CAST-a-WAY by Pedro

 

Haven’t written for quite a while, but to be honest, there has not been a
great deal to write about. I have always bored you with the balmy evenings,
the tranquil sea and the lonely moon being  dusted by the wispy clouds
scudding across the starlit skies, but I am supposed to be writing about our fishing exploits and not weather conditions.

 

Well being fishermen, and therefore gentlemen, it is impossible for us to lie, and in no uncertain terms I have to report that we have caught as close as you can get to bugger all. Mike has had one or two nice garfish, and
that´s about it. But all fishermen have stories and this one is a reeeeeeeeeal beaut.

 

On our recent evening venture to the port breakwater something DID happen.
We had been ´fishing´ for a hour or so, and for the umpteenth time had re-cast into yet another area of this deader than dead sea, when it was discovered that one of us had  an unholy tangle. Well when one gets one of
these unholy tangles, one does not in truth say ” Oh goodness me I have an unholy tangle”, but an unholy tangle we had . We were both attempting to unravel this giant bundle of. knots and loops. One always helps one´s matein these emergencies…..it is the law of the sea…

 So there we were engrossed in the tedious, and extremely frustrating task of
unravelling, and did not think too much about the sumptuous piece of bait
that was still affixed firmly to the hook, and worse still dangling in the rock crevices at our feet. Well all of a sudden WHAAAAAAM !!………the line jerked from our hands, and after the shock and disbelief of actually
catching a fish,  we were even more shocked when we remembered that the bait
wasn´t in the sea at all.  Well it came to pass that we had hooked a cat.

Now, by cat, I do NOT mean a nice little ´ lay in front of the fire cat´, but a cat that looks a little like a Bengal tiger, weighs nearly as much,
and has only got one eye to boot. This cat looks real mean..

 

So, a violent struggle ensued, and quite understandably this Bengal cat made a bolt for it, got the line twisted in the rocks and around it´s paws, and was pulling with the strength of a roped steer. I was ´sort of ´ telling the cat to let go, but not in so many words, and Mike was shouting ´Bring me a glove !!!!!…bring me a glove!!!!.. My learned friend´s intention was to grab the offending animal (I assure you that it was not going to be me), and
attempt to retrieve the hook out of El Gato´s mouth. I personally  had been thinking more alone the lines of a rifle….

 

But like all fun things it came to an end, and after a few minutes of this fisherman’s rodeo, the line came free, and thank goodness the hook came with it, and our big ginger thief seemed no worse for the wear. To our surprise the  hook had been yanked on so strongly that it no longer had the familiar hooked shape , and had taken on the shape of a small boomerang. It takes quite a pull to do that.. Alas…alas…why could it not have  been a hundred pound tuna.  Anyway, no harm was done and yet another story was added to the ever increasing list of fishermans´  tales….or should that be tails :-).

                  Tom  Boswell