[fabsroman]

Isn't catching the big fish a ton of fun.

Since it was your first time, I'll let you slide.

I remember the first time I went Rockfishing. I wasn't a big fan of fishing because I never caught a thing with my dad when we were younger and it was boring. My dad wasn't the best hunter or fisher I have figured out, but he was definitely better at hunting than fishing. Then again, his game was upland hunting and he was great at that. Fishing, terrible. Waterfowling, terrible. Probably because he didn't keep up with all the technology and tactics.

Anyway, back to my story. The first time I went Rockfishing was my second year in law school. The first fish we hooked up, I passed to my law school buddy and it was a 35" rockfish at around 20 pounds. I was cussing at myself because I had never seen a fish that big on a hook while fishing. Anyway, I got the next, and last, fish we hooked that day and it turned out to be a 42" Rockfish at 30 pounds. It took me about 20 minutes to reel it in and my forearms were on fire. Probably didn't help anything that I did an upper body workout the very night before. My friends were laughing at me until that fish's head broke the water. At that point, we were wondering how we were going to get it in the boat because the net wasn't big enough and we didn't have a gaf. My other law school buddy (i.e., the one that didn't reel in the other fish), being a charter boat mate out in the ocean for tuna, bill fish, and shark, leaned over the back of the boat and picked the fish up by the mouth with both hands.

Here is a pick of that fish.