Fishing With Good Company: A Boat Full Of FishAholics

You know you’re a part of something great when a group of people, many whom have never met before, come together for a single event.  Traveling over 4 hours in some instances to be with other individuals that share the same beliefs that you do.

At a young age, we have been told how to live life.  Our parents told us what was wrong and what was right.  Our teachers told us how to learn this and how to learn that.  As we grew older, we began discovering ourselves.  We started making friends with people who loved doing what we did. 

 

Have you ever asked an old friend why they are friends with you?  If you ask them enough questions about it, they’ll start describing themselves.  You’ll soon realize that by describing themselves, they’re describing who you are as well.

You both share a common set of values and beliefs.

This is why the FishAholics family is so tight knit.  It’s filled with individuals that share the same passion and believe in the same values.  We all love to fish, we all know the struggles of visiting Skunkville and we all know the joy of catching that personal best.  We’ll encourage one another to keep at it.  We’ll congratulate one another when we succeed.  It’s what a FAmily does.

So thanks to the coordination between Tony Knust and Donalld Kellogg, we were able to plan a charter fishing trip for the FAmily.  This was a rock cod trip held on the Endeavor out of Morro Bay.  We filled up the boat with 34 FishAholics in less than 24hours after announcing it.

 

It was a cold morning.  The wind and ocean spray from the boat didn’t help keep us warm.  It took about an hour to get to the fishing grounds.  Fatigue and cold was no longer an issue as soon as our lines hit the water.  We kept the deck hand busy as soon as our lures hit the ocean floor with fish on, one after another.

Anglers were using a variety of lures and bait.  Some were using large swimbaits, heavy metal jigs and cut squid.

We were moving from location to location fishing islolated reefs on the ocean floor.  Some were more productive than others.  On some drifts over these reefs, it was loaded with fish.  The crew had a hard time keeping up with all the fish being caught that day.  Most of the smaller rock fish were released.  Several lingcod were caught as well.

Anglers on both sides of the boat were battling it out as the current drifted their lines around one another.  Even with a tangled mess, members were still able to land several fish.

The kicker was a soupfin shark caught by Cha Xyong.  It made for an epic battle that soon turned out to be a group battle.  Somehow while reeling in the shark, it managed to wrap itself with several other lines.  We had anglers trying to reel in the shark from both sides of the boat.  In the end, the shark broke Cha’s rod and snapped his line.  Luckily angler’s on the other side were able to reel it in.  The catch was the cherry on top for the charter trip.

Seems like we always have stories to tell when we have FishAholics events.  Like when Beau Bettencourt caught the biggest ling cod on board.  On one of our drifts over the reef, he hooked into a smaller fish.  While reeling it in, a larger ling cod grabbed onto the hooked fish.  It let go right at the surface.  Luckily the deck hand was already prepared and gaffed it right as it started to swim away.  The fish came in at 18lbs.

In total, the boat caught over 350 fish by early noon.  The Jackpot went to Yee Vang for his 13lb ling.  We had several pounds of fillets per angler as the crew prepared our fish on our ride back.

 

Great memories are made when we share it with others.  When we fish with people who share the same passion.  Even when lines tangled and frustration was high, we were respectful of each other.  These are the kind of trips I want to be on.  A boat full of FishAholics.  Fishing with good company.