The Fisherman's Luck

It was April 13th 1977 Friday the 13th actually. I was drifting in a storm off the coast of Westport Washington on my father's trawler the McKinley.My partner John on the Eldorado had left me and high tailed it to the bar and went in. I had decided to hit the bunk and drift down wind for the night. At daylight I decided to get out of bed and assess the situation. When my foot hit the floor I stepped on a mirror that had come off the wall. It didn't break until I stepped on it. Oh shit I thought " more bad luck"! I noticed the seas had come down to 10 or 15 feet so I figured that if I set the net out I would get a better ride. I called the boy's and told them to "let er go".

It was my thinking that if I set down wind, got comfortable, and towed all day that the weather might just come down before dark. Then I could haul back and run back north. After we got the gear out I grabbed a cup of coffee and wedged myself in. The crew ran back to bed.

About an hour into the tow half asleep I looked up at the meter and saw a huge pinnacle on the bottom. I knew that I was screwed as it was too late to turn away. I braced myself to hang up and possibly loose the net.

When I regained my composure I yelled for the crew the we had to haul back asap. Shaking in my boots I waited for the worst.Luckily for us the wind was coming down.

As we started to wind on the net we realized that there was something very heavy in it as the net real would barely move. I thought that it must be a boulder but all of sudden 100 yards back a huge bag of fish blew to the surface! The crew went nuts. When we got it in it turned out to be the biggest catch ever recorded on the McKinley.

We loaded it on all the way up to the bow and headed for the bar. As we were crossing the bar and fish falling overboard we passed by John on the Eldorado coming back out.With his eyes as big as saucers he grumbled " guess I should have stayed out".