To the captain of The Rig, this past Sunday, July 8, my friend and I were fishing off Sooke and I hooked a good fish.
I played the fish halfway to the boat and saw it at the surface, it splashed a couple of times and dove down, then it pulled a fair amount of line, and I was smiling pretty good, then it pulled more, and more going almost straight down. Then it set off in a westerly direction. I said to my partner to get his gear in and let’s get this thing in the boat, it’s huge. So we followed it for about 10 minutes and my reel was getting pretty low on line. Next thing we see, out of the fog comes a large yacht and the fish was heading straight toward it.
Here’s where I panicked, we could not re-direct the fish and it was on a collision course to your downrigger lines. After getting your attention you did your best to dodge us and we passed uncomfortably close luckily not catching each other’s gear
After another few minutes the fish started to come up and we got ready to net the biggest fish ever, as the flasher came up so did the fish and a giant sea lion to boot attached to the tail of my fish. I pulled hard on the line (as if I hadn’t already) and broke the fish free from its mouth and horsed it to the boat on a plane, netting my 20 plus pound spring instantly, celebrating like we won the Stanley Cup.
I wanted to apologize for yelling at your boat in passing. I was not angry, I was ecstatic, a real heck of a day!
See you on the water.
Aaron Cameron Sooke