What a Day!

I saw the most faint traces of the sun rise off the edge of the world, as a cool breeze, and sea spray crossed my face. I took a deep breath, and threw my net into a school of herring. The nets threads hissed through the air in such a way that I knew even with out watching that the net had fully opened, followed by a buzzing splash sound like when you dip something in hot cooking oil, when the weights of the net hit the water.

I waited for the net to sink, then started pulling on the line attached to my wrist. The line became taut, and I could feel the weight of fish within the closed net on the other end of the line. Beautiful!

Once the net was on shore, and out of the surf, I began sorting m y haul. Herring went into a bucket, shrimp, and crabs went into another.

Soon, I had a bucket of herring, and other bait fish, and a bucket of breakfast!

In a pot of boiling sear water went in a rock crab, and about a dozen shrimp. While the crustaceans were boiling I dropped fresh butter into a griddle, followed by eggs, milk, and sea salt. Don't let anyone fool you, seafood, and scrambled eggs are delicious, and I devoured both before starting my day. Just as the sun came up.

Just a sliver of the disk that was the sun was peeking up over the horizon, causing the wind to change from a land breeze, to a sea breeze. Or the wind was coming from the sea to land. I placed my herring into a live well on my panga, an outrigged fishing boat, and sailed off shore tacking into the wind. Once I was past the breakers, I began trolling. I baited about four hooks with cut up herring, added a variety weight, and let them drift out in my wake.

Coral was about fifty feet deep where I was at, and clear, crystal clear. I could see shadows in the water following my bait. I locked the tiller in place, and eased to the line I thought most likely for the fish to bite on, and waited.

The prospective fish scattered, as a dark blue shadow parted from the coral, and engulfed the bait. The semi-taut line suddenly went banjo tight, and my entire boat lurched violently! My eyes went wide as my lips curled into an excited grin! I gripped my line in both hands, and started pulling hand over hand.

The fish didn't like that, and made a run, line passed through my hands fast enough for the friction to singe the rope, with visible smoke, and the smell of cooking meat coming from my palms. That...tingled a little bit.

I let some more slack go, then when he slowed down began pulling line once again.

The fish was coming closer to the boat, I could almost start seeing details when it darted under the boat. The line smacked against the hull of the boat, and threatened to drag me under. I braced against the side rail, and heaved against the pull using the friction against the hull as leverage.

Foot, by foot I pulled the fish nearer, and I could tell it was beginning to tire. It's last run was a weak one straight down from the boat, and finally, finally it was against the side of it. A grouper, a giant grouper went into my live well, and I started fishing once again.

The morning warmed, and I shed my shirt, and let the sun kiss my already tanned skin. I felt the cool spray of the sea, and could taste the salt on my lips. I felt good, and baited a sabiki rigged drop pole (a pole with a line attached to the end and no reel with several small hooks on it), and cast my line out letting it drift gently through a a school of bait fish.

Pretty soon my pole started twitching, and I lifted the hooks from the water revealing several medium sized fish! Jack smelt excellent bait! and not bad eating. They went into my bait well, and I dipped my line in again. Wash, rinse, repeat. Pretty soon I was full of bait again, and dropped my fishing lines in again.

Now hold up!

I know, I am a commercial fisherman, and that most commercial fishermen use sein nets. This is incredibly efficient, but I am not just a commercial fisherman. I am also a steward, a manager of the world around me. A sein net is indiscriminate, it catches everything, and can unbalance where I harvest with a quickness. I'm not so short sighted.

I had a specific species in mind, one that had a flavor of lobster, and a flaky meat reminiscent of sea bass, and on top of their deliciousness... they don't belong in the waters where I was sailing! The sharks, and grouper didn't recognize them as prey, and they ate the corals, and other things of the reef too much. The only drawback was their spines! They wouldn't kill you or anything unless you rolls around them but would make you feel pain like you would not believe.

I let my lines out baited with my smelt, and all four quickly had a fish on. When I pulled the lines in they had my prey one the hooks. A black, and yellow fish with spines, a lion fish! Delicious, pain spiked lion fish. Here I began doing circles catching one after the other. Before I threw them into the live well, I gaffed them, and cut off their spines for the sake of potential customers.