Capt Erik shares how his plan came together, in this heart warming tale of 3 generations fishing together on their “new to them” 17ft Boston Whaler Montauk.
Capt Erik: Sometimes I feel like I’m crossing the line of exposing, experiencing, & sharing time with my oldest son into indoctrinating him into becoming someone who loves fishing. Which is why I choose to limit the amount of time we’re out trolling so that he doesn’t become bored or feel like I forced him. I balance his ocean loves (swimming, snorkeling & most: night torching) with some trolling & whipping. This fishing trip was AWEsome.
I decided that we would do an evening troll after work for a couple hours since I had a longer work week & needed to get out the oldest son out of the house to break away from the distance learning schedule. The bonus was that dad was able to go with us. The plan was to blast straight out to an area that I heard was biting & see if we could get something on the way in. 3 hours max to make it in before sunset, park boat at home and I’d wash it in the morning before I head to work. We headed out from the pier & my son took his favorite place at the bow and hemo’d his shirt before we took the boat off the trailer. I saw some rain squalls 10 minutes out & told him to put his rain jacket on just in case. He must’ve been tired from standing on the bow & bracing himself because he laid on the seat to nap. Since we were slowed for him to don his rain gear and we saw some birds diving & circling already I looked at the fish finder and noticed opelu schools.
“Dad we go put em out already?” I asked. “Yup!” Dad responded. As my son caught some ? not even 5 minutes into the lines hitting water the starboard line starts going ZzzzZzzzZzzZ. Dad takes the wheel, I try waking my son up but he’s in a deep sleep & start bringing in the center longline. Wind squall is starting & the cold air-drizzles begin. Fish is still on while I pull the center line lure in & decide to leave the port side lure out. Cranking in the fish I see an ono thrash on the port side line ? & after another quick jerk of its body it’s free. I get the ono to the boat & realize the one treble hook it’s hooked on the outside of its mouth & the fish still has some life left. No time to waste “Husssss” gaffed right in body.
I tried waking my son gently but let him rest as the rain was now consistent. 1 on the boat within 30 minutes of launching. Dad and I did a big circle to try and let the rain pass knowing we’d be following it if we turned around and went straight back in. My son woke a little while after and was surprised to see the fish. He was still groggy and the rain squall wasn’t moving so we decided to rush em in. We got pelted by rain and it was so thick at one point the gps couldn’t connect to the satellite. The heavy white-out rain only lasted a minute and through it all not one peep from my son. No complaining , not scared and just sitting there watching me and his Papa laugh at the situation. Of course the calm came after the rain and it was a beautiful and little chilly drive into the bay. Had plenty time to wash at pier and head home to let my youngest play with the fish and take pics.
And when we got home my oldest told everyone “WE caught a big fish.” I loved hearing that. He may not have seen the fight but he was onboard and still felt a part of the catch. He was the good luck charm!