All the years I made fun of people in other boats, who apparently were not very adept at whatever it was I was watching them do, have finally caught up with me. But, more on that a little later.
We went after king mackerel again this week. Hey, it's summer dog days, and nothing else seems to want to cooperate! The kings have been on the beach for almost three weeks now, so you take what the sea gives you - so to speak!
My son followed me in his boat, as we caught bait on the beach and idled out to forty feet of water to begin slow trolling. I say we caught bait, but actually Captain Kevin Faver called me over to his boat before I could get off a cast of my small net. He had made one cast with his ten foot net and caught enough pogies for four boats! He shared his catch with me as I gloated about having bait with no work involved! Little did I know it would be an omen in the days to come.
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We began trolling in forty to forty-five feet of water, one bait on the down rigger, one on top in the prop wash and one on top way back. In short order, Tom hooked up and boated a fifteen pounder. The action wasn't fast and furious, but between the two boats we managed seven kings up to thirty pounds, and several missed fish, one of which would have been significantly larger than our largest. All of this was finished by noon, and we headed in with fresh kingfish for everyone.
On Saturday, I took two anglers who had basically never fished in saltwater. Jason Marsh hails from Texas, and Dave McGinnis is originally from West Virginia. Both served on submarines with the Navy in a past life, but had never been really exposed to saltwater fishing. I was, therefore, by definition the expert on this trip.
I headed for the beach, along with the hoard of other Saturday anglers, in search of pogies. Problem was, all the pogies were scattered. I needed a tight school to put my small five foot net to use. After several empty throws of the five footer, I broke out the ten footer. You see, after Captain Faver caught all those pogies in one cast, I had to have a ten foot net. The only problem was, I had not thrown a net that large in quite a number of years. It was significantly heavier than I remembered, and the few casts I was able to manage ended up in very large banana shaped flops.
My two anglers sat next to each other and whispered, thinking I could not hear. I was old enough to be their father and here they were silently laughing at my attempts to throw that big net. It was right about then that it hit me. Suddenly I was one of those fishermen that I used to laugh at! My embarrassment showed enough that I went back to the smaller net. I may not catch any pogies, I thought to myself, but I can at least throw a net that opens.
As it turns out we ended up catching a few pogies, but they were of little use. The kings have left the beach - apparently for the summer - and all we could manage for several hours of trolling was one rather excited barracuda.
I have some good news to go with this embarrassment. I found a web site that can help any and all people throw a cast net in short order. The net makers at Calusa Cast Nets have a free online streaming video of instructions that actually work. I watched that video once, went into the back yard and within five minutes I was pitching a perfect circle with that heavy ten foot net! My son even tried it, and to his amazement, he too was able to handle the big one. The amazing part is, it takes very little effort. Centrifugal force is the key.
So, with a new found ability to throw the big guy, I'm headed out this week with a group from Georgia. We'll be looking for bait on the beach and then heading offshore to find some wreck kings if there are still any there. For my part, I'll just be happy if I remember how to throw that net! I'll sure not be laughing at anyone else any more!
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