One Dozen Eels; by Alexi

     There's nothing like trying to get out of the city at 4:30 in the afternoon on a weekday.  I don't care what city you're in, it's just plain the worst.  So, we were sitting in traffic and I was trying to explain to Nick the subtleties of eel fishing from a kayak.

TRAFFIC

      I basically said "Just don't let the eel fuck you, because it's going to.   It's going to wind itself up into an eel knot around your line and commit eel suicide.  But don't let it.  Get it in the water quickly."

    What has in the past taken as little as an hour and a half turned in into an epic four and half hour trip.  Of  course we had to stop a lot as well as sit in traffic.   Traffic, coffee, sandwiches, bait, motel.  traffic. coffee. traffic.

BAIT

He said, " A dozen eels? I can't put them in there, you'll have to do it outside.  I'll put them in a bucket.  If I try to do it in here I'll be chasing them all over the place."

I say "Yup."

I think to myself: that's exactly what usually happens, why do it differently?  I always thought chasing the eels in the shop was part of fishing.

 He said, "You want 40 lb braid? O.K."  the O and the K are both drawn out.....

 He said, "What kind of backing do you want?"

(I didn't know people had a preference for backing)


In the darkness there is mystery


 MOTEL

She said, "Good luck tomorrow. "

I laughed to myself, and thought, "you mean tonight."

 She said, "Did you see the fish the other kayaker caught?"

 "Yup"

She said,  "Doesn't it pull you in?"

"Nope"

"Your in room 14, it's around the back."

 FISHING

Later, (but not much,)  at the gate, they didn't ask if we were fishing.

Winter anchorage:

9:29 P.M.

      We paddled directly into the wind, heading out to the channel to have a meeting with a large fish.  Nick had a new set-up, a Calcutta paired with a St Croix rod.  A perfect combo for striper fishing. Half way across the flat,  a car arrives at the launch.  What were they doing?
     Paddle paddle.
     No ghosts, Just witches.  For all intents and purposes, the Moon was full.  
     Nicks first eel committed suicide.  (Not a good start, but at least that hurdle was over.)
     Around 1 A.M. some other boats arrived on the scene and it looked like they were drifting eels in Oyster Creek Channel as well.  For a Thursday night, there was more boat traffic than I expected.  Nick didn't have a light on, and I was wondering if he had been run-over by the boats.  But then he appeared.  
     We had arrived at the channel in time for a perfect drift.  We stayed there for a couple of hours fishing both sides of slack tide.  I might have had one run-off, but couldn't really tell.  It was pretty windy, and nothing was going on.  I wanted to get out of there.

     I really wanted to head straight to the Sedge House, but I wasn't sure if Nick knew where it was, or if I went too fast if he'd be lost.  Eventually we got there.

2:15 A.M.

Zing Zing.  Slack line.  Zing Zing.  Slack line.  This fish kept swimming towards me just when I was trying to bend my rod.  I land a nice 29" fish.

We fished that hole for a while longer, but the cold and the wind started to kick in, and the thought of the warm Motel room was luring us back.

It was 4:30 AM by the time we laid down.

The End