Whistling, Pea Soup, and Bananas?? 81 Fish, Stillhouse Fishing Guide’s Report, 13 July 2013






Whistling, Bananas, and Split Pea Soup??

81 Fish, Stillhouse Hollow, 13 July 2013

This morning I fished with Mike S. and his two adult sons, Danny and Buddy, all from the Yakima River Valley in Washington.

(L to R) Danny, Mike, and Buddy racked up a nice total of 81 fish, 78 of which came on the downriggers.

Danny is a Private First Class in one of the Special Troops Battalions on Fort Hood where he serves as a Combat Engineer. Mike and Buddy are employed by the same commercial fishing operation based out of Seattle where Mike serves as the engineer on the F/V Courageous and Buddy works in the human resources department.

The very consistent summer patterns that have been in place since early June continued today. The fish have a remarkable definite preference for horizontally worked baits, thus, we worked the downriggers heavily today.

Our first fish came aboard just minutes prior to sunrise in the “box” bounded by Areas 1237/1233/459/1238. We stayed on these fish for 3 hours consistently boating both singles and doubles, and regularly taking fish on both rods at once. The Pet Spoon rig was the go-to bait.

Twice today upon seeing a strong congregation of fish in the lower 1/3 of the water column seemingly milling in one area, we stopped and attempted casting and vertical jigging. Both times our catch rate dropped well below what we had enjoyed while downrigging. Also, while keeping an eye on nearby boats we saw very few fish brought in by any fisherman sitting in one spot and vertical jigging.

We spent our last 90 minutes or so at the area bounded by Areas 884/250/251. As we found earlier, fish were suspended at around 27 feet deep over a deeper bottom. We downrigged successfully here, too.

I really enjoyed conversing with these fellows about the commercial fishing industry. Mike and Buddy’s company specializes in long-lining (think a very deep, very long trotline in cold saltwater) for bottom-dwelling species like pacific cod and sable fish.

By the time all was said and done, we’d boated 5 largemouth bass and 76 white bass. As we were just about to wrap up, Mike cracked open his cooler for a snack and pulled out a banana. There is a good bit of superstition in fishing circles concerning bringing bananas on board, as they are thought by some to adversely impact the fishing. Well, Buddy called his dad on this faux pas, and that got the ball rolling about other fishing superstitions. It seems some common saltwater no-no’s include leaving port for a long trip on a Friday, eating split-pea soup (this is supposed to bring stormy weather), and whistling in the wheelhouse. Mike was actually sternly corrected by a Norwegian captain of his once who told him quite directly, “Hey there, no vhistling in the vheelhouse!!”.

As Mike and Buddy described how a typical trip is conducted, I observed this sounded much like the routine shown on “Deadliest Catch” where they are targeting crab in the same Alaskan waters. Although Mike did say he’s seen icy decks and the like, his captain was no fan of “group hugs”!!

TALLY = 81 FISH, all caught and released

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TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 6:20a

End Time: 11:15a

Air Temp: 81F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: 85.5F

Wind: Winds were S6 at sunrise and slowly turned W then WNW at < 3mph
Skies: Fair with < 30% cloud cover.

Bob Maindelle

Holding the Line Guide Service

254-368-7411

www.HoldingTheLineGuideService.com

Salado, Texas