Fishing for the first time

I just gave Nagy Blog a new skin. I wanted to give this journal a little color so here it is.

Yesterday afternoon, I took off for the marina for a change of air and maybe an evening sail. The wind was blowing easterly. That means a big swell from the open sea and a bumpy ride at best. I decided to wait an hour or so until the day breeze would die with the lowering sun. It was pretty hot as usual in August in Spain, so I opened the bimini sun awning over the cockpit to shade the cockpit. I took a fanta and a slice of watermelon from the fridge and settled down to relax and take in the sea air and listen to the sounds of the port.

After a time, my dock neighbors arrived, bait and cooler in hand, ready to go out fishing with their grandson. They have a small cabin motorboat with 95hp Evinrude motor on the stern. They like to catch squid off shore.

The Levante wind was still blowing strongly, so they thought better of it and began setting up fishing from the cockpit of the boat. Their grandson began playing on the dock with his spiderman figurines, letting them down into the water on a string so they could "swim".

I have a fishing rod that I got with a few flies and paraphernalia at a sports store, but have never fished anything.

We began chatting and they agreed to show me how to fish dockside, what fishing gear to get and a good fishing spot close by. I got my gear out of the boat and showed the man what I had. It's a trolling setup, he commented, for fishing while the boat sails along at a slow pace, not very practical for the dock. But, even though the rod was too long, they helped me set up my rod with some of their own bait frozen shrimp, a small weight and a line with several small fishing hooks.

Was I elated to finally find somebody to help me get started! Sometimes the weather won't let just get out of port, but just enjoying the sun and sea at dock can be fun if you think you just may hook something! I let the line down to the bottom, about 25 ft. at dock. After a short time, on my neighbor's boat, the lady got a tug on her line, the rod bowed and she towed in a silvery squirming fish, big enough for the frying pan. He'd swallowed the hook and line so it took a little jogging to get him off. The grandson got excited, dropped old spiderman, asked if he could fish.

I didn't catch any fish, but someone did eat the bait off the hook. I was really just happy to be fishing for the first time.