We've unpacked the seafreight which finally arrived 16th July. Most of the boxes have been open except for some junk that was packed along all the way from Malaysia. Furniture takes up most the space at home at the moment, big furniture in a small house, inadvertently space get squezed out as a victim of circumstances.
The first items freed from the confines of the Allied Pickford cardbox boxes were camera gear and fishing gear. All come intact except for the brand new unused aluminium cased 13 feet steelhead flyrod worth USD$400. It has somehow vanished into thin air. All the other stuff came as per our shipment list. Took a few days to sort out the accessories, we were out fishing before the start of teh second week.
We tried plastics on the first outing near our house at Trolleskogen. Rocky shore, full of kelp and weeds and very clear water. We were all high hopes, casting plastics across the waters over and over again in drizzling conditions which turned out into a downpour of hailstones in the end. In total we had only three strikes : Aisya's plastic got chomped in half; Pappy's plastic got bitten twice with teeth marks. One fish actually chased the lure all the way to shore. No dice, zero hook-up.
On the second outing we tried using feather baits for mackerel. They looked really nifty at the display panels at XXL Sport shop going for NOK49 on sale. If looks alone could killed, these babies would surely reel in a few macks. No dice, zero hook-up. We fished through more than drizzly rain and were dissappointed. Maybe they just weren't any macks at the spot that day. Fishermen are probably the most optimistic sportsmen around ... with the exception of 4D, Toto Sports men and women.
This being the third try at the same spot, we went traditional and brought along a tub of the longest, fattest, juicy-est worms carried by XXL Sports. Last chance, last straw, final reckoning ... if Trolleskogen didn't cough up the fish, we were willing to fish elsewhere. Hopes were high. Two plastics and one worm went into the fray.
The plastics came up with weeds; the wriggly fat worm dragged out a 6 incher. It's a fish! Yee-hah! Trolleskogen have fish! Three worms went into the arena. All three successfully pulled up denizens from the clear kelpy waters. One of the fish was a pollock! Spirits ran high, everybody was switching plastics to earthworms. We hauled up 6 catches in the end; released four and brough home two for the table.
When you fish for sport sometimes you wish you never caught fish. There's plenty to say about the ones that got away. Or the ones that chomped the plastic into pieces or straighten the triple hook and somersaulted away. By the time you reel in a fish, the excitement is almost immediately over. There's a half-dead creature at your feet. Worst still maimed and breathing laboriously.
Today we brought back two of our catches. From adrenaline rush they quickly turned into a cumbersome chore. A fish from the supermart comes cube sized in a neat odorless plastic bag. Fish you caught comes in looking like fish. Dispensing them is one issue, cleaning and gutting is another. Cooking it up into something decent worthy of a creature's life is another whole story in itself.
There is now however a new favorite place for Ali and Aisya. And has probably also rekindled their interest in fishing. The two fish gave up their life for Trolleskogen to be their top spot for the coming few weeks.
