Byline: Karen “Gilligan” Soo
Seven NCS members and guests ventured out to San Francisco Bay on July 23
for a day of salmon fishing. With 2 doses of Dramamine in my system and my motion sickness band on my wrist, I was ready to go. Most of us got up as early as 4:00am to meet at 5:00am at the Emeryville Marina where Tom Ryugo and I met our fellow castaways.
Everyone checked in, handed over $5.00 for the “Biggest Catch” cash pot, and we were on our way.
The boat headed north to somewhere between Stinson Beach and Point Reyes, it felt like 2 hours of surfing the waves. Most of us went below deck, trying to catch quick naps before arriving at our designated hot fishing spot.
When the boat finally stopped, I had no idea where we were. There was no land in sight – only the ocean, clouds and the horizon. We dropped our lines and waited. And waited and waited and waited and waited. Where’s the fish?
I, myself was trying very hard to keep my eye on the horizon while the boat was rocking left to right. I started to feel a “little weird” something was about to happen. I breathed and thought about my Yoga poses. Downward Facing Dog, BREATHE, Child’s Pose, BREATHE, Happy Baby Pose, BREATHE. Thinking of U2 songs playing through my head. Geez, its only 10:30am, when is this boat turning back?
Former NSC member Bill Kumagai asked me to do a dance to attract the salmon. I said no way I was taking my hand off the railing. Two hours passed and nothing was biting. Tom was tossing his cookies and I just held onto the railing in front of me and looked out into the horizon. The boat kept rocking left to right, left to right.
Bill Kumagai, an accomplished graphic artist, made a really nice ink drawing of salmon swimming in the ocean. We all signed it and gave it to Captain Harry of the Newseeker as a token of our appreciation. Captain Harry has taken NSC on these fishing trips for the past 8 years.
With such good karma, Bill finally caught a salmon, 7 pounds and barely legal at 24 inches. WHOO WHEE. Does that mean that it’s salmon feeding time? No such luck. That unfortunate salmon must of gotten lost, found Bill’s hook and met his doom. Lucky for Bill, he won the cash pot for the biggest fish and the only fish.
Tom Ryugo reeled in a 23 ½” long salmon, only to find out that it was a ½” short of the legal requirement length. He also reeled in 2 undersized ling cods which have an extension on sea life. He had to throw them back into the ocean. Other people landed four silver salmon which had to be released (Silvers are considered endangered in CA).
By 2:00pm, we where heading back to the bay area. The sun finally came out and although the rest of the people on the boat “got “skunked”, We had a good time rocking on the boat and testing our patience. Until Next year…
