It has been nearly 15 years since I’ve taken to the water to go cod jigging. The last time was with my father, before he passed away. We spent many weeks fishing together during summer of 1999.
The memories I have of those 4 AM wake-up calls will always firmly remain. Sometimes though we are hesitate to do some of the things we enjoyed when a loved one is lost.
The morning of jigging happened during our family reunion on my mom’s side this past weekend. I’m so happy to begin making new memories and enjoy again something my father did for a living.
I got the first catch, which caused me to work very hard as a big tug came on my line. I pulled in over the boat a big halibut of 15+ pounds. Despite all the effort, this is one fish you can not keep. I love halibut, but to the sea it was returned. After getting what was likely more nibbles from halibut, we moved off into deeper water. There I caught a small cod. Since it was our only catch for the afternoon, I opted to keep it. Not too long after my mother and I both pulled in two dandy size fish, one after the other.
The morning was quite fruitful despite not catching our bag limit of 15 fish per boat. We were only in the water a short time and came home and prepared for a family barbecue.
Saturday’s lunch menu was fresh pan-fried cod.
Certainly not to be beat and quite rewarding knowing you got it yourself from the Atlantic Ocean, which is just at your doorstep.
Live Rural NL-
Christopher Mitchelmore, MHA
The Straits-White Bay North
@MitchelmoreMHA
