Deep Sea Fishing

Yes I am a vegetarian but today some friends on the Isle of Wight took me deep sea fishing. First we went out to a shallow sand bank or something and caught mackrel then went to some deep water to try for bigger fish which nobody managed to catch.

I caught nothing during the whole trip, but this was mostly my fault. In the mackrel grounds everyone was dropping a line with 4 hooks on and almost imediatly pulling out three or four mackrel. These were then tossed into a basket after being removed from the line (not always easy it seemed).

At first I wasn't prepaired to join in. I don't do killing much. But as I considered the situation I decided that if I could just catch one fish I could then hold it as it died and then eat it later. I wasn't really comfortable with the whole tossing copious amounts into a basket.

Unfortunately just as I was ready to try this and ask for a line with just the one hook (I really didn't want to risk killing 4 of the little chaps) we were told to raise our lines and we moved on for the bigger fish. For these we used bait and a single hook so for the full 3ish hours I did try and catch something as I was prepaired to kill and eat the one. But nothing took. So I came away empty.

Actually this makes me feel good. I tried and lost. It was a risk and I spent energy and came away with nothing (I could have gathered far more vegetables with that energy). But I do feel anoyed that I didn't give it a go with the mackrel just to see if I could have coped with it dying in me hands (though the experience of Roo, my rabbit, dying in my arms last year I used as preparation). It would have then been an interesting experience cooking and eating it.

Next time.