Several years ago, I was fishing in a king mackerel tournament with my brother off Moorehead City, N.C. We were out on one of the wrecks. Lots of mackerel were being caught, but there were lots of barracuda around also. Five or six times I watched guys fighting their fish and in the middle of the fight, WHAP, a huge pull, then dead weight. They would reel in half a king mackerel. Pesky, like sea lions, but alot quicker and they leave you half of your fish. You just reel in the head and bloody half of your mackerel. Wonder what provision of the Boldt decision affects that 50/50 allocation?

And then one time, at band camp, I was fishing with my brother-in-law for halibut out of Deep Creek, Alaska. He gets one on and it's like he's pulling a garage door off the bottom. But five minutes into the fight, his line just snaps. Heavy sigh. While he's getting re-rigged, I pulled up and rebaited. The skipper told me to go to where my brother-in-law had been, which was "upstream" of the other fishers in the line along the rail, so I wouldn't let down on top of the other anglers' lines. I did this and five minutes later, I've got a big one on.

The long and the short of it is, we get the fish up, shoot it, harpoon it, lasso it and it takes three of us to get it up and into the boat. The halibut not only had my gear in its mouth, but my brother-in-law's gear, weight and all, was still hanging out of its mouth also. 201 pounds (without my brother-in-law's gear). I split the meat with my brother-in-law.

My favorite way to lose a fish is mooching at Point Defiance, when there are maybe 200 boats all mooching between Owens Beach and Crab Point and maybe three clueless trollers just plowing through all the moochers with their downriggers running about 150 to 200 feet of line. The ones I'm talking about are those that would never even consider trolling outside the moochers, don't look left or right, have no clue (or care) which way the moochers' lines are running with the current, etc. I love to finally hook a fish and then have Mr. Clueless just plow right over my line. I really love that.

And one more way I love to lose a fish. This is at the Puyallup River mouth in August. There's maybe 100 boats, mostly trolling around. Then there's Mr. Considerate who decides to combine his fishing excursion with a crabbing excursion and simply drops his pots right in the middle of where everybody's trolling. I just love to hook one of those big hogs and then have it run around Mr. Considerate's bouy line. I love that. It has made my day not just once, but twice. I also question the judgment of anyone who would eat a crab that has been foraging around one of the most polluted spots in the United States.