Tidelines – July 17, 2014
Amateur Tom Favor with the dumbest shark at the Masonboro jetties. He caught the shark on a piece of mullet (cut up directly on Gary and Leslie’s boat) after casting less than three feet and in the wrong direction. Amateur photo by Mira Khoury.
It was amateur hour on the Hurley boat this past week, but I made my mental notes and am determined to return to do better.
My wife and I wanted to treat Mira (her sister) and Tom (sister’s boyfriend) to dinner before they move from Wilmington for a two year sentence in Barstow, CA, and we thought dinner by boat would be a better Wilmington memory than simply dinner out. Dinner by boat was quickly appropriated by me to include post-dinner fishing, and that’s where our double date turned into a bit of chaos.
I’ve mentioned before and I will certainly repeat again—the fish photos of myself that make the paper are products of fishing with some of the best guides and captains along NC’s coast, but left to my own I am unable to produce similar results. And that fact quickly became apparent on the Masonboro jetties this past Friday night at about 10:00 pm when the four of us pulled up to anchor for a little shark fishing.
My struggles over the course of the evening abound, but it certainly didn’t help to serve up Fish House appetizers and fish and shrimp tacos and then expect me to be sharp enough on a full belly to be in charge of fishing operations.
Note to self: at least skip the appetizers.
All four of us fought a little with our sea legs, finding only a bit of relief from the swells on the south side of the south jetty (Isn’t that how most of us decide what side of the jetty to fish? The side most out of the wind and seas?). We were successfully anchored a close but safe distance off of the rocks, but were having a bit of trouble moving around in the dark with the swells and the crowd of four on our 22’ bay boat.
Note to self: invite less people next time, or double date with a captain friend.
I had done some preliminary leg work on rigging, so tying leaders to swivels and putting lead on the fish finder rigs was the only real work to be done here, but when it came time for bait I realized that the cutting board was back in the garage. There I was uncomfortably cutting up mullet directly on my boat on the flat area between the two livewells.
Note to self: keep a cutting board on the boat.
The chum bag went down with little trouble (though the knot to cinch the bag was a horribly-rushed granny knot that would be hard to untie when we pulled it back up), but our baits didn’t go out trouble free. My six-foot leaders made casting impossible for Leslie and Mira (still not sure how Mira’s line managed to wrap around two rods in the T-top and the motor and the leaning post?) and next to impossible for Tom and me (so how did the bait land between the motor and the rocks when it was cast from the bow out to the ocean side?).
Note to self: shorter leaders.
Finally, we had four baits in the water, and soon the first rod bent over and started screaming drag. In spite of the folly, we were hooked up. Leslie grabbed the rod, but only just in time to feel it go loose. Reeling in revealed that the hook had been bit off.
And that’s how it went for most of the night. Uneasiness cutting bait. Trouble casting. No trouble getting bites. But plenty of trouble with hooks being bitten off (I didn’t bring a tackle bag—I only brought some pre-tied rigs, and those rigs clearly weren’t wire rigs).
Note to self: bring a tackle bag and/or rig with wire.
We lost six hooks on six bites before Tom was finally able to bring one to the boat, and that’s where my most egregious short sightedness occurred. While I am not very fluent in fishing expertise, I do consider myself to be fluent (and self-sufficient) when it comes to fish photos.
I forgot the camera, of course, so Mira’s cellphone would have to do. Action photos, we have long realized at Fisherman’s Post, are hard to do well, especially at night, so it is imperative to always have at least one traditional “pose for the camera” shot. This, too, I forgot, and my Tidelines leaves you with a photo of horrible quality that we would have never run if sent in by a Fisherman’s Post reader.
Note to self: bring camera, and always take time to take a good photo, especially if you only catch one shark all night.
Yes, it was certainly amateur hour on the Hurley boat, but as for creating a Wilmington memory? Mission accomplished.
