Fishing (and gyotaku) January 03

Dennis and I started the year off by fishing on New Years Day.   It's Dennis' tradition to start the year doing something that he loves best, so we had planned to fish together on New Years Day.  Al, Dennis' long term fishing buddy, joined us at the boat at 6 AM, and we set out on a cold, bumpy day.  The weather was rough, and a small tournament that was scheduled for that day was cancelled, but we were planning to stay "on the inside" where the waters are calmer to do some rock codding, we went out anyhow.  As it turned out, the water was rougher than I've seen since my first albacore trip, and I was feeling a bit woozy for a while there.  We were all getting knocked around by the waves, and it was really cold, and the morning sun was blinding as it reflected off the water.  Furthermore, it was windy and my hair kept getting in my eyes.  This photo that Dennis took really shows my mood at the beginning of the day!

My fishing was less that stellar that day.  Three drops in a row, I got my lures stuck on the bottom.   I felt sort of like a moron standing there holding a pole that is hopelessly stuck, while Al and Dennis were gleefully reeling in fish.  I lost a lure and a few brand new sinkers first thing.  Somehow, I was still happy to be out in the cold, being tossed around, feeling ill, and getting stuck.  It's hard to explain...

After Dennis got tired of the first fishing spot, we moved to the old standby Red spot.  I like that spot for the simple reason that the Coronados look beautiful from there.  On the way there, I decided to lie down below.  I felt okay by then or I never would have gone below. Anyhow, I curled up among the tackle and fell sound asleep.  I woke up to Dennis saying "Great Al, let me get a picture!"  I guess sleeping on a boat is not like sleeping in a car -- you don't wake up when it stops moving!  They had stopped the boat ,and on their first drop got two of the biggest fish of the day.  I came to, and bundled up against the cold, and clumsily started fishing again.  I caught one or two salmon groupers, and a few short lings...I just wasn't together that day as far as fishing goes. 

After we (they) had limits of salmon grouper (in addition to the 7 reds, 4 ling cod, and 1 copper rockfish), we headed in against the rough swells.  Al drove the boat, and Dennis cleaned fish.  I took a nice shot of Dennis, and in the background there is a pelican tagging along beside the boat waiting for the discarded fish remains.

After Dennis finished cleaning the fish, We started on our Gyotaku project.  Dennis and I wanted to learn to make fish prints from the fish that we caught.  That's how the Japanese fisherman would record their catch, and it sounded fairly simple to do.  We looked on the internet and read about it.  It sounded fairly straightforward, so we brought paint, fabric, paper, paper towels, and brushes.    Al probably thought that Dennis had really lost it, but when he saw the art work, he was impressed.  As you can see from this picture that Dennis took, I was much happier at the end of the day than I was at the beginning of the day.

I finished up the prints the next day at home, and made a few new prints from a little red that I brought home.  To see more gyotaku that we did, click here

I finished up the prints the next day at home.