Alan and I always look forward to fishing with Kevin Brock whether it is stripers in the spring, steelhead up on the Smith, but for our trip for Salmon on the Sac this past week, we were like two kids at Christmas. After all it has been years since that fishery was really open let alone promising. Following Kevin’s reports that he was bringing in limits everyday really elevated the anticipation!
We were not to be disappointed! What a day on the Sac! Not only did we all limit out, but we had a great group of people on board, plus Maggy the dog! What we did not anticipate was experiencing the infamous banana on board!
It was a cool, but not cold morning and the temperatures promised to be tolerable, only around 90, but the 20 minute run up river from the Irvine Finch River Access was nippy. Our first 5 or 6 drifts produced not even a bite. Kevin promised that just as soon as the sun hit the water, the action would heat up and it did. First Bob sitting next to me set the hook with great gusto. I could tell from the start, he had a good fish on. It turned out to be the biggest fish of the day. Next Gary set his hook and brought in a beauty and then Alan. Bob seemed to have the hot seat as he landed yet another nice fish and then Randy. Then the action in that hole seemed to stop just as fast as it fired up. Kevin announced we were going up to the next run. However, we all voiced the need for a potty break and so we headed for shore.
Upon returning to the boat I noticed that Gary had just finished eating a banana and was holding the peel. I said, throw that thing over board. He looked a little startled as he had never heard about the myth of no bananas on a fishing boat. Kevin said, he really didn’t take any stock in the myth and so Gary ignored my advice and threw the peel in the garbage sack on the boat.
We headed up stream and motored to the top of the run and our first drift. Right off the bat, I hooked a fish. However, that fish never made it in the boat. On the next 4 drifts, we hooked 4 more fish, none of which made it into the boat including a 2nd hooked and lost fish for me! I finally hooked not one, but two salmon and lost them both! Salmon have always but a challenging fish to hook but normally once I hook them I don’t lose many fish so I was totally frustrated! Kevin was going nuts and with each lost fish, he checked the hooks for sharpness dumbfounded as to why these fish were getting off as well. I finally said get that banana peel and throw it over board! Gary dug through the garbage sack and that yellow devil went into the water. No worries, they are biodegradable!
Now back to the business of catching and landing salmon. We had 7 to go to make it the 12th day in a row for Kevin’s boat to limit out. True to the previous 5 runs which hooked but lost 5 fish, we continued to hook fish on the next 6 runs, but this time they all came into the boat. Yes, I hooked two more and brought them in. Only one angler, Paul had a fish to catch to complete the day. Run # 7 produced no bites, but on #8, Paul hooked into a fish and, yes he landed it successfully. We all cheered and celebrated the turn in our luck and definitely decided that maybe there was something about those bananas on board a fishing boat.
All I can tell you is that there will never be any bananas allowed on “Too Much Fun” the Benbow North River! And, Kevin Brock said no bananas on his boat in the future either!
# posted by
Viki Benbow @ 3:20 PM
