That's My Story

MISGUIDED FISH ATTRACTING DEVICES

Published in WESTERN OUTDOOR MAGAZINE Spring 2007

I will always believe that the most creative people in the world are fishermen. We have a knack for turning whims in to “needs” and if we “need” something badly enough we will create it if we can’t find it. There is always a better mousetrap to be invented. Just take a look at a fishing catalog sometime and see how many different lures there are to catch a single fish!

At one place I worked, we got the creative “bug” over cold ones after a long day of hopping from one dorado spot to another. It’s pretty amazing how an afternoon post-fishing lubricated with cold ones can often produce the best ideas.

Along with the owner of the place I worked for, we all acknowledged that dorado had a tendency to gather around floating structure or debris. That could be a paddy of sargasso weed; some trash; part of a tree or some branches that were hanging on the surface. That’s why after a storm, dorado fishing could be so dynamic as a result of all the trash, grass and weed lines you would often find a few days after any kinds of rains that washed stuff into the ocean.

So…like busy little elves….we drew things in the sand and the ideas flowed as nicely as the cold beers. And off we went…

We went out to the junk yard and found old beat-up wood pallets and plywood sheets. To the plywood sheets, we drilled and punched out big holes to let the sunlight through. To all of them we stapled strands of plastic plants, bits of rope, strands of torn cloth…anything that would hang down. Boy were we clever! Hammer, drill, staple, cut! Buzz buzz buzz!

After two days, we were ready. You can see where this is going.

Using one of the hotel owners pangas we drove them out into the bay and strategically dropped them into the ocean. We could hardly contain our excitement. Whoo-weee…this was gonna be great. How come no one thought of this before? It was like Edison had just discovered the light bulb! We were certified geniuses. If this worked, we might even market it!

To sweeten the “honey hole” we also tied a few strips of dead bonito under our “FADS” (Fish Attracting Devices) and also tossed a few handfuls of live sardines at them as we pulled away knowing the little baits would congregate under each device helping to attract dorado and hopefully, other fish!

How could they resist? They floated perfectly on the surface. Light filtered perfectly through the holes and planks and the stuff we stapled under it combined with the baits and scent of the bonito were too good to be true!

It took us about 90 minutes to place the 6 devices. Then we went back to the first we had planted out by the point. BAM!!! Three nice dorado. The second one produced a nice bull. The third had 2 smaller dorado, that we released, but fun just the same. Most of the dorado would be released, but we found that after releasing fish the bit would shut off.

No worries. Onto the NEXT FAD we’d charge! We found that if we waited about 2 hours between hitting one FAD, it loaded up again on fish.

This was just incredible. It was like “dorado-on-demand!” and we giggled and toasted each other all day catching and releasing a good day of fish. Just a “grinner” of a day!

Using only circle hooks, we released most fish in good shape keeping only a few for dinner. We also hooked two marlin that came off, but it just verified that we were really onto something and couldn’t wait to see what would happen the next day after the FADS had the an entire night to load up again.

We fished until dusk, then turned and headed back to the beach full speed with some nice fillets; a bunch of Kodak moments; and heads too big for our hats about our “discovery.” Just wait until tomorrow!

About 200 yards from the beach it happened. KARUMP!

We found out why no one had done this before. In a moment of inattention and forgetfulness, we had just hit one of our devices! A crack in the fiberglass hull and a bent prop were the result. So much for genius. Down tumbled all the dreams of selling these in info-mercials!

We were thankful that we were close to home and had a kicker motor to get us back It wasn’t quite so boisterous that night as we worried that someone might hit one of our devices in the dark. So much for thinking this through.

We spent the next morning looking for our artificial paddies using a friend’s panga. Each of them still had fish after “resting” for the evening, but we sadly picked up each one and mentally went back to the drawing boards. Each sentence that afternoon beginning with the words, “What if…?”

Fishermen are a resilient lot!

That’s my story…