The Fishing Reports: Bottom Bumping With Basho

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Bottom Bumping With Basho

Red napper season, during which Hammerhead was subjected to a half dozen bottom fishing trips with a dozen different anglers, closed yesterday, July 18. It is tempting to write a Fishing Report on each trip, or at least to write a summary mentioning each trip and every angler, but I am mindful of Pat Dineen's observation that I do run on. So, I am going to distill the entire season into a single photograph of my wife and one fish she caught, with a haiku as a caption

In pools of summer shade
waitng red snapper
hear smiles unborn above.

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The Ancient and Honorable Order of the Blind Hog

"EVEN A BLIND HOG FINDS AND ACORN EVERY NOW AND THEN." An old Southern adage used to explain an unusually good performance from an unexpected source.

And like blind hogs in search of acorns, even modestly talented fishermen find a billfish every now and then if they work at it, which is the premise and the promise on which the Order is founded.

If anyone who is not a Blind Hog fishes for billfish (marlin, sail, or sword) on a Shoat Boat - a boat owned and operated by the High Hog and the Best Mate - then he or she becomes a Novitiate in the Order.

Any Novitiate aboard a Shoat Boat when a billfish is hooked becomes a Blind Hog, having been there when a metaphorical acorn was found, and, as such, is a member in good standing of the Order, with all the rights, powers, and privileges appertaining thereto.

If a Blind Hog hooks, catches, leaders, or gaffs a billfish on a Shoat Boat, or runs the boat while a billfish is being fought, then he or she achieves the exalted status of Curly Tail Blind Hog.

Qualify as a Curly Tail more than once and you are a Wild Boar, a piscatorial distinction unlike any other.