04-11-2007, 11:08 AM
[size 1]Many years back when I was a teenager, I fished the Columbia River for sturgeon as often as possible with my buddies. We would always crawl out on the jetties and fish from the end so we would be able to cast further out in the river. One day we decided to fish the jetty that was at the mouth of a marina. After we carefully made our way to the end of the wooden structure, we decided to climb the tower at the end and fish from the platform were the lights are for guiding ships, etc. When we got up there it was perfect, tons of room, a place to sit and rest our poles, all while being about 50 feet in the air.
We rigged up with the standard gear of 80 lb test, 12 oz pyramid sinker and smelt for bait. After a short while I notice a sailboat coming out of the marina and I told my buddy we better reel up so he doesn't hit our line. I start reeling in and my buddy says he thinks the sailboat will go under his line so he was leaving it out. I didn't really care at that moment, because I just wanted to rebait and cast back out. As the boat gets closer and closer, I look over at him and he has a worried look in his eyes. We could now tell its going to be really close for the sailboat to pass under his line. He didn't want to start reeling because it was to late and it would tangle with the mast for sure, so we watched to see what would happen.
Well as you would expect, the line caught the mast about a foot from the top. The guy on the sailboat had know idea we were even there, nor that a line was now across his mast. He just kept getting ready to put up his sails and motoring out. My buddy who has been holding his pole is not sure what to do, so of course he finally starts to reel in out of panic. Well now the sailboat is getting farther and farther away and what do you think happens next?
The weight and bait are now on the surface skipping across the water closing in on the sailboat really fast. I whistled at the boat and the guy turns around and sees this thing chasing him. I remember the look he had like, "what the heck is that". Then his expression when he looked up and seen the line across his mast and realized that my buddies lure was coming at him quick. Well the weight and bait catch up and come flying out of the water and after barely missing the guy the weight and stuff starts whipping around his mast and snags up. I look over at my buddy who still has the pole in his hands, but now the sailboat is starting to spool him and he is actually trying to reel like you would if you were fighting a fish. This is were I lost it and started laughing my butt off. Well of course it gets to the end of his line and it snaps. The guy on the sailboat is hopping mad, but there wasn't much he could do now as he had a huge tangle of fishing line and piece of fish hanging from the top of his mast and he was getting farther and farther away from us and we weren't going to stick around and see if he comes back.
To this day I get a chuckle when I think about that sailboat spooling my buddies pole.[/size]
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We rigged up with the standard gear of 80 lb test, 12 oz pyramid sinker and smelt for bait. After a short while I notice a sailboat coming out of the marina and I told my buddy we better reel up so he doesn't hit our line. I start reeling in and my buddy says he thinks the sailboat will go under his line so he was leaving it out. I didn't really care at that moment, because I just wanted to rebait and cast back out. As the boat gets closer and closer, I look over at him and he has a worried look in his eyes. We could now tell its going to be really close for the sailboat to pass under his line. He didn't want to start reeling because it was to late and it would tangle with the mast for sure, so we watched to see what would happen.
Well as you would expect, the line caught the mast about a foot from the top. The guy on the sailboat had know idea we were even there, nor that a line was now across his mast. He just kept getting ready to put up his sails and motoring out. My buddy who has been holding his pole is not sure what to do, so of course he finally starts to reel in out of panic. Well now the sailboat is getting farther and farther away and what do you think happens next?
The weight and bait are now on the surface skipping across the water closing in on the sailboat really fast. I whistled at the boat and the guy turns around and sees this thing chasing him. I remember the look he had like, "what the heck is that". Then his expression when he looked up and seen the line across his mast and realized that my buddies lure was coming at him quick. Well the weight and bait catch up and come flying out of the water and after barely missing the guy the weight and stuff starts whipping around his mast and snags up. I look over at my buddy who still has the pole in his hands, but now the sailboat is starting to spool him and he is actually trying to reel like you would if you were fighting a fish. This is were I lost it and started laughing my butt off. Well of course it gets to the end of his line and it snaps. The guy on the sailboat is hopping mad, but there wasn't much he could do now as he had a huge tangle of fishing line and piece of fish hanging from the top of his mast and he was getting farther and farther away from us and we weren't going to stick around and see if he comes back.
To this day I get a chuckle when I think about that sailboat spooling my buddies pole.[/size]
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