Hey, heres a chance to share your pain and maybe confess your booboos. Here's one I remember:
When I was a young boy my parents used to call me "ijimoji" which I think is Japanese for "ants in pants". I've got pictures of me tied to a car bumper with a rope so I couldn't wander off and get into trouble which I guess I did. Anyways, the whole Big Island gang was camping out at Spencer Park with the Luxors, RuPacifics, & Senators dunking baits out front and the kids cane poling the tide pools. But me, about the same size as my 4' bamboo cane pole wandered off into the mosquito infested keawe thorn forest following an old trail. Eventually, one break in the trail accessed a small cove on the ocean overhung with keawe branches low enought to climb out on just above the water's surface. Which of course I did. So here I was, out over the deepest water I had ever fished, looking down through clear water at a rock protrusion that resembled I guess a big truck tire about 4' underwater. In the middle hole were these huge grey and red fish swimming around in what was probably a vent hole of an underwater cave. I mean, it was scarey for a little guy, those big grey fish looked like sharks! I think I was trembling in fear & excitement as I dropped my pea sized bit of shrimp into the hole and next thing I knew my pole tip was bowed into the water. Lucky it was spider web line or I might have followed the pole in. Of course the line snapped and I was left with a fishing thrill of a lifetime. It wasn't until I was pretty grown up that I reflected that those were moi & kumu the two most prized(and rare) shoreline table fish in Hawaii.
I got a bunch of guffaws & snide remarks from the grown ups back at camp as I scrounged 20# test and a bigger hook to tie onto my 4' pole. I took my uncles back into the forest but could never find the spot again.
When I was a young boy my parents used to call me "ijimoji" which I think is Japanese for "ants in pants". I've got pictures of me tied to a car bumper with a rope so I couldn't wander off and get into trouble which I guess I did. Anyways, the whole Big Island gang was camping out at Spencer Park with the Luxors, RuPacifics, & Senators dunking baits out front and the kids cane poling the tide pools. But me, about the same size as my 4' bamboo cane pole wandered off into the mosquito infested keawe thorn forest following an old trail. Eventually, one break in the trail accessed a small cove on the ocean overhung with keawe branches low enought to climb out on just above the water's surface. Which of course I did. So here I was, out over the deepest water I had ever fished, looking down through clear water at a rock protrusion that resembled I guess a big truck tire about 4' underwater. In the middle hole were these huge grey and red fish swimming around in what was probably a vent hole of an underwater cave. I mean, it was scarey for a little guy, those big grey fish looked like sharks! I think I was trembling in fear & excitement as I dropped my pea sized bit of shrimp into the hole and next thing I knew my pole tip was bowed into the water. Lucky it was spider web line or I might have followed the pole in. Of course the line snapped and I was left with a fishing thrill of a lifetime. It wasn't until I was pretty grown up that I reflected that those were moi & kumu the two most prized(and rare) shoreline table fish in Hawaii.
I got a bunch of guffaws & snide remarks from the grown ups back at camp as I scrounged 20# test and a bigger hook to tie onto my 4' pole. I took my uncles back into the forest but could never find the spot again.
