We set up camp of which the most recent addition has been a rubber mallet. What a great tool to get a spike in, and it's a much more body friendly alternative than using the butt and body weight method. The eels were moved back to the eel keeper and hung in the water and we baited up and cast. One hour, nothing. We checked the lines and casted again, still nothing. A bit later we checked the baits again and as Doug was reeling he got grabbed!
"I was reeling in and it felt like the current was taking it, but then I was like whoa whoa . . . " was how he described the hook up. Even though I was working with an eel with Will and wasn't watching, I knew he was on by the zzzzzzzzip zzzzip zzzzzzzzzzzz. You hear that sound, look up and see a 10ft rod bent over like a noodle, and that is one of the coolest things in fishing I have come across so far. And the best part is that it's done from the shore! Doug used his rod, reel, and muscles and Will used his willpower to leader the shark onto shore. It did one of those 360 snapping twirls and just as quickly Will did a backwards leap no look jump back. After the shark calmed down, the requisite photographs were taken, and the fish was released back into the water. Job well done. That would be it for the evening.
 |
| The natural world is not always nice. But 'nice' is just an abstract philosophical concept anyway. What we witnessed was a shark that had laid some teeth into an eel. |
What I've discovered with having the summer an operational fishing season is that I have to suffer from the same lack of sleep syndrome as the fall fishing season. It's easy to fish until 1:00am and get up for work at 6:30am here and there, but too much of that is unbalanced. I'd really love to not have to work and keep the 1:00am closing time, but that would lead to more unbalance, so even though the weather was okay I didn't fish the next few nights. I was very excited our team got a shark, but it's going to take more than one hit in three and half hours for me to go into a sleep deficit.
 |
| Getting that green light to dance is what the night bite is all about, but the B-grade stuff like being outside, nice moon views, UFO sightings, and hanging out with friends I guess is alright, too. |
Two more local sessions yielded a dead sea. I fished with Doug, Nick from Charlie's Bait and Tackle and his buddy Jimmy, and the best that happened was the landing of a stingray and Jimmy's no fear attitude of hook removal and release. That was the best landing, but the most interesting thing to happen was the rod that got pulled out of the sand spike and was heading to sea, only to be saved just in time. Whatever it was took it all. The big hit was encouraging, but I could just 'feel' they weren't there and by 10:20pm I decided to pack it in. Another night, this time with live eels and the accompaniment of Rick and Steve, yielded nothing but eel balls. THAT IS IT! I REFUSE to fish the local beach for the several remaining weeks of summer. HA that will show them!
Our team has landed three sharks, one sand tiger and two sandbars, in addition to two legitimate bite-offs. There are four weeks left of summer. The definition of someone who is uncreative is one who does the same thing over and over and expects a different result. I will not be a dullard and fish the same unproductive water just because it is easier. From here, it's nothing at all or it's something different . . .
