Osprey - 6-3-2017 at 08:42 AM
Beyond Skunked
All fishermen know what “Skunked” means, it means you caught no fish. Not forever, just for the one outing from the shore or in a boat. The word
is hardly ever shouted; fishermen don’t like the word, keep it low and muffled as though the mention of the odoriferous animal will fill the space
around you if you say it too loud.
I don’t want to spread the smell, draw more attention to the thing but I must point out that we dismiss it as a single bad thing when we all know it
is many things. For example, how about those uncountable days when you did catch fish but they were all the wrong kind. Now don’t try to tell us you
never had a day when you caught 10 sculpin and 2 pufferfish. Did you say, with some pride ‘Well, I didn’t get skunked’?
Or how about that day you pulled in four needlefish and two skipjack, kept one of each for bait, then nothing wanted the bait. Were you a verbal
denier on that one too? Have you done the same when you released unproud numbers of Ladyfish, Porcupine Fish, Bonefish, or a shipload of nastyspinys
you can’t name or even describe?
My old friend Mike D threw that phrase around so many times when I was witness that I finally had to challenge him. I said “Mike, you just caught
another lizardfish and lost the hook because you didn’t want to deal with those nasty little teeth – you cut the line and had to rehook again.
After all that I heard you say ‘Well, I didn’t get skunked’. We’re headed home now and there’s nothin’ in your bucket but your knife and
gloves. I submit that you went beyond skunked. I herewith assign a value on the lizardfish at two food fish. So on my new system, you not only got
skunked but the next time you fish you can’t start the count until you’ve caught two pargo or pompano.”
He paid me no nevermind but I’ve privately kept the new scoring system alive by assigning my negative number system to fish caught in my neck of the
woods. If you like the system you can just adapt it to the non-food nasties in your area. I don’t want to bore you with charts and graphs and such
so just use the worst number, four, for the Tiger Snake Eel and the Lionfish and go up to one from there.
My system is fairly new but it is spreading like the gospel so the next time you go beyond skunked, keep your voice even lower because my disciples
look a lot like you and they are everywhere. I call em’ Jorge’s Witnesses.
[Edited on 6-3-2017 by Osprey]
bajabuddha - 6-3-2017 at 09:43 AM
May I also point out the use of the word in cribbage... a much more sinister connotation. 
AKgringo - 6-3-2017 at 09:43 AM
I went way beyond skunked in Cooke Inlet once while fishing for halibut. My first hook up gave me a long hard fight, but when I got it to the
surface, it was a huge ray (or maybe a skate).
I had heard that the wings could be cut and prepared like scallops, so I brought it onboard my 12 1/2 foot Zodiac. It took up most of the available
floor space.
Not only did it leave us next to no room for our feet, it started oozing copious quantities of slime! Not just normal fish slime, thick, mucus like
stuff that could not be rinsed off with salt water!
I should have thrown it overboard, but I killed and kept it, so we headed back to the beach with that disgusting creature. I had to beach the Zodiac
and scrub the floorboards and pontoons with dish soap before we could use it again.
The ray was still sliming us when I cut it up the next day, and there was no joy in trying to eat the stringy 'scallops' that we cut out of the wings.
Skunked, and slimed at the same time!
Good to see you posting again Osprey, I enjoyed it!