Less than two miles from my house is the Pacific Ocean. There are some rock jetties going out into the ocean and a long pier that we can fish off of.
I used to like going out onto the big rocks, I could run at full tilt across the top of them, no problem at all. Hell, it was damn near a half mile to the end, many times I stood right there at the very tip of it.
Getting out there where almost no one ever went was fun, I caught things so big they sometimes surprised even me. Big old Cabezon, Lingcod, the Sea bass and smaller fish we called Sea Trout were always there. A few times I even cast out in the fall for the big Silver Perch and ended up with a Salmon instead.
But time takes it's toll, years of hard work and age made the old muscles tired and sore, the joints ached.
Damn rocks got bigger and farther apart, too. One day I was struggling to get out onto the rocks and a big wave caught me, a couple of kids happened to be close by and dragged me out of the water.
"Hey, old timer, maybe you should not come out here, it can be dangerous." One of them told me.
I looked at the over muscled kid's wet suit and spear gun, and I thought about telling him to put me back in the goddamn water, I could take care of myself.
But I kept my mouth shut, just thanked them. They were right, I knew that.
I found myself ambling out onto the pier, sitting in a lawn chair and pitching a piece of sand shrimp out into the water.
Sometimes I even got a bite or two, mostly I just sat out there casting sidelong glances at the big rollers coming in off the ocean and hitting the rocks. They struck and often blasted 30 feet into the air. I could see that from the pier, smell the salt air, remember the times I had been out there, jumping from rock to rock to avoid the huge waves. Then I would dart down, drop a piece of bait into a likely crack in the rocks and almost always get a fish.
I sighed, life wasn't fair. Just when I got to the point where I had all of this time all day every day, my body had betrayed me and would not let me do all the things I wanted to do.
Hell, I even had to stop at the little market and buy bait, I used to just take a shovel and a bucket and dig clams and sand shrimp, even that made me hurt so bad I just couldn't do it.
The trouble with the damn pier was people. Families with kids, they ran screaming back and forth, throwing things into the water, it was noise all the time. Without fail a bunch would show up and throw crab pots over the side, yapping away in some foreign language, generally ruining what could be a peaceful day.
One day I decided to go back out onto the jetty. I checked the tide book, there was a series of shallow tides coming up. That meant a gentle current, and the weather report was good, little wind and no storms in sight.
By God I was going fishing! And I wasn't going to use that damned frozen shit for bait, so I got a shovel and my boots and off I went. The tide was out pretty good, I got down to the river bank where a rock shelf runs out, it is covered by about 6 inches of mud so the shrimp can't run.
It took me a half hour to dig a little trench, as it filled with water the shrimp slid out of their holes. I picked them up, in short order I had around 50 of them and a few clams. I put those into my little plastic bucket, went back to my truck and rested for a good hour or so.
Feeling up to it, I drove out onto the jetty to the sign and parked. The sign read danger, keep off, but nobody ever paid any attention to that.
I grabbed my fishing pole, a stout little five footer, my gunny sack I had clipped to my belt, and my bucket of bait. In my coat pocket I had some split shot leads and a package of fishhooks, all I really needed.
No point in any huge casting rig, all the fish were in the rocks anyway because if they weren't, they would end up in one of those ever present Seal's belly.
I started out across the rocks. I found myself sliding down one side on my fanny, on my hands and knees in other places. I just kept going, I knew that it would take me awhile but the tide was coming in and I wanted to be where I was headed at high slack tide.
The place I was heading was a huge flat rock that was well above the highest tide point. It had large rocks on each side, I could set my gear down and fish off that rock without much fear of falling in. It took me nearly two hours of starting and stopping to clamber my way out there, but by God I made it.
I put my gear down and sat down to rest, lighting up a smoke. I woke up a half hour later, looked down at the river. The tide was coming up on high slack.
I put a shrimp tail on my little number 4 hook, flipped in down into the gap between the two boulders. I tripped the reel and the pole bent double, out came a nice little Greenie a good 16" long. I caught three more of them back to back, all the same size. Then I went a long time without a bite. I did catch a couple of Red Rock Crabs, nice ones so I stuck those in my sack, too.
But still no more bites. I knew what that meant, a big fellow was around, the smaller fish all take off when big Cabezon or Lingcod slides in under the rocks. I put on a tiny bit of bait and cast out on the other side, there was a shallower area there that I knew had little ones. I instantly caught a little yellow perch about 3 inches long.
I carefully hooked the yellow Perch through it's fin on the back, dropped it down into the deep hole. It instantly darted for the cover of the rocks but didn't make it. I saw the huge shadow dart out, then turn back, and I set the hook.
It was huge. I had caught some very large fish out there but this one was right up there with the largest. It proceeded to wedge itself into the rocks and refused to budge. I just kept up the pressure, I knew that eventually it would begin to give and try something else.
"What do you have on, mister?" Said a voice from behind me.
I glanced back and there stood a pretty little brunette in a bikini that she might as well have not bothered with.
I damn near dropped the pole! How in the hell did she get out here, besides, she was barefoot?
"We were swimming on the South side, the waves are gentle there." She said, apparently reading the surprise on my face.
"We?" I asked, giving my line a tug. Just then the fish darted out of the rocks and across the hole into another spot, went back to sulking.
"Oh! You do have a fish on, what is it?" She started climbing down the rocks to where I was. Just what I needed was some tourists coming down and getting in my way, I was in a battle here. I was trying to keep my line off the rocks so it didn't cut through, at the same time I had to keep pressure on the fish or it would be gone.
The young woman managed to get to my rock, right on cue she stepped in front of me and looked down over the edge. The tail of the thing was sticking out into view, it was a big Cabezon, it's tail was a good six inches tall.
The trouble with big Cabezon is they will wrap their tails around a rock and hang on for dear life. The only way to get the really big ones is tire them and make them work.
Usually they win, to be honest.
"Excuse me, miss, please step back." I asked her.
"Sorry." She stepped back out of my way.
Just then another voice called out.
"Julie! Where the fuck are you?"
"I'm down here, Sandy! This man has a great big fish on!" Hell, she sounded as excited as I was. Another pretty light brown haired girl appeared, she was also in a bikini, if anything, it was even smaller. She climbed down and onto the same flat rock with us. It was getting a bit snug.
I would have yelled at them to go the hell away and leave me alone but to be honest I was enjoying the view.
The other problem I had was the fucking fish was beginning to win, I could feel my arms starting to give up.
I got an idea.
"Miss? Uhhhh....Julie? Hey, want to give me a hand?"
"Sure, what do I do?"
"Take this pole, just hold it tight against the fish. He might try to dart out under the rocks into the river and if he does he will get away so pull hard. I need to rest my arms."
"Oh, OK. I know how to fish. Sandy, come here and help me hold this."
Sandy reached out and grabbed to pole just ahead of the reel, Julie grabbed the butt of it. Her right hand came over and took the reel handle, I knew she had had a fishing pole in her hands before.
Thankfully, I let go, my poor arms were starting to cramp up from what was now a full half hour of constant pressure. I stepped back to a glorious view of two bikini clad behinds and both of them were spectacular. They were both leaned forwards, looking down at the big fish now six feet away.
I rubbed my arms, felt myself quickly recovering. In a few minutes, I stepped forward and took the pole again.
"Thanks." I told them.
"You are welcome, sir." Sandy said.
"Sir?" I thought with a grin, but just then the fish made another run for it. It was trying to get it's head down to escape under the rocks, I was trying to hold it's head up. I saw it give up, it's maw came open and the head broke water. It hung there on the end of my line. I tightened up, slid it off to the side where I could reach down and grab it's lower jaw.
I knew what was going to happen and it did, the instant I grabbed it grabbed right back. I lifted it out of the water onto the rock.
"Wow!" One of the girls said, their feet dangerously close to the flopping thing.
I knew I was done fishing, now the problem was going to be to get back with the fish and my gear, not to mention the fish I had in my sack. I bonked the big fish on the head, then slid it into my sack.
I thanked the two girls, they still stood there and watched me. Then I picked up my pole, my bait bucket and the sack, started back down the rocks. I almost didn't want to leave, this pair was really fun to look at.
"We need to head back too." Julie told her friend. They started working their way along with me. After about a hundred yards I had to stop. They stopped and sat there with me while I rested, they were asking questions about fishing and everything under the Sun.
I explained that I didn't come out onto the rocks much since I got old, it was too hard on me but that I really did enjoy it.
"You don't look so old!" Sandy giggled at me. She had noticed my glances at them, hell, I couldn't help myself, they both looked to be almost naked. Sandy had started almost posing, letting her shoulder come back which made her breasts look larger and higher. Julie just kept grinning at me.
Finally I was ready to go again, Sandy took the bait bucket, looked inside at them.
"Yuk!" She said, laughing.
