Reel Problems

We should have had 4. But through a series of misfortunes we came back with one. The first time the Reel wouldn’t reel and it got off. The second time the Reel would reel, but the line began stretching and snapped. The third time, now using a different reel, it broke as soon as the line began whizzing off at 50mph. But this time I snatched line and gripped the pole and held on while our guide grabbed the line and began reeling it in the black man way.

Well here is what happened. While packing in the U.S. I packed some fishing rod and reels to do some fishing here in SL. I got what I thought would be decent equipment for doing some light saltwater fishing, like one would do along the Gulf of Mexico. Well that is not really the type of fishing I did today. Today we went big game fishing. By the grace of God we were able to get one on the boat. The morning started off kind of slow with John, Pepe, and I doing some trolling for about an hour before our first strike happened. The fish hit Pepe’s bait and this was the first time Pepe, a Chilean missionary with Willamette, had ever gone fishing and his third time on a boat. So when the rod tried to yank out of his hands he held on, but didn’t know how to reel. He passed it on to John, but then the reel would turn, maybe it needed grease, or the fish was to big. Well that one got off.

The next one hit hard with same series as before but then the reel was passed on to me with a monster fish on the line. It was to much for the rig, while trying to reel it looked like the reel itself was going to snap of the pole. In less than a minute of fighting the line was stretching and fraying apart, it snapped. In hindsight we should have loosened the drag and fought the fish for an hour, but hey I haven’t big game fished before.

So after that we took John back to the shore so he could do some puking, he was sea sick. We were in a 16 foot boat made out of 1x12’s and 2x4’s with a 15hp engine in 4-5 foot waves, 3 miles off the coast. So there was good reason to be sea sick.

On our way back out to the fishing grounds Pepe hooked another one using a reel we borrowed from a fisherman and the anti-reverse was not on when a big barracuda struck the hook and reel went out of control and that is when I snagged the line and stopped the fish. I passed the line to the guide was calling for it and he began reeling it in one pull at a time… once the fish got close it fought harder and he waited till it got tired and pulled it closer. The water was really clear so it became apparent while the fish was still 15 or so feet away that is was a 4 foot barracuda. Once we got it to the boat the guide hooked it in the side with a pole with a big hook attached to the end. He pulled it up against the side of the boat and instead of pulling it on in he reached for a club which was preceded by him beating it ruthlessly in the head until it was finished. Then pulled it on board and after half an hour of untangling line we were on our way.

That was the biggest event of the day, I had one more hit later on in the day, but it instantly snapped the steel leader instead of my braided line!

We switched gears and tossed the anchor out and caught some smaller lady fish using small fish for bait. After that we headed for shore and Tommy my friend at the beach cut the Barracuda in half and made nice steaks out of the meat and I went for a swim and then headed home.

Once I got home I took out 2 of the fish steaks and prepared them with Olive oil, fresh garlic and onions, added some beach styling seasoning packed for by dad, salt and pepper and let it soak while I cleaned up. I fired up my stove and put those 1inch fillets in the pan and let them cook for 4 minutes on each side and took them out, heated up some rice and ate the best meal I have made here so far. As usual Titus was skeptical of my cooking, but after one bite he leaned over and pushed the door shut and said so sweet.