A long slow troll 1&2

A long slow troll



The year was 1957 and I found myself on the USS Chickasaw a navy ocean going tug boat towing three large
barges of asphalt to a far-away place namely Enewetok atoll
in the Marshall islands,these islands are 2500 miles southw-
est of Hawaii,out of the main shipping lanes,in the middle of nowhere.

Having been born inland and not seeing the ocean
until my late teens this was something else again,I had drea-mt about such a place for years fueled by the writings of Zane Grey and Hemingway.

The tow was very slow to say the least which was fine with me not so with most the crew,four or five knots divided
by 2500

Most of the crew saw nothing but water but I and my bud saw life everywhere, the water was full of visitors every-
day,dorado by the scores,sharks even a couple of bill fish,
whales would even stop by for a visit,at night flying fish would bombard us by the dozens,we tryed to show a movie
on the stern one night and were sent running for our lives,
birds would rest on the barges frigets and albatross,the area was anything but dead.

Every morning we had to run around and pick up the dead flying fish then it was show time for the crew,I would
throw a couple out and watch the dodo,s come running,just like feeding the chickens.

Enewetok atoll is nothing more than a circular thin strip of island with a large lagoon in the middle,fifteen miles
in diameter,we entered the lagoon thru a small opening which had been blasted out for smaller ships such as us,the
lagoon was like nothing your imagination could expect,a flat mill pond,not a ripple and clear as a gin jug,so clear it seem-ed like we were floating on air,as you looked down you could see forever,after off loading the barges we made for the fuel dock,only to find they would not let us off,which was ok i guess,probably could,nt walk anyway after nearly a month
of rocking and rolling,after fueling we moved out to anchor
for the next two days,then the fun being more me.

Night time and I got to wondering whats down there?
we had two large lights on the stern for night time work which we turned on and pointed at the water,in a matter of minutes things began to happen! clouds of plankton appear-ed,than krill,than small bait fish,they just got bigger by the minute,we talked the cook out of a block of frozen shrimp to add to the mix........several kinds of jacks began showing
some of the larger ones I think were trevally,s,big brownish
groupers started making passes thru the melee than things
came to a stop out from under the boat comes a fifteen ft.
or more tiger shark with his blunt nose an striped body,a
beautiful animal,we were but a few feet from his head.

After the big boy left things returned to normal,we only had one fishing pole and an hand line which I had rigged up earlyer,no match for these guys,everything was to big and strong for our stuff,if you hooked something small he never made it to the top,always big boys would take him and leave us just standing there laughing.

Much more to the story but you get the idea,also five years earlyer same island the last hydrogen bomb was fired off,the place was hot,what were we doing there?

They did not start to clean up the place until the late 60,s so I quess we were lucky!
BAITCAST
What I failed to tell about was the trolling we did the first time I did this

Ocean tugs have a huge amount of power for their size thus a very large prop or screw and when under tow put out a vast amount of wash and this was what the Dorado found a liking to a regular play ground.

This is where I first saw them in the wash,they would race around chase one a another jump just generally have a good time this is when I made my trolling line and jigs and got after them.

First attempts did not go well the hooks we had were not up to it an would straighten out,they had long shanks so I wired up three together,made the jig out of spoon handles andused white bunting for color,coundn't handle the larger fish so had to settle for the small fish.

Caught enough one day for a fish fry on the stern just had a fine old time just no beer

Well thats what I forgot to mention the first time around. hope you liked it.
Rob

baitcast, Thanks for sharing your story.

Gracias for sharing your story, Rob!

Very well put!

Brought back some of my own memories.

Anyone who has fished for Dorado knows about their affection for anything floating be it tug boats,kelp patties whatever,they must be licking their chops with all the crap headed our way from Japan.

I think it maybe explains how the early Polynesians managed those vast distances,coconuts and Dorado,probably get a little tiresome after a few weeks
Rob

[Edited on 4-2-2012 by baitcast]

All right....lt is just a good story!

Got to keep this going BUMP