This is not common knowledge, but the core guys that are as crazy as I am to go fishing the way and in the frequency that I do are pilots. One Navy, the other Air Force - but neither one has a call sign. From having other Aviators around, I have come to learn carrier aviators and helicopter pilots are the only ones that hang on to call signs.
So today, we had bad weather - but there was a window to get out and we were on the small boats and fishing in a matter of minutes. I brought in a pretty big Jobfish on the offshore trolling reel I have. Good chance to test out the knots I tied between the monofilament and the braid (it held). Then I switched to a smaller lure because we were moving over shallower water - before I could get the lure down, a big mouth came up to the surface and pulled the lure under - and broke off the swivel. We turned around and Mike hooked into a good sized grouper (probably the culprit that took my lure).
Then he got a hit on a second pole he had out with a squid skirt lure on it. When he took it into the boat, it was a pretty small Bonito. This coupled with the barracuda he caught yesterday, establishes a trend of reliably catching smaller fish (when going for the big sea monsters). It is in situations just like this when call signs are born -
And just for the record, here are some rules for fishing call signs:
- people cannot give themselves call signs
- two other people have to agree to the call sign (Rodney agreed with me on this one)
- call signs can change, but only after trends are established/are broken/a profound event occurs
Mike's honorary Navy Call Sign is "Small Fry" (sorry Mike for publishing this, but I couldn't pass this up!!!).
