Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
Most of my best friends are fishermen and fisherwomen. My friends that do not wet a line can probably tell you a little bit of something about fishing just because they have to hear so much about it from me.
I remember one time about 15 years ago when my wife (actually she was my girlfriend at the time) set up one of her coworkers with a buddy of ours. He ran a private boat that traveled the world chasing marlin and sailfish. The coworker was either a bartender or a waitress. I forget where my wife, Jen, was working at the time, but she always worked in either a bar or a restaurant during her summer break from school. For those of you that do not know, my wife is a teacher. Even her students know that she is married to a fishermen and that she fishes herself from all of the Coastal Fisherman cut-outs on her classroom bulletin board. But I digress. So Jen set our buddy up to meet her coworker. A group of us all met over at the Reel Inn for drinks and some nonsense. The group was comprised of several boat captains and mates, their significant others and the coworker (maybe I should call her CW for short).
About an hour or so into the evening, Jen’s friend from work, wait, I’m sorry, CW called a halt to the conversation. She looked around at all of the guys at the table and questioned whether or not any of us had ever been intimate with a woman. She actually phrased it a little differently, but I know Larry’s content editing preferences and I figure I will save him some time.
CW said, “When Jen and I get home from work we don’t talk about how many tables we had. We don’t discuss how many tables we think we might have tomorrow or how many customers come in and get drunk right away. Or how many customers come in, look at the bar, and don’t order anything. But not you guys. All I have heard is how many fish you caught today. How you can’t wait to go back and catch more fish tomorrow. Where will the fish be tomorrow. What bait will the fish want to eat tomorrow. Fish! Fish! Fish!” She then went on to propose what she felt would be a more desirable list of topics for discussion. It was a wide range of subjects varying from politics, to religion, maybe animal cruelty, or perhaps even starving children living in the streets. Anything but fish, fishing, the band Phish or any children’s card games with the word fish in the title.
I don’t recall much of what happened after CW had her little fit about our conversation. Knowing my friends, I would imagine we went back to talking about fish, ordered some more drinks and told some more fish stories after consuming said drinks. I do remember, however, that CW never came back out with us, and my buddy definitely did not get a goodnight kiss at the end of the date.
Like I said before, most of my best friends are fishing folks. For the past week, I have been surrounded by people that love to fish and weather that has kept them from going fishing. Today was the first day that anybody fished offshore since Hurricane Hermine passed by our little beach town. So you know I usually write my “Fish Stories” the Wednesday or Thursday before the issue hits the streets. This week it is Wednesday. All day long there was much speculation about how Marli Mark and Jeremy on the “Wrecker” did today. We all could not wait to hear the results. Would the white marlin still be around? Were the tunas still ravenous in the corner of the Washington? Would the water be all junked up, or did the storm push in some pretty blue water and nice weed edges? By lunch time I felt like CW. I was tired of talking about fishing. Actually I wasn’t, but I just couldn’t take any more of the speculation.
We finally got our answers, and it was a bit of yes, no and maybe. Between the two boats there were Atlantic dolphinfish, tunas, white marlin and blue marlin caught. The water was a blended blue, but it didn’t sound like there was much in the way of weeds or junk. But there were fish. And many of us are heading out tomorrow. It didn’t sound like the tunas were jumping into the boats, but there were more than a couple marlin raised between the two boats. Like I said, my friends fish, and tomorrow we are heading back out to fish again. And we are excited to do it.
Speaking of excited about fishing, I get to do something a bit different in a few days. You, my loyal reader, will already know how it turned out, but as I write this I am also getting mentally prepared to fish a new tournament. The Ocean City Light Tackle Club and the Ocean City Marlin Club are holding an angler shootout event. I am dusting off my angling gloves and borrowing two rods and reels from my wife to fish as an angler in the competition. Should I be lucky enough to hook anything, this will mark the first bluewater fish I personally have turned the reel handle on in a couple of years. Hopefully the fishing is good, but more importantly, I am looking forward to fishing with some of the OCLTC guys and making a few more fishing friends. After all, most of my best friends fish…..
Capt. Franky Pettolina is Co-Captain of the charter boat, “Last Call” and President of the Ocean City Marlin Club.
