Let’s get the big one out of the way first. Bananas are bad luck on a fishing trip. You may call this a silly superstition, but I call it a fact. And I have proof!
Back in the 1990s, when I was on a television show out of Norfolk, we decided it would be a good idea to take two of the news anchors, a lady and a gentleman, out fishing on my 24-foot Albemarle.
We ran over to the High Level Bridge where gray trout (weakfish) were stacked up like cordwood. The lady dropped to the bottom and was immediately hooked up. The gentleman did the same, but two cranks up and his fish came off. He dropped the Stingsilver back down only to have the same result. Meanwhile the lady was putting fish in the boat on a regular basis.
This continued for a while with the lady catching and the gentleman missing every fish. I had checked his lure, and there was nothing wrong with the hooks.
Finally, he decided to take a break and asked me to get a water bottle from the cooler. When I opened the top I spied an ugly yellow fruit floating in the ice water. I returned to the stern of the boat with the offending item in hand and asked who brought it onboard. The gentleman said he did. I then explained that I now knew why he hadn’t been able to catch a fish. He cowed like a galley slave as I threw the banana overboard.
Now this was TV, so my photojournalist wanted us to reenact this again and again while he shot different angles from the camera boat. Once we got back to fishing, the gentleman caught just as many, if not more, trout than the lady.
Then there was the sea bass/cobia incident. We were fishing out of Virginia Beach over a dry dock that was covered up with sea bass. Everyone was catching except one poor soul who couldn’t even get a bite. When he went into the cabin for a snack he came out with not one, but a whole bunch of bananas. The roar from the rest of the crew was deafening. They attacked en masse, throwing the bananas overboard and threating to do the same with the poor angler.
As one of the bananas floated on the surface a small cobia came up and started bumping it with his nose. There was total silence on the boat until someone tried to retrieve the banana and put a hook in it. My net was flailing the water while at least two other crewmen were trying to get it away from me as the cobia slowly sank away without eating the banana.
If these two of many examples do not convince you that bananas are bad luck, please stay away from my boat.
Of course, bananas are not the only item I consider either good or bad superstitions. I would never go fishing without wearing my lucky fishing hat. My wife won’t be seen in public with me when I wear this hat, but that’s her choice. At one time I had a lucky fishing shirt, but it somehow disappeared after I put it in the dirty clothes basket. I also use Brute aftershave and deodorant before each fishing excursion.
The landing net is another item that comes into play. Never get the net out before hooking the first fish. True, it will cause much cussing and swearing as you try to untangle hooks, reels, lunches, and mooring lines from the net while the biggest rockfish you have ever seen flops in the water alongside the boat, but you would never have hooked that fish if the net was already out and ready for action.
When planning to keep some fish never throw back the first keeper of the day. Put it in the box. Do not let it go because you are certain you will catch much bigger ones. You won’t. In fact, you will be lucky to catch another keeper all day.
I always listen to NPR when driving to the boat or beach. Don’t exactly know why, but classical music is relaxing and I seem to have better luck when following this practice.
Without a doubt, one thing I never do is comment on how well the boat is running while still out on the water. Such comments are sure to be followed by silence as the motor quits.
Some may say all of this is stupid, but keep on tempting fate and sooner or later it will jump up and bite you on your very tender posterior.
by Eric Burnley
Friday, January 22, 2016 - 08:45
Let’s get the big one out of the way first. Bananas are bad luck on a fishing trip. You may call this a silly superstition, but I call it a fact. And I have proof!
Back in the 1990s, when I was on a television show out of Norfolk, we decided it would be a good idea to take two of the news anchors, a lady and a gentleman, out fishing on my 24-foot Albemarle.
We ran over to the High Level Bridge where gray trout (weakfish) were stacked up like cordwood. The lady dropped to the bottom and was immediately hooked up. The gentleman did the same, but two cranks up and his fish came off. He dropped the Stingsilver back down only to have the same result. Meanwhile the lady was putting fish in the boat on a regular basis.
This continued for a while with the lady catching and the gentleman missing every fish. I had checked his lure, and there was nothing wrong with the hooks.
Finally, he decided to take a break and asked me to get a water bottle from the cooler. When I opened the top I spied an ugly yellow fruit floating in the ice water. I returned to the stern of the boat with the offending item in hand and asked who brought it onboard. The gentleman said he did. I then explained that I now knew why he hadn’t been able to catch a fish. He cowed like a galley slave as I threw the banana overboard.
Now this was TV, so my photojournalist wanted us to reenact this again and again while he shot different angles from the camera boat. Once we got back to fishing, the gentleman caught just as many, if not more, trout than the lady.
Then there was the sea bass/cobia incident. We were fishing out of Virginia Beach over a dry dock that was covered up with sea bass. Everyone was catching except one poor soul who couldn’t even get a bite. When he went into the cabin for a snack he came out with not one, but a whole bunch of bananas. The roar from the rest of the crew was deafening. They attacked en masse, throwing the bananas overboard and threating to do the same with the poor angler.
As one of the bananas floated on the surface a small cobia came up and started bumping it with his nose. There was total silence on the boat until someone tried to retrieve the banana and put a hook in it. My net was flailing the water while at least two other crewmen were trying to get it away from me as the cobia slowly sank away without eating the banana.
If these two of many examples do not convince you that bananas are bad luck, please stay away from my boat.
Of course, bananas are not the only item I consider either good or bad superstitions. I would never go fishing without wearing my lucky fishing hat. My wife won’t be seen in public with me when I wear this hat, but that’s her choice. At one time I had a lucky fishing shirt, but it somehow disappeared after I put it in the dirty clothes basket. I also use Brute aftershave and deodorant before each fishing excursion.
The landing net is another item that comes into play. Never get the net out before hooking the first fish. True, it will cause much cussing and swearing as you try to untangle hooks, reels, lunches, and mooring lines from the net while the biggest rockfish you have ever seen flops in the water alongside the boat, but you would never have hooked that fish if the net was already out and ready for action.
When planning to keep some fish never throw back the first keeper of the day. Put it in the box. Do not let it go because you are certain you will catch much bigger ones. You won’t. In fact, you will be lucky to catch another keeper all day.
I always listen to NPR when driving to the boat or beach. Don’t exactly know why, but classical music is relaxing and I seem to have better luck when following this practice.
Without a doubt, one thing I never do is comment on how well the boat is running while still out on the water. Such comments are sure to be followed by silence as the motor quits.
Some may say all of this is stupid, but keep on tempting fate and sooner or later it will jump up and bite you on your very tender posterior.
by Eric Burnley