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