Fun Monday - Fishing stories

Our hostess for this week is Olive at UR Olive. And this is our assignment

I would like to hear about your *whopper* of a fishing story. Yes, you heard it correctly whether it is fictional or non fictional I want to hear a fishing story from you. An example would be if you catch a minnow and tell it that you caught a swordfish (exaggeration is the operative word here). Did you hear me say show your photo(s)? Of course you did – be creative.


OK, so being a Brit, I had no idea if a "fishing story" was an American euphemism for something and I was going to make a total idiot of myself by writing a story about fishing. But Olive has clarified that, yep, this really is about fishing. So here you go!

Several years ago, Himself and I used to go sea fishing two or three times a year. We went with a group of pals and, being the only female on board, I really had to hold my own and be just as good as they were. Not that I had to do that for them, but for myself. So I learnt to bait my own hooks and gut any fish I caught.

Fortunately, I don't get seasick. Himself does and much as he loved the idea of sea-fishing, it cost him double because being self-employed he didn't get paid as he wasn't working and he had to pay for the cost of the trip. And despite taking sea-sickness tablets, he would still get horrendously ill and would spend half the trip prone in the cabin. I remember we were out on one trip in a Force 5 gale. Fishing was out of the question but I was up front with the skipper and thoroughly enjoying the rolling waves whilst my fellow fishermen, some of them quite hardened to the sea, took it in turns to feed the fishes. On several of these trips I was also crowned the "Mackerel Queen", as the fish could sometimes barely wait until I'd lowered my line into the water before throwing themselves onto my hooks.

On another trip, I thought I had hooked the catch of my life. Whatever it was, it was big. Very big. And heavy. My line was almost bent over double and I was having a tough job reeling it in. The boys all gathered round me to watch and the skipper stood ready with his priest in case it fought back when I landed it. Reel it in, relax, reel it in, relax and on and on for about 10 minutes.

Finally it popped through the surface of the sea. And my giant catch?

Picture courtesy of Google because no-one on board had a camera!

Yes, a measly scallop that I'd wrested off the sea-bed.

And after that anti-climax, please head over to Olive's to see who else is telling whoppers this week!