I'm sitting on the Bogue Inlet Pier for the first time even though it is less than a mile from my house. I'm waiting to meet The Godfather, Matt Anderson, who is going to make a good attempt to recover my head from wherever it has been during my shark fishing expeditions thus far. He walks up, shakes my hand and looks at me like I'm a tourist, shakes his head and hands me a leader. He is thinking, "this dude shouldn't have left the mountains, this ain't fly fishing, and if he isn't hopeless he is damned close."
He starts talking about two speed reels and seeing an ominous blank expression cover my face he slows down and says, "ok. baby steps." I smile because baby steps are my kind of steps and then he comes forth. The Godfather does not have a lifetime of shark fishing knowledge. He has generations of sharking knowledge, and if you want to learn, he'll help you out. It happened to me.
I was trying so hard to pick up everything he was throwing down but that wasn't possible. The baby was stepping too quickly. I had just come off of something like a forty hour shift at work and was a little delirious so I had to stop him after a couple hours of continous no nonsense knowledge. It was like trying to drink from a firehose. So we made plans to fish together soon.
So we meet in the afternoon and head to beach X on Emerald Isle. I have fished here before when I first moved here and didn't catch anything excpet UV rays, but this guy has confidence in the comfortable way where it doesn't seem like he is bragging. I'll follow and learn eagerly. We set up the sand spikes and he starts teaching me how to read water and showing me sandbars, guts, troughs, and all the things that don't exist in mountain west river fishing. I am eating it up. He shows me how to cut the bait and rig leaders, and the nuances of casting large baits. Does he let me cast a rod? nope. And I am glad not to because I was too busy learning fundamentals to deal with mechanics.
This is great so far, I haven't risked life or limb a single time and we have baits set. The Godfather is too busy correcting the way I dress, I still look like a tourist, and telling me more and more information about catching every species worth it in these waters. He fishes scientifically and in that manner learns something every time.
At some point his reel starts clicking and he picks the rod up and waits, I run to grab the gloves he wears to fight fish and before I can get there he says the shark is gone. Then my reel starts going, **** yeah my reel starts going. The fish is pulling line at about a walking pace and Matt tells me to pick up th rod. I am focusing and listening to him so I can finally get into this fish, seconds tick by like pages of the calendar and then he says, "Now set into him."
I interpretted that as step backwards and lift the rod as hard and fast as humanly possible even though I KNOW that isn't how you use a circle hook. Well, Matt wasn't impressed and I was embarrassed. He didn't make me feel bad about being an idiot but he didn't have to. I am pretty hard on myself, and if you haven't picked up on it yet I'll say it straight up...I badly want to catch a big shark.
We didn't get it done last weekend. I bought a new rod and reel. I have a new fishing buddy. We have determination and experience and an ocean of possibilities. We won't be stopped. Standby for the story where I catch an oversize shark and flip out from the excitement.
He starts talking about two speed reels and seeing an ominous blank expression cover my face he slows down and says, "ok. baby steps." I smile because baby steps are my kind of steps and then he comes forth. The Godfather does not have a lifetime of shark fishing knowledge. He has generations of sharking knowledge, and if you want to learn, he'll help you out. It happened to me.
I was trying so hard to pick up everything he was throwing down but that wasn't possible. The baby was stepping too quickly. I had just come off of something like a forty hour shift at work and was a little delirious so I had to stop him after a couple hours of continous no nonsense knowledge. It was like trying to drink from a firehose. So we made plans to fish together soon.
So we meet in the afternoon and head to beach X on Emerald Isle. I have fished here before when I first moved here and didn't catch anything excpet UV rays, but this guy has confidence in the comfortable way where it doesn't seem like he is bragging. I'll follow and learn eagerly. We set up the sand spikes and he starts teaching me how to read water and showing me sandbars, guts, troughs, and all the things that don't exist in mountain west river fishing. I am eating it up. He shows me how to cut the bait and rig leaders, and the nuances of casting large baits. Does he let me cast a rod? nope. And I am glad not to because I was too busy learning fundamentals to deal with mechanics.
This is great so far, I haven't risked life or limb a single time and we have baits set. The Godfather is too busy correcting the way I dress, I still look like a tourist, and telling me more and more information about catching every species worth it in these waters. He fishes scientifically and in that manner learns something every time.
At some point his reel starts clicking and he picks the rod up and waits, I run to grab the gloves he wears to fight fish and before I can get there he says the shark is gone. Then my reel starts going, **** yeah my reel starts going. The fish is pulling line at about a walking pace and Matt tells me to pick up th rod. I am focusing and listening to him so I can finally get into this fish, seconds tick by like pages of the calendar and then he says, "Now set into him."
I interpretted that as step backwards and lift the rod as hard and fast as humanly possible even though I KNOW that isn't how you use a circle hook. Well, Matt wasn't impressed and I was embarrassed. He didn't make me feel bad about being an idiot but he didn't have to. I am pretty hard on myself, and if you haven't picked up on it yet I'll say it straight up...I badly want to catch a big shark.
We didn't get it done last weekend. I bought a new rod and reel. I have a new fishing buddy. We have determination and experience and an ocean of possibilities. We won't be stopped. Standby for the story where I catch an oversize shark and flip out from the excitement.
