Holy Mackerel, part 3

Most everyone from the fishing group had sat down for a late lunch, or early dinner... I couldn't tell. I was impressed with their spread because I remember the colorful salad they were all munching on. No sooner had my mouth started salivating when one of the baited pole's reel began dragging, as something big had taken the bait. I saw the pole bend and fidget under the weight of the fish at the other end of the line. Everyone in the fishing party dropped their meal and grabbed a rod around the pole that had the fish on, so as to keep the lines from tangling. The man who had grabbed the pole with the fish on readied himself to set the hook. There was a sense of urgency in the air, as it was apparent that there may not be much time to land the fish. He decided to set the hook after momentarily sizing up the situation, even while everyone was still frantically reeling in their lines.

As he was setting the hook, I maneuvered in closer to the rail, to see if I could get a shot of the fish as it surfaced, and sure enough, there it was... a big, nasty-looking brown thing! I had no idea what it was... I thought it might be a shark, but it was shaped funny, like an arrow. Maybe it was a halibut... same sorta color? No, too warm here. I didn't know! I determined that I would ask later, because by this time, the fisherman was hoisting the flailing fish from the water and up the eighty feet or so, to the deck of the pier. Everything was happening so fast! I snapped the shutter a few more times as they brought the catch onto the pier and slammed him down on the deck, to stun him and keep him from flopping around and hurting someone. The crowd that had gathered all exclaimed with oooh's and aaaah's in an almost naive surprise at the sight. I chuckled at this, even though I was a bit naive myself.

I chatted with the man from the group that seemed to be kind of the father figure. He was very nice, and I showed him a few of the shots from the back of my 10D. He told me that it was a shovel-nose shark that they had caught, and I asked him if it was edible, even though I figured it was, since his daughter had run off to clean the shark. He told me it was a delicacy, very sweet tasting meat... better than crab! We chatted a little more and I let him get back to his dinner once his daughter had returned with what looked to be about twenty pounds of meat. Some other people were still milling about, trying to guess what kind of fish it was, rather than just come out and ask someone. Too much!

I poked around a little while longer, but felt it was time to mosey on down the road. I scanned the pier again for anything I may have missed, when I caught sight of a huge plume of smoke coming from up the coast.