Rusty - Fishing Trip

“Oh I got me a marlin!!”

Ok, so I said that scuba was the most fun but I have to retract that statement. Fishing has to take the cake for most fun. Running on about 2 hours of sleep, I set off from the lodge at 6 a.m. on a journey with fellow students to go fishing. It turned out to be the sketchiest thing we did, which tops going into convenience stores and being stared at by the security guards who openly walked around with their pistols ready to take somebody down. If my memory is correct, there wereabout 10 of us piled into a boat that would be considered full at about 6 people. That, mixed with open water isn’t a good combination, especially when everyone wants to move from side to side on the boat just for the fun of it. I think at any one point in time, someone could be seen pulling a Kevin Costner in Waterworld, and leaning completely outside of the boat in an attempt to counteract everyone else rushing to the side where the fish was being brought in. Now to others, it may have all been about having fun, but I was prepared to catch a fish that would provide me with a story to rival Hemingway. The last time I went fishing, I was probably 12 years old, and I had no clue what I was doing. My friend and I were using shrimp to fish off of the bridge in Pensacola and, of course, didn’t catch anything. Luckily for us, Michael, was in charge of fishing for the entire lodge, so he was used to just going out and bringing back loads of fish, so all it took was a matter of time before we were reeling them in. The first few people went and they were bringing in decent size fish, but nothing really big. I think McDowell brought in the first fish that ever made me question getting in the ocean in water that was somewhat deep. We were a few hundred yards off the shore and he reeled in what’s called a needle fish. Needless to say, a needle fish has teeth that are like, of course, needles. To show us how strong the teeth were Michael held the fish up to the metal canopy and let the fish chomp down. The sound was like dragging nails on a car. Seriously? That thing is in the water that we were just cooling off in not 10 minutes ago? I stayed in the boat untilwe got back to the lodge. Mid-day and it was my turn to test my luck. I was on the back of the boat for maybe 10 minutes before my line started jumping. Everyone in the boat stopped moving long enough for me to actually maintain my balance and try to bring it in. Clearly a novice, I just yanked as hard as I could and left the fish behind. We circled the boat back around and re-baited my hook. This time it only took about 5 minutes before the same fish latched back on. I set the hook and the battle was on. Between my fellow anglers rocking the boat every direction except the one I was expecting and the beast on the other end of my line, I had some work cut out for me. Just reeling this thing in wasn’t the way to go. I called on what few shows I had seen about fishing and did whatever I could remember. I sat down in one of the seats and planted the butt of the rod into mystomach. I remembered seeing these professional fishermen pull the pole back, basically bending it into a “U,” then letting the pole back down while simultaneously reeling as fast as they could. After about 2 or 3 of these moves, my fish was at the top of the water and was as good as caught. It looked massive! When I got it into the boat I couldn’t help but let out a victorious yell. It was a needle fish and was the biggest anyone had caught yet. I was proud of what I had caught and took the usual picture posing with my fish before tossing it back into the water.