A Local Pacific Piscatologist: A Lifetime of Fishing
152
A Local Pacific Piscatologist: A Lifetime of Fishing
152eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781481723640 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 04/26/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 152 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
Read an Excerpt
A Local Pacific Piscatologist
A Lifetime of Fishing
By VERNONA KAY FATH (SNOOKIE)
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2013 Vernona Kay Fath (Snookie)All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4817-2363-3
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
History
Just think. One fish got this whole thing started. When my mother was a child of 10, in 1924, she was at her grandfather's ranch in the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma near the Texas border. She was by herself and running down the almost dry creek in the woods in a drought year. There were a few puddles left, and she was jumping over them and throwing rocks into the water that was still there. She looked and saw a catfish barely covered in the clean water. She ran back to the ranch house to get her grandfather to help her get her catfish. He said they would not retrieve him in the heat of the day. They would go the next morning at sunup and bring him home in a gunnysack for breakfast. They did and that catfish weighed 26 pounds.
She had always remembered that catfish and the excitement about getting a fish even if it was by hand and not by hook. Little did she know how that catfish would affect hers and our lives as much as it did. That catfish was the reason the desire to fish first hit her. Never mind the fish being caught the normal way. She was caught! It took us right along with her when the time came including my children and my grandchildren.
My mother's grandfather now knowing she wanted to really fish later took mama fishing on Lake Wichita in Texas. It must have been winter because it was so cold she said that icicles formed on the line. That fishing trip went without good results, but that didn't deter her. She was finally fishing!
It was years later and mama was home in Texas. My father to be came from California to visit her. While in Texas he took her fishing. They caught a lot of fish. Daddy put them on a rope and placed them back into the water. In those lakes there were turtles and the turtles ate the fish. Mama almost didn't marry him because of this. Those turtles made short work of those fish.
In her first year of marriage and now living in Anaheim, California, Mama went to the Newport pier which was about 15 miles straight down Harbor Boulevard. She took my father's mother, my grandmother, her mother-in-law. Here she caught her first Pacific Ocean fish, a yellowfin croaker. Some person nearby told her that you had to have a license to keep those fish at that time or throw it back. Since it was her first fish there, she said that wasn't going to happen. She had her mother-in-law take the fish to the car. That was the last time she kept an illegal fish, but she got home with that fish and no ticket.
Daddy liked to fish shark in the back waters of Seal Beach when I was a baby. Mama sat in the car next to the spot he fished, with me on her lap trying to explain to me the art of fishing and catching. Not that I understood much of what she was saying at the time, but I must have absorbed some of what she was saying because look where I am today.
I didn't start fishing Newport Pier until I was nine years old. By that time mama was known by everyone so they were happy to help me learn to fish as well. In the early days of our fishing on Newport Pier the pier was packed with fishermen everywhere. It was hard to get a place at times when the fish were in. Although we were fishing close together, everyone was still pleasant to fish with. If a problem arose, the people that ran the bait house would tell the person or persons causing the problem to leave the pier. As a result it kept fighting and arguments down to a minimum. Today that is not the case. A different type of human is fishing on Newport pier, and the problems aren't controlled by anyone. Needless to say we don't fish there anymore. We moved to Balboa Pier years ago because to begin with in the winter the halibut stayed there. Halibut are what we were after. We would catch bait elsewhere such as the bay and bring the live bait out in buckets where we would catch quite a few halibut. As time went by the old fishermen from Newport Pier moved to Balboa Pier because of the fishing as well as the clientele.
Everyone was much nicer on Balboa Pier. We have a much cleaner pier as well.
Newport Pier was almost destroyed September 19th, 1939, in a sudden chubasco, a term that was used in 1939. The storm is now called a hurricane. About 500 feet of the end was wiped out and the bait house was taken as well. The cash register was left standing on the top of a piling after it was all over. The pier was rebuilt in 1940-1941. Lots of people insisted it was worth it, so it was done.
That day the storm came the bait man was down at the local tackle store at the base of the pier around the fireplace with his friends although the fire wasn't lit because it was quite warm at the time. He was going to close the bait house, but there was a fisherman left. It was a female fisherman, and she was still getting bait as she needed it.
When he looked out at the pier and saw the storm had increased he knew he'd better close the bait house now. When the lady got her last bait she dropped it and was groping around when he asked what she was doing.
She told him that she was now getting a chance to fish the prized corner. About that time a wave of rain, wind and water knocked her down. She stayed down to find her bait. He made her leave with him right then! Just after leaving the pier, the pier collapsed. She saw just how lucky and foolish she had been, but that's a fisherman for you.
Our restrooms were at the base of the pier. A large building called the "Arches" had women's and men's restrooms. There were many stalls on each side of the archway between them. The ladies side had a white lady attendant dressed in white who took care of the insides of the restroom. We had to pay 10 cents to use these cubicles, but they were nice and clean.
When the boats brought in the big fish catches for the day there was a big cart to carry the fish off the pier. A good thing too, because some of those fish were quite large in those days between tuna, white seabass and groupers.
The world's largest participant sport is fishing. The number of female anglers in all the United States is 37% of the total fishermen. The number one reason people fish is to relax. The number two reason people fish is that they hope to catch a fish to eat.
CHAPTER 2
The Beginning
My nickname and the name most of my friends know me by is Snookie. My mother had a little dog in her youth that got poisoned. That's when she decided if she ever had a little girl that Snookie would be her nickname.
My mother took me fishing on Newport Pier in Newport Beach, California, before I was born. That was in 1936, and it must have made an impression as I'm still fishing seventy years later in the same locations. And they say that Mozart can affect us in our youth. Fishing has far more reaching effects!
I was 9 years old and in third grade for that actual first day fishing on the pier. Little did I know how that day would affect the rest of my life. It was spring at the time. I caught a beautiful white seabass and landed it even though it broke my rod. It was only 6 pounds, but my rod was old and split bamboo.
My mother introduced me to Newport Pier fishing. We would go twice a week at first. Since it was 1944-1945, and wartime, we had to watch the gasoline use as we had to drive from Anaheim to Newport Beach which was about 15 miles. In those days there was just a simple county road which was one lane each way. There was only one stop sign between Costa Mesa and Anaheim. Mama carried a gun on the front seat because of the empty land areas we had to go through. It is hard to imagine that today with the solid development along the route.
Mama carried a 22 automatic revolver for our safety when we or she travelled from Anaheim to Newport Beach using Harbor Boulevard. When we got to the pier, she put it in with our fishing equipment. At the time people would see a good looking lone redheaded woman and sometimes try to run her off the road. She never had to use the gun, but it was comforting to have. Daddy made sure it was legal with a permit and her fingerprints on file for it. In those days you could protect yourself. The gun was only 48 dollars, and there were 100 fingerprints taken.
I am now 75 years old and it is summer again and I am still on the pier although it is Balboa Pier which is 2 miles south of Newport Pier where I spend my fishing time.
I have two brothers, twins that are 14 months younger than I am. One is George and everyone calls him Dordie because of me when I was a baby. I couldn't pronounce Georgie so I made it Dordie. Guess what-It stuck for the rest of his life. Not only that but I also created a Big Dordie with our grandfather. Freddie is the other twin. Not much we could do with the name Freddie, so he is just Freddie. We are all still fishing together today, and we have a great time together.
My first fishing experiences I shared with my twin brothers. We had five foot bamboo poles with green linen line tied to the end and a hook. We caught opaleyes, small perchlike fish, off the Newport west jetty by using fresh razor clams.
Daddy caught eels off the jetty with a gaff rig he had made. That was exciting because the eels never liked being caught. Daddy could really dance fast when bringing one of them up as the eel would try to grab his hands. We also watched out for the big wharf rats that were living in the jetty. Maybe it was because we were so small at the time, but they seemed awfully large then. We were 4 and 5 years of age then.
Those days of catching those small opaleyes were fun. Those fish could really fight for as small as they were.
As my two brothers and I got older and in school, Mama started fishing the Newport pier every Wednesday by herself. That worked out alright, so she increased it to 2 days a week. Finally it became 3 days a week. She was learning a lot about fishing and enjoying it very much plus she was sharing the information with us. Her mother, my grandmother, was at home for us when we returned from school, so we were well taken care of.
Mama was a redhead in her younger years with a gift of gab. She was extremely popular with men and women alike. The old fishermen taught her as well as me how to fish our local waters. We both learned well as time would attest.
My brothers were the monkeys of the pier. They would spend more time under the pier walking the beams than they did the top of the pier. They were excellent swimmers, but they never fell off the beams.
Newport Pier was a wood planked pier with no railings. Very few people ever fell in because they were so careful around the edge. Amazingly I was very at home even though I didn't know how to swim until I was 32 years old.
As I got to my teens I made sure that my boyfriends liked to fish and the more they knew about fishing the better.
When I decided to go to Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, my mother decided I should be closer to the school than Anaheim. She didn't want me going with the four other kids that were driving there every day. She rented an apartment in Corona del Mar for me and my grandparents for the year. I would take the Orange Coast bus to Orange Coast and the Laguna Beach Stageline bus in the evening. Since she hadn't wanted me traveling with the young kids, I was shocked when I stepped into the Orange Coast College bus to find that the driver was also only 18 years old. I was upset and when he asked me my name I told him it was Vernona, but he wouldn't remember it! Guess it was a challenge because he greeted me the next morning with my name pronounced properly. We were married over 54 years before he passed away and yes, he liked to fish and so did his mother. He also was a diver for abalone and lobster in his spare time. Since he was an ocean person, water and fish, he was perfect as far as I was concerned. We married and had two girls who also like to fish and can do so very well. One of the girls has fished all around the world. With her husband, Jon, in the Navy she has had that opportunity.
My husband didn't fish a lot on the pier, but once in a while he would. He was too busy with his job as Assistant Sheriff-Coroner of Orange County, California.
When my husband and l Iived in Costa Mesa, I took the local bus to the pier because in those days we only had one car. One day coming home I was bringing an 8 pound halibut home. I had gotten papers from the tackle store to wrap it. Needless to say the bus driver an older man was shocked to see what I was traveling with. I convinced him that that halibut had to go home with me or I would have to walk. He said okay, and away we went. He took pity on this young lady.
Once we had a car for me I would take my mother and a lady neighbor, and we would fish until the kids had to be picked up from school. We did this for years. It was fun. The guys at the pier called us "the girls".
CHAPTER 3
Equipment
Over the years I have collected numerous rods and reels not to mention the terminal tackle as well. I got my first personally wrapped rod when I graduated from junior high school. I used that rod for a lot of years, but had many others as well. That one was the first one just for me. I got it at the local tackle store. That rod is still in my collection along with the Penn 127 reel as well. I have only broken one rod on the pier (so far), and that was on my first fishing trip to the pier. When I switch to another rod I retire the ones or ones I am using, but I never get rid of them. Guess I am sentimental.
Fishing equipment was so simple when my brothers and I started out. We used 5 foot bamboo poles with a linen line tied to the end with one hook attached. For bait we used fresh clams which were cheap and easy to get in the early 40's. Of course our fishing was confined to a flat rock on the Newport Jetty, and we fished for opaleyes. Those were so exciting to catch, and believe it or not, they are still fun to catch. Of course ours were very small, but for our sizes then and the poles we were using, those fish felt like giant fish.
When I first fished on Newport Pier I used a Split Bamboo rod. Apparently it was old and not in the best of shape because the first fish I caught was a 6 pound white seabass. In bringing the fish in my rod snapped in two for some reason. I did get the fish. The rod was a loss.
A few years later I got a long rod with a 3 foot butt. It was a Silaflex that was made in Costa Mesa. It was rainbow wrapped and gold fiberglass. I could cast forever with the length of that rod and the conventional reel I used with it. The reel was an Ocean City by Penn with 27 pound test monofilament line by Sunset. The rod was at least 10 feet long with that long butt. I was only about 5'4".
When I reached 16 years of age I added a very small rod like they use in freshwater. It was a white glass, and I had a Quick spinner reel for it with 6 pound test line. I had a lot of fun with that outfit and even caught a small but active thresher shark off the pier and landed him. He was a baby, but he weighed 36 pounds.
As to spinners Mama got one long before me and was quite successful using it. It was a Flugger spinner and quite big compared to today's spinners. One thing she learned about herself and using the spinners was that after just a few minutes of reeling in the line, she began to get electric shocks through her hands. This was a problem forever after, and she had to switch back to the conventional reel to eliminate this problem.
Today I use mostly Cal Star rods and Penn reels. My Cal Stars are quite small. One is the smallest that they make, T120, which I had wrapped from a blank and the next one is a medium size, T130, that I use with a small Diawa conventional reel with 10 pound test P-Line. I had that one wrapped as well. The smaller rod I use with a Penn, model 450SS spinning reel and 8 pound test P-Line. I also have a very small, light Eagle Claw with a small spinner and 4 pound test P-Line for my bait rig rod for bait.
Why do I use an Eagle Claw rod? It is because my brother, George, (Dordie), dragged it up from the bottom of the ocean with his dragging equipment. He offered it to me. It is a wonderful bait rod, and I have had it for several years now. It is used every time I fish the pier. It was a great price. Free!!
My other rods over the years have been mostly Garcia. I loved the 2510 model. It was a perfect weight for the pier. My mother loved hers as well.
Every time I had a birthday or occasion for a gift I was given a new rod and reel and loved it.
Of course Penn has had some great rods too. The Sabre rods were great. Everything I use, especially now is lightweight towards medium.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Local Pacific Piscatologist by VERNONA KAY FATH (SNOOKIE). Copyright © 2013 by Vernona Kay Fath (Snookie). Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.