on the toronado

a couple of weeks ago, i went on my first overnight fishing trip. yes, i said overnight. and no, i'm not crazy.

we got to the long beach pier at about 8:30pm and anxiously anticipated boarding the boat, everyone seemed to be a bit worried, b/c “The Toronado” (the name of the boat) had caught almost nothing the past week AND it was getting in late, which usually meant that it had not been a good trip and the captain was trying to stay out longer to hopefully catch more fish.

at about 10pm, we got on board and everyone started scrambling to get all their gear ready. my friend gave me one job - get us good bunks, while everyone else was getting their gear ready. i ran down to the sleeping area, and managed to find 2 bunks - not located in the areas he said, but still OK. the bunks are about 2 feet wide and about 3 feet tall. no, it was not the four seasons.

otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful evening. i thought that it would be easier to fall asleep, since i usually sleep so well in long distance car rides and airplanes. well, i was wrong. i barely slept all night. the movement of the boat was so inconsistent that i kept tossing and turning, and just when i would fall asleep, i'd get woken up by some sudden jerk of the boat. keep in mind, i'm also NOT a morning person, so i was NOT a happy camper the next morning.

we were up at about 5:30am the next morning. i have to admit, waking up at the crack of dawn was not my favorite part of this whole experience. so i opted to wait until they started catching fish before I even tried to start fishing. call me lazy, i don't care.

also, i thought it would be nice to give my friend some peaceful fishing time before he had to start worrying about me and what fiasco i would get myself into. thankfully, i went on some smaller trips earlier in the summer, so i wasn't totally clueless.

we went out to this spot called “China Point” which is right off the coast of San Clemente. then BAM! people started catching calico bass. i caught a perch and a whitefish fairly quickly, and on my own - i might add. don’t ask me how i managed to catch the ONLY fish that NO ONE else was catching. but, i was still excited, and i thought it was good practice – so i stuck with it. mostly everyone else was using live bait, but I was doing so well with the squid, i didn’t want to ruin my groove. actually, squid is easier… you just let it drop to the bottom, and wait. whereas the live bait, you have to let those suckers swim their hearts out…. and it’s hard to tell sometimes when you have a bite or just an energetic sardine. i found my mind wandering at times, thinking about all those damned cartoons like "little mermaid" and "shark's tale" - wondering - "what are those poor sardines thinking as they're getting flung back into the ocean with a hook in their mouth?" i brought this up once, and got strange looks, so i let that random thought go.

(side note: i was a bit stressed about the whole trip. see, my friend that brought me on the trip, we have a bit of a "spicy" relationship. it's like when you order something spicy at a restaurant, sometimes you just don't know what it's going to be like - is it going to burn the shit of your mouth, and cause the outside of your lips to turn red? or will it be just the right taste? well, for us - it almost always burns! remember that commercial with the little boy holding up a finger next to his sister's face, and then whining "I'm not touching you!" - that's us. i love the guy to death, but our arguments can get pretty intense. ok - so the moment of truth - i cause a lot of the arguments. i'm mature enough to admit it. i have this horrible habit of excessive curiosity - i love to know why and love to play devil's advocate? at times, it can lead to great philisophical conversations. but other times, it can cause extreme frustration. what can i say? i'm a woman with a lot of opinions! his main area of concern was that i would actually hook a fish - and then lose it if i didn't listen to him. or worse, maybe not even hook one. surprisingly – it went well – not a single argument! but, trust me, it was definitely a conscious effort on my part ).

anyway, after some time with the bass, we eventually moved to another spot to try to catch yellowtail. i can't even begin to describe the energy on that boat, as soon as someone caught the first yellowtail. it was almost like when you're at a roulette table and you're watching that little ball spin around that wheel, hoping it'll land exactly on the number you picked. ok, so there's no monetary reward, but you get the point - it was intense! the deckhands stood in the middle, throwing out bait to entice the fish to come closer and they watch for yellowtail and scream out “look their boiling!” (please refer to my previous blog for terminology) it was so cool to see everyone scrambling around…. and to listen to the deckhands keep pointing out all the fish they saw – like, “over there, oh my God – 2 of them right there by the boat, hurry up and get your bait out there!” at one point, we were able to see a whole school of yellowtail come across the water… it was amazing.

so for my first adventure. . .
at one point, i went down to change, since the sun had come out and i was still wearing a wind breaker and a long sleeve T-shirt. as i was changing, i heard everyone screaming for me. i ran back up to the deck and this other guy that came with us told me to take off his belt, i had no idea what was going on, i mean, that’s a pretty strange request, right?!?! but in my head, i kept thinking – “just to do what they tell me” – so i grabbed the belt, and they told me to put it on. confused as ever, i’m putting on this strange belt, that looks like it has a little leather cup attached to it. (the belt is used for holding the rod steady, you actually put the end of the rod, into the cup). then I looked up and my friend was handing me his pole to reel in this yellowtail that he had hooked. i'm thinking "i can do this, i've reeled in fish before" - but it was so crazy! that freaking rod was so damned hard to hold steady. it felt like a person was hanging onto the end of it. ironically, the prior night - my friend tried to show me how heavy the fish would be. he had me hold the rod, and then he pulled down on the other end of the pole. i thought - "that's not too bad." well, it was 10 times heavier! i'm sure he got a laugh out of that.

so my friend stood next to me, coaching me very loudly - “lean back with the pole and then wind down! pull back, wind down!” and, since the fish was pulling, i had to follow the fish up the side of the boat… or actually my friend sort of grabbed my arm and took me across the boat. it was so neat to watch all the other people lift their rods, so i could go underneath them. but the whole time, you have to pull back and then wind down for what seems like hours! also, the belt was too loose and kept slipping. after much turmoil and a lot of sweat.... i could finally see the fish in the water. that moment was surreal.

what meant more, was to see the look on my friend's face when he saw how excited i was. and the fact that it was the first yellowtail that he had hooked on the trip so far, and he handed it over to me - was just indescribably sweet. he had no idea if i would lose the fish or not... but he didn't care. he was only concerned about letting me have the experience of trying to reel in the yellowtail. that moment meant more to me than you can imagine. (ok, enough of this heart strings stuff)

ok adventure #2. . later on, someone caught a halibut and my friend said, "we’re going to try to catch you a halibut." (remember in my earlier blog, when i said that halibut was the BEST fish to catch... this is why!) so he put on some squid for me, and told me to let it sink, and then wait. lo and behold, a few minutes later, i feel a little tug. i yank the rod up, to try to hook it, and i didn’t feel any movement, so i thought I was caught on something…. then our other friend says, "serena, i think you have something." so i keep reeling it in, and guess what? i did have something! it was so unbelievable, because I actually did this one myself (mostly). it was a pretty good size halibut too! i still wanted to catch a yellowtail, but everyone kept telling me that halibut was much more rare…. I think they were just trying to make me feel better. but i have to tell you - eating that sucker a couple of nights later - was AMAZING.

that's me and my halibut in the picture!

another exciting moment on the boat came at the end of the trip when they went to weigh all the fish, to see who won the jackpot. basically, it was $5 from each person ($150 total). so they had this scale that held two fish, and it would indicate which one was heavier. my friends fish was one of the first ones put on the scale. i watched with so much anxiety each time his fish came out bigger. in fact, i think i was jumping up and down being a bit obnoxious about it. so one by one, he beat out all the other fish, until they got to the last one, his other friend's fish. . . and he lost. i was very upset, but i guess at least he lost to someone that we knew, right? that's supposed to be better, right? so one of his yellowtail was the 2nd largest one on the boat - i think it weighed about 29 pounds. still pretty freaking amazing, right?

ok - so what was so cool about this? i guess to me, it's the idea of learning and understanding the essence of something. in this particular case, it's fishing. sure, just like with anything else, it involves development of a skill and lots of patience. think of all the people you know that love to fish, don't you ever wonder why? to be honest, i can't quite explain why i like it so much. i can venture a couple of guesses:

1) part of it is just a love of being out on a boat in the ocean. it makes me feel like i'm so far away. sometimes it feels nice to know that no matter what the emergency - i can't do anything anyway. (i think that comes from working at a hotel where i had 5 years of putting out fires)

2) another part of it is that it's quiet. ok, so anyone who knows me is probably thinking, wait serena, YOU'RE the one who always talks. but when i'm out on the boat - i enjoy the peacefulness, the calm. you have to pay attention, you have to focus, or else lose the fish.

3) it's an individual sport, kind of like golf. yes, there's always some level of competition involved, but most of the time it's a personal achievement. to me, it didn't matter if i caught 5 fish that i had to throw back (b/c they were too small) or caught 5 huge 30 pound fish.... i just wanted to catch stuff.

4) i have this bizarre obsession with learning sports that are traditionally male dominated. ok - i don't mean hockey or football, but realistic sports or games that i can play. i love video games, pool, bowling, fishing, and my newest obsession? POKER!

5) i also think that i have a huge amount of respect for this friend of mine that loves to fish. he is passionate to the tenth degree in everything that he loves, almost to the point of obsession - and that's such a cool vibe. he's also really great and being able to take these passions and try to share the experience of them with you. there are things that he loves that i cannot even begin to try to understand... but fishing, i can try to get.

i love the extreme - the passion that drives people. ok, so i guess like many other interests in my life at one time or another - i want to become obsessed with it long enough to be able to do it well, to be consumed with it, and then move on to something else. i don't ever have to be an expert, i'll be happy just being to hold my own. but this one i hope to keep for awhile.

overall, i guess i just want to keep learning and experiencing as much as i can. but not just on the surface. i would like to get to the essence or the soul of a sport, a game or an art.... this is what life is all about right?

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. ~Eartha Kitt

fishing 101

believe it or not... i like to fish.

or actually, i liked to fish the way i did when i lived in New Orleans. a group of friends would get on a boat with food, liquor and fishing gear. we'd fish, eat, lay out, sleep, drink and continue the cycle until it was time to head back to shore. (remember, i was living in NEW ORLEANS where laziness is a pastime and drinking is as part of the culture as shaking hands) who wouldn't love that, right?

so, when i found out that a friend of mine loved to go fishing, i begged him to take me. as i described to him how we fished in new orleans, he went on to explain to me... "serena, that's not fishing." i didn't understand. you don't usually drink hard liquor on fishing trips? girls always wear bikinis, right? can i still wear my "shut up and fish" hat?

nevertheless, i pleaded for him to take me...

first, he took me freshwater fishing at irvine lake. pretty fun trip. i'm able to catch a few fish, but the best part? as he was reeling in the huge fish he hooked, that sucker jumped about 5 - 6 inches OUT OF THE WATER. i am not exxagerating. of course the whole time, i'm so damned excited that i don't know whether to get out of the way or God forbid, (gulp) try to help him. i opt to get out of the way. he manages to snag a 7.1 pound trout. can i get whoop, whoop?

that's him holding the fish in the picture. and that next picture - that's me holding the same fish, but oddly, its a lot bigger in my picture, i thought that was pretty funny, but i don't think he thought that was funny at all. the rest are just random pictures i took throughout the day.

(side note: my friend is a fishing fanatic... he has an artillery of fishing gear. i think i saw maybe 40 poles, all lined up in little pole-holders, it kind of looks like the frames that pool halls use to hold pool sticks. i would go on to tell you what else he has, but i have no idea what all the little thingamijiggies are called. anyway, he's a fishing nut, but a pretty damn good fishing nut.)

one night, i happen to be hanging out with my friend and found out there was still room on this big trip that they're planning to take in june. my eyes lit up. that's the weekend right before my birthday! what a great way to celebrate!

after much debating with my friend:
"are you sure you want to go on such a big trip first?"
"yes, but will helping me keep you from having a good time?"
"as long as you do what i say, it'll be fine"
"uh, do you remember who you're talking to? me? do what you say?"
nevertheless, he made the arrangements... and i was booked!

ok - before i continue i believe it is necessary to cover some fishing terminology and what i will call my own guide to fishing. i'm sure i'll get some of these wrong, but what the hell, right? besides, i'm sure i'll get a call from my friend to correct me. but remember, this is just a small intro to the world of fishing for beginners. here goes...

boil, boiling - this refers to what happens when yellowtail are in an area looking for their next meal, there some type of flipping action that takes place that causes the water to look like it's boiling.

halibut - THE BEST AND HARDEST FISH TO CATCH EVER (haha, just kidding - you'll understand this one later)

bait - the prey for the predator - basically, it's carrot on the stick that snags the fish, cheese on the mousetrap, you get the point, right? but, alas - there are a few different types (live, plastic, jigs, etc).

live bait - this type of bait is pretty much just like it sounds, it's still alive. (ex: mackeral, anchovies or sardines, worms -for freshwater, or even squid). sadly you chuck these slimy suckers into the water with a hook in their mouth, use them for a few minutes - and then throw them away. but they're great to use because even though they're hooked, they still swim around. i keep imagining what THEY are thinking as they're being flung out into the water.

plastic - this type is probably a little more well known... it's these little rubbery things that look like a fat gummi worm - only the colors tend to be a bit more drab.

jig, jigger - this bait should be used by people who know what they're doing, since it's usage involves a bit more skill and knowledge of the mind of a fish. basically - it's long, oval-shaped, pointy at both ends and looks like it's ceramic, but isn't. it usually has a hook with three points at the end.

deep color, "i see some color" - this means that someone actually sees the fish that they're trying to reel in. keep in mind, that it takes awhile to get that fish brought in. you spend a lot of the time reeling in, then letting it go out - because those fish put up a good fight. so when you finally see it in the water, you have to call for help to get the sucker into the boat.

gaff - this is a huge pole with a sharp, thick hook at the end. it's used by the deckhands to help you pull the fish in.

casting - the act of throwing the end of your fishing rod, the part with the hook and bait, out into the water. this sounds much easier than it looks though. it involves just the right combination of the right flick of the wrist, a thorough follow through, and knowledge of the weight of your bait. (wow that rhymed!)

OK - now for some little tips:
(please note: this is nothing compared to what you need to learn to actually catch the fish)

Tip 1 - always watch your bait, while you're casting. b/c, as i'm told, if you don't pay attention, you could inadvertently hook a fellow fisherman instead of a fish. (ladies, by "hook" i mean that yes, you will get his attention, but he will also have a hook attached somewhere to his body, usually accompanied by bleeding... so it's not the good type of attention)

Tip 2 - really paying attention to the line and how tight it is getting winded back onto the reel. i saw one guy, with a freaking bird's nest attached to his fishing pole. also, i didn't do too great of a job with it either, and had to watch my friend spend FOREVER fixing the line. (BTW: that bird's nest? it's called "backlash" and remember... backlash is bad.)

Tip 3 - when someone says coming through - they really mean coming through. when someone's got a big fish, they have to let the fish drag them a bit, and that means that they are often having to scurry along the rail. when that happens, you HAVE to watch and determine the quickest method of getting out of the way.... or else be the reason someone loses their fish.

Tip 4 - this one's more of an FYI - my friend told me this one... 10% of the people on a boat usually catch about 90% of the fish. amazingly, it's been pretty much on target for the last two trips i went on. the point? if you don't know what you're doing, don't fret if you don't catch anything AND - if you want some help, ask the guys who just pulled in a 30 pound fish, NOT the guy standing next to you, just cause he looks friendly.

Tip 5 - wear clothes and shoes that you don't really care about. because they will smell like fish. not to mention the fact, that most of the time, you're walking and squishing on dead bait.

Tip 6 - when you're standing around, you should always face outward. throughout the trip, the deckhands will throw bait (over your head) and into the water. obviously, since the bait is wet, if you happen to be facing them - expect some nasty bait well water in your eye.

Tip 7 - if you're lucky enough to hook a fish, when you go to pull it in, leave it in the water until someone can help you get it into the boat. i know the anxiety of seeing your catch is exciting, but it won't be exciting for long if the fish starts shaking it's head so much that it gets unhooked before you pull it in, which can happen easier if they're hanging in thin air.

Tip 8 - eat the food in the galley. i swear i had the best costco patty cheeseburger i have ever had in my life. i hear the galley food is always hella good.

Tip 9 - invest in what i will call a "rod holder" - it's a belt that you put on like you put on one of those fanny packs. only this one is made of leather, and has a little cup that you can insert the end of the rod into. this is where you can put the pressure of the rod to help you hold the rod steady, and also save your groin from a nasty bruise.

Tip 10 - if you are going to go on a hardcore trip like this, go with someone who knows what they're doing. my friend is the only reason i had such a great time, because i have to give him props, he knows his fishing shit. first of all, you need gear (rods, reels, line, bait, weights, hooks, etc). then, you need to know which poles to use to catch which fish with which bait with which weight. confusing yet? see what i mean?

also, people that know how to fish, actually understand how the fish think, how they take the bait and also how they try to run with it. this helps SO MUCH, because they can tell you the best way to get that fish in.

Tip 11 - there's some joke about eating the heart of the first yellowtail you catch. it's a myth. don't do it. (i didn't hook one on my own, so no one tried to get me to do it, but someone told me later it's a joke they play on newbies)

Tip 12 - be nice to the deckhands. they are "priceless" on these trips. they wil help you with just about everything you need. they make their money on cleaning the fish for you and tipping... so be sure to remember that at the end of the trip.

Tip 13 - keep switching the bait. the ones that are starting to die out on you aren't as feisty. it's a pain in the ass, but it helps. that means that you should also pick the ones that are swimming harder.

Tip 14 - HAVE FUN

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope. ~John Buchan

my first blog

ok, i finally had to give in - i have now joined the blogging world. i thought about going through friendster, but thought that it would suck to have my thoughts just out there for anyone to be able to just click onto.... though i know, anyone could find my blog here, at least, it's a little more discreet.

i tried to stay connected through emails, since the larger portion of my nearest and dearest live in different timezones (and don't get updates on my latest adventures). but, it seems that it's better to put my thoughts out there, so people can CHOOSE whether or not they'd like to know what I'm thinking or doing..... and i can still (sort of) choose who i share them with too. who knows, maybe i'll never share this with anyone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nah, that wouldn't be like me at all.

for me, it's like me keeping a journal.... simple as that.

so, here i am 32, celebrating my birthday all week. at first the anticipation of getting older seemed somewhat generically depressing. i'm a woman, not married, not even in a relationship - i'm supposed to be depressed, right? (especially since it seems that all those nearest and dearest i referred to? they are ALL either married, with kids, popping out babies this year or getting engaged.)

ironically, as the date drew closer, i actually found a strange sense of excitement about it. someone told me once, that being single in my 30's would be the best years of my life. i could never believe that possible, because for me - college was the best. a time of self-development, figuring out who i was to become, what i believed in, who i could trust, and above all - partying like nothing else mattered.

but sitting here now, i realize that i actually feel pretty euphoric (no there were no illegal substances involved). the happiest years of my life thus far were my years of trying to figure out who i am.... now i know who i am, and i'm learning to build upon it, and i'm still able to change and grow and it feels freakin great. just this past weekend, i learned something about myself that i didn't like, and i started working on it. one of my dearest friends told me yesterday that it was something that she always thought was cool about me that i could recognize my own faults... a great compliment, in my opinion.

the best part of my birthday? the phone calls and emails that i got. i heard from old friends, new friends, people that i had lost touch with, people that i didn't even remember, and it felt so good. (i think the friendster announcement helped). it was like taking a sip of cognac, when you feel it slowly warming the inside of your body. amazing feeling... to realize how lucky you are, to have had such great people in your life.

i've said this a million times, i am who i am because of my friends, because of what they've taught me and what they have brought to my life. my parents set the mold, they gave me the skin and the bones - but my friends, they filled in all the rest.... and i love them for it. and as i turned 32 this year. that's what i was the most thankful for.

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse