The Kumamoto Family: I Once Caught A Fish That Was This BIG........

This past Friday I had the opportunity to go fishing off the coast of Oregon. I had never been fishing in the open ocean so I was looking forward to the adventure. The last time I was on a boat.....and it wasn't really a boat...it was a Nimitz Class Aircraft carrier....I got sea sick so bad......I was a little stressed out about the thought of going out fishing on such a small boat. So I loaded up on Dramamine, got up at 3:00AM and made our way to the coast. It was about a 2 hour drive from Portland but we got to see some beautiful sites. We passed through the town of Tilamook, they are famous for their cheese...shortly after, we pulled into the town of Girabaldi. Girabaldi is one of those small coastal towns that you think about when you think of Hemingway and Steinbeck. They have little places that are open at the break of dawn for the fishermen to grab a cup of coffee before they head out to sea for their daily catch, everybody knows everybody and people don't lock their doors at night.

When we arrived into town, we were greeted by the Captain's wife, a kind old lady that once taught kids at the local school. She gave us all a cup of coffee and told us good luck! We made our way down the docks, the sun was breaking through the fog here and there warming our faces, the seagulls danced in the sky looking for a handout and the air smelled of the sea. It reminded me that I was alive and there was more to life than my Blackberry, voicemail and commuting. I wanted that brief moment in time to last, I wished I could bottle it up and take it home to remind me of what is what.....

A loud gruff voice woke me up from my dream...." Dammit, get on the boat before the fish decide to go somewhere else!". Captain Ed was yelling at all us, it was 5 minutes past 6:00AM and we were supposed to be gone by 6:00AM.....I guess deadlines exist for everybody.

Capt. Ed told us if we fall off the boat, don't panic and crap your pants, too messy once you get back on boat.....if you need to barf, do it over the side and for God's sake, don't clog up the "head" with too much toilet paper....you can always wash your ass when you get back to shore but it takes him hours to unplug the damn toilet.

With those words of wisdom, we were off......we passed rows and rows of boats and made our way to open sea. First Mate, John...who is Capt. Ed's son, told us to hold on when we get past the rocks, this is the area that the sea is trying to come in and the sea is trying to go out so it gets a little bumpy....and bumpy it was! It put my dramamine to the test...rocking and rolling that we could just hold on and pray we didn't fall over. Thoughts of the movie, The Perfect Storm, flashed through my head......but after a few minutes, we made it through and the ocean calmed a little....now on to fishing....we set up our rods and did our thing....I caught the first Salmon...a nice sized Coho Salmon that we are eating tonight. After all was said and done, after 6 hours, we caught about 9 Coho's and about a 100 Dungeness Crabs......it was time well spent. So as we feast on my catch, I'll think about the sweet smell of the ocean and feel the rocking of the boat beneath my feet....and thank God that I didn't chum the ocean or plug the toilet....

Dawn breaking....