Back in 1988 I had an inkling to fish Catalina Island in my 17 foot Sea Nymph with two buddies. Now in all fairness, this wasn’t just any normal aluminum boat. So, before you judge me for being a nutcase, I must tell you about my vessel. I bought it at North Hollywood Marine and the salesman was a very well-known bass tournament fisherman. He told me that airplanes were riveted to make them strong so I shouldn’t worry about taking this boat occasionally out on the ocean to go fishing. In all fairness to him, I really did punish this boat hitting some big waves at speed. Hence, the name my fellow fishing buddies named my boat was the Widow Maker, Ballbuster and of course E-Ticket.
I really rigged this boat for fishing the ocean by adding a Bimini Top and ¾ enclosure, a 27 gallon auxiliary gas tank with teak cutting board on top, (2) 6 gallon reserve tanks, Ray Jefferson 6 color fish finder, (9) Perko Bronze Rocket launcher rod holders, Loran, a 24 volt battery system for the 55 thrust ft.lb Minn Kota bow mounted foot operated trolling motor with extra long shaft, and a Icom VHF radio in case I needed a tow. You might say it was a bit of overkill, but it was an impressive little vessel. Unfortunately, being an aluminum boat, it was bow light and taking it to Catalina Island might be viewed as risky, since the ocean is a very unpredictable place. None the less, me and my buddies had no fear (and no brains), so off to Catalina Island we went.
We had no real game plan other than get to the island and fish the usual hot spots. Once we got there, fishing was on the slow side. We had no live bait but caught some mackerel on plastics and opted to put a couple into my live well. We were having a good time fishing and as the day progressed so did the afternoon winds so I decided it was time to head back across the channel but the swells were big and so I was forced to drive my vessel slowly to the relief of my passengers. About this time, I was getting an education on fishing for local Marlin and found an article on making a trolling bird out of wood. I made two birds that were approx. 15 inches in width on the wing span and 12 inches in length. I used 200 lb. Sevenstrand braided steel cable and attached it to the teaser bird. Then I attached my steel leader to a heavy duty solid rubber tiedown cord and then to a ¼ inch white nylon braided rope. It was a very beefy setup. I custom painted my birds to resemble mackerel. We were forced to go at slow trolling speeds and having some large mackerel in the live well for bait, I decided to bridle the baits with very large steel hooks. Trolling the two mackerel was slow going. We were getting bored having to move at such a slow speed and all of us sort of fell into a trance heading back to Newport Harbor.
Then, the clicker on one of my Penn 114 Senator reels started to scream and then it abruptly stopped. Bill, one of my buddies onboard, grabbed the rod and started to reel the line in. When he got it to the boat only the head of the mackerel was there. The bite marks were sharp and whatever bit the bait chewed it off less than an inch from the large steel hook. Then, the second Penn 114 reel clicker went off. We felt a thump then nothing. We reeled in the bait only to find the same scenario as the first rod. All of us onboard were very puzzled by what had just occurred and jointly thought a large shark had what I would say, was an easy snack.
We rigged the remaining one mackerel we had left in the live well and after it was placed over board then we heard what best can be described as a rubber band being stretched to it’s maxed limit of travel. The boat slowed down very abruptly almost stopping the vessel's forward progress and the rope tied to the wooden bird came flying back towards the stern of my vessel. The bird was gone! The 200 lb. steel leader was just a twisted frayed piece of cable. I put the boat into neutral and looked back into the wake but there were no signs of my wooden teaser bird. It was gone. There was a moment of silence between us as we looked at the end of the cable then Bill spoke, “I don’t know what ate your bird but I don’t want to hang around here to find out”. I put the shifter into gear and moved it quickly forward. There wasn’t anyone complaining about the rough boat ride home.
