Any day that 14 nice size fish are caught and sold is considered a very good day by Anguilla fishing standards. The captioned picture tells the success story but the fish that got away is the better tale. It was an odd fishing day because of the good and bad luck secondary to the fish gaff.

Beautifully done!

In the first instance, Patrick had a bed of Dolphin fish chummed and excited and a fish on the line. One big fellow followed the caught fish to the waters edge next to the swim platform and Patrick gaffed and plucked the uncaught fish into the boat.

Another fish broke loose from a hook but failed to scurry away and that fish was similarly gaffed and plucked into the boat. Mighty fisherman Patrick began to brag that he didn’t even need a fishing line and needed only his trusty fish gaff. Also, in that bed of Dolphin fish was a monster sized bull that was darting around like a ballistic missile. With repeated tosses of the bait toward the enormous fish brought success as he succumbed to the bait and was hooked. The big bad bull pulled and darted and dove and jumped during the battle. Expertly and adeptly, Patrick gaffed the giant broadside but the bull Dolphin mightily jerked the gaff completely out of Patrick’s hand and darted away from the boat. The gaff was firmly imbedded and was breaking the surface of the water like a periscope on a submarine. The fish was still hooked (and on the fishing line) so Patrick fought back but soon the big bull dived under the boat and brokes loose. Hook, line, fish and gaff were gone forever.

It is fair to say that Anguilla fishermen never loose a fish once the gaff is set, regardless of size. However, it seems that the lost gaff (and giant fish) was pay back because of the two earlier very lucky gaff catches.

Notwithstanding the fishing saga, the Anguilla fine dining establishments, along with some dockside regulars, bought up the catch. Firstly, Jerome Marvin Rogers, leading industrial grade electrician takes two beautiful fish. Island-wide, great electricians are admired and command great respect on the pier and otherwise. The Art Café chef was waiting on the dock and had earlier convinced Patrick to go out fishing especially for him that day. The three sashimi grade juvenile Wahoo fish were saved for Carrie Bogar, Veya Restaurant, Sandy Ground. Chef Bogar will certainly conceive a new Patrick-caught Wahoo delicacy to the utter delight of her fine dining patrons. On this day however, young Patrick faced the dockside humiliation of being a fisherman that lost a perfectly gaffed fish.

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