Reply #11: When I was 9 , I caught a 72 lb something or other [View All]

[SoCalDem]

I should say I TRIED to catch it. We sat in chairs with harnesses so we would not be pulled off the pier.. The guy next to me actually reeled it in until my parents came to my side of the pier..

We would go fishing at midnight, and fish for bait for the first few hours.. (Bait was usually 10 pounders).. Then the kids would climb down a rope ladder to a large wooden raft thing on the lagoon side of the pier and scale & gut the fish that the parents caught.. Of course it was a while before a parent saw what we were doing..

We would straddle these huge fish and the scales & goo would get all over us, so we would jump into the water to "wash off".. It never occurred to us that some nasty fishie might think that WE were there for the taking , as well as the fishy parts we were putting back into the water..

After that, (and the bait incident *) we were banished to sit in the chairs and holler when we "got a bite"..

*the bait incident.. We would release the pretty ones, and the Dads all got mad at us..:)