Everyone has a secret fishing spot. The only way I know how to keep the spot secret is to fish it at night without lights. Living on an island everyone has a reason to look out at the horizon, the view, the sunset, the moon and stars. Almost everyone has a boat and either fishes recreationally or commercially.
One can make a spot by visiting it often and chumming it with freshly caught bait. To find a spot that fish are naturally attracted to is worthy of ones time to locate and then keep it a secret.
One Saturday night after church my dad asked if I wanted to go fishing with him. My answer to that question was always yes but did not realize he meant we were going fishing now, it was 8:00pm. Dad had prepped boat earlier and all we had to do was get in and go.
Curious about how far and where we were going I asked. Dad smiled and said wait and see. Twenty minutes from the bay he pointed the bow into the wind and asked me to throw the anchor. Questioning him I asked, here? Really?
The anchor grabbed ahold and our little boat started dancing to the tune of the wind and slight chop.
I turned on the light and dad told me to turn it off for now but to be ready to turn it on in a moments notice if needed. He explained he found this spot many years ago and saved it for his retirement years and wants it to keep it a secret so it does not get over fished.
Dad chummed while I slipped on the fishing garb over my pants. With my two finger guards on my forefingers I placed the baited hooks of my bottom tester hand line into the water. It found the bottom and as it got there both hooks attracted fish on the reef and I was counting as I pulled then up. The slight tug and almost dead weight told me it was two butter fish. Proven right as I lifted these two perfect specimens into the boat I announced the depth of a mere 14 fathoms. The size of the butter fish was a good indicator that this spot was not fished.
Sending the line down I started checking on the way down to see if there was anything along the way that might be interested in my bait. About the half way mark I felt the tug and this time it was the pull of a hardnose. Excited I proclaimed “hardnose, hardnose, hardnose” as I pulled them into the boat. Dad’s line was tight too and he was pulling in his catch.
The fish swirled around us the entire time we were there. We had non stop action and filled our coolers in about four hours. Pulling up anchor at about 12:30am we made it home by 1:00am.
Dad and I fished this spot a few more Saturday nights in a row and it continued to pan out.
We decided to let it rest for a few months and fished other ares but we both looked forward to the day when we fished our secret spot.
This is my version of the swirling fish.
