Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
Those of you that have been reading my Fish Stories over the years probably know a few things about my personal life. Things like my love of heavy metal music for example. Or maybe that I am prone to pushing the limits of getting my column in before the noon on Thursday deadline (for the record it is a little past 1030 on Wednesday night, so I am doing well this week). And I dare say that a good portion of you know that I am a cat person. I can accept that my pet preference is borderline heresy on the Eastern Shore of the great state of Maryland, where Labradors of every shade are the norm and all of the docks are dog friendly, but what can I say. Feline, Fish and Franky all start with F. That must be it.
Over the years I have mentioned my friends Annie and Jose several different times in this column. Miss Annie crossed the rainbow bridge in the spring of 2019, and sadly, Senor Jose went to join his sister at the beginning of the Covid quarantine. I was not cat-less when my buddy Jose took his leave from this world though. Last August my wife and I adopted Natty the Adventure Kitten from the Worcester County Humane Society. Little Natty turned out to be good luck when it comes to blue marlins and her months being Jose’s understudy prepared her to be the cat in charge of the house (and presumably Annie left a “How to Care for Humans” manual in the underside of my ottoman). Over the past month, however, she has had to learn a new role. That of being a big sister to not one, but two, kittens. Doc and Millie. My house is at CATpacity with three little furry terrorists now.
What does all of this have to do with fishing you might ask? Well let me tell you. I have often compared White Marlin fishing to a cat chasing a ball of string. Tease Whitey long enough and he will pounce. The tail will twitch and wiggle faster as he is getting ready to do so. Put something shiny and fish shaped in front of him and he will follow it. Make that shiny shape shimmy just right and it will be irresistible. Trust me on this. I know a little bit about White Marlin….and I study cat behavior daily.
The fact that I study cat behavior daily will make the next thing I am going to tell you about somewhat embarrassing. Fishing is not simply the act of tossing a bait in the water. There are all sorts of preparations that must be made prior to a fishing trip. Chasing big game pelagic species like White Marlin means that the boat has to be fueled and properly provisioned for the voyage. The rods and reels have to be in tip top shape and prepared for some of the toughest fish in the ocean. Baits and lures have to be properly rigged. And in order for the baits to be rigged for a day of White Marlin fishing additional prep work is involved. Circle hooks need to be snelled to 50 or 80 pound monofilament leaders. Lots of hooks and leaders are necessary, and a long time ago I learned that it is easier to make these rigs at home in a comfortable chair rather than on a swaying deck with salt spray splashing off of my head. Well it used to be easier that is.
A few hours ago I set out my rigging supplies on my ottoman (the one with the “How to Care for Humans” manual in it). A spool of monofilament leader material. A few boxes of circle hooks. A package of crimps. A crimping tool. A pair of rigging pliers. Rubber bands, copper wire, and aluminum foil. My plan was to snell circle hooks to leaders in batches of ten. Then use a light piece of copper wire to bundle the hooks together and aluminum foil to wrap the bundled hooks to prevent them from tangling. Afterwards I would coil the ten leaders in a loop and secure it with a rubber band before putting the batch of rigs in a Ziploc bag to transport to the Last Call.
Remember what I said earlier about a White Marlin being like a cat chasing a ball of string? A spool of monofilament leader material is basically a ball of string, and I have three cats! Doc is usually a bit more timid than his sisters so I was pretty surprised when he moved in first and attacked the spool. My surprise was short lived however. Millie made the next move and began chewing on the leader I was snelling to a hook. Apparently kitten teeth are sharp enough to nick 80 pound monofilament. One rig ruined.
Then my toes were attacked from beneath the ottoman. Natty must have been reading the chapter on proper human distraction in the manual, because I was very distracted when the toe torment began. Alas I had to divert my attention from saving my toes back to the nine hooks laid out on the ottoman, because Doc decided to have a seat right on top of them. Thankfully I didn’t have to perform any hook extractions from his furry backside!
While I was tending to Doc, Natty and Millie decided to take a break from helping me rig. I am thinking they went to have a snack or attend to some other serious cat business. Once Doc was out of the hooks he went to see what his sisters were up to. This allowed me enough time to make a whopping four out of my first batch of ten rigs before I noticed some tension on leader number five as I was beginning to snell the hook I was holding. Looking down at the spool I saw that Millie had returned and her kitten teeth were back to work. Ugghhhh….
And sure enough I had barely removed the leader from Millie’s mouth when I heard Doc leap back up on to the ottoman and begin looking for the rest of his hooks. Thankfully my toes were safe for a minute because Natty was tangled up in my four finished rigs. I had no choice but to admit defeat. I called my wife from the other side of the sectional couch to help me untangle Natty and distract the kittens long enough for me to take my rigging supplies and retreat upstairs to my office to do my rigging behind a closed door.
Without any cat interference I managed to make up a few ten rig bundles for my upcoming fishing trips. Then I decided I might as well type this week’s Fish Story. After all, I was already in the office!
