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Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. It's 4:30 am in Lakewood, CA. I roll out of bed and fight through the
mental haze as I stumble to my dresser, where I has laid out my clothes for the day. One
look at my clothes and I remember - I'm going fishing today!
A smile creeps its way onto my face as I begin to think of what California fish would I like
to catch today. As I make my way to the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth, and slap
the bare essentials of makeup on my face, I am almost ready to go.
Feed the dogs, check. Grab snacks out of fridge, check. Fill my Nalgene with water, check.
My friend and I grab our gear and head to the car. It's about 5:30 am - Oh NO! Boat
leaves out of Pierpoint Landing in 30 min! We rush down the 91 freeway, hop onto the
710 freeway, and exit Aquarium Way. Uh oh...which street do we turn right on? Never fails, half
asleep and so excited to go fishing we miss our turn. I am literally staring at the road
we should be on, but find us flying towards the Queen Mary. If you are not familiar with
the area, it is a one lane road with nowhere to turn around until you get down to the entrance
of the Queen Mary. We hurry up and get our ticket to enter the Queen Mary parking lot
and rush to the exit. Frantically retracing our path and end up back at the correct street
to turn down. We hurry to park the car and rush to Pierpoint's storefront.
"Three-quarter day boat girls?" says the girl behind the counter.
"Yes, please! We have a reservation."
"Which spots would you like? We have back left corner spots available - 4 & 5?"
"Perfect!"
And just like that we were headed down the gangway and board the Victory. My friend and
I begin to rig up and get situated for the day. While sifting through my assortment of
weights I hear, "Hey Pinky, whatcha' got there?" I look up and it's Captain Mike. Awesome!
He has always been a great resource to have on the boat. I feel I have a strong knowledge
of lake fishing, but when it comes to ocean fishing I consider myself to be a novice on
the verge of becoming intermediate.
"Hey Pinky, you know what you are doing over there?"
"I think so. You wanna check it?"
"Let me see here," he says as I am tying up a rockfishing rig on my line. Take 18-20 inches
commercial fishing industry, I think I'll leave it to them and stick to real estate.
My friend puts her coffee down and I, my water. Alright let's do this!
out of the bridge and says, "You mind if I show you something? Take your left hand and
"Yep." I reply. From then on I thought ok I can't use my glove - put your big girl pants
bite and reel in. It was a 4 maybe 5 inch sand dab. I unhook the little guy and set
A quick 15 minute ride lands us on another wreck site that has a depth of about 120 feet.
into the water. I was so stunned that I just stood there in awe and totally forgot about
lines as we await the ok to drop in the water.
migrate from Baja Mexico to the Pacific Northwest.
saw this he told us to pull up and we were heading out to a different spot. After all
he would pull squid up. I have never seen anyone catch squid like that. I am used to
sunflower seeds. All I could think about is the cheeseburger aroma drifting from the kitchen
I pull it over the rail and Deck Boss Carl takes it off my line. As he was measuring
I open my eyes, if the tattered tail of the fish was intact it would have been legal.
was like I had fire in my eyes. I was on a mission to catch a big one!
laughs, good fun, and distinctive catches. To Live Distinctively is a way of being that
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