Wading through the tales, fishing for the best angler

The following account is loosely based on real life occurrences. The names have been changed to protect the rest of us.

Gnarly Dan and JP had been talking fishing — again!

They compared favorite spots, preferred equipment, and swapped the usual “fish stories.” Then JP invited Gnarly Dan to go silver fishing with him in his boat, sort of a “put up or shut up,” if you will.

A date was set and both men began to sort gear, sharpen hooks, cure bait and otherwise get ready for the big day. However, there was a slight problem — who would determine the best fisherman?

Obviously, neither man could be relied on, with bragging rights and all on the line. Who would be impartial enough to determine the winner in this grand adventure?

That would be none other than Lindy Lu, Gnarly’s “better half.”

Lindy Lu is a quiet lady with a great sense of humor and a charming manner. She has been keeping Gnarly Dan in line for many years and knew exactly what to say whenever Gnarly began giving fishing instructions. You see, Lindy Lu had fished with Gnarly Dan and JP before and JP always had to chuckle when he listened to the discussion between the two after Lindy Lu hooked up.

“Lindy, set the hook, set it harder,” Gnarly would coach her. “Keep your rod tip up and only retrieve line when you lower the rod to pump in the fish.” “Don’t let the fish get behind the boat. It could break off on the lower unit.” “Don’t reel in so fast” or “Reel in faster,” depending on the situation and how excited Gnarly was.

Lindy Lu would calmly take everything in stride, sometimes giving Gnarly “the look” or sometimes countering his coaching with a statement like, “I’ve done this before, you know!” She would then bring the fish to the side of the boat to be netted.

She would make the perfect impartial judge!

The big day arrived and JP had the boat launched and idling when Gnarly and Lindy Lu arrived at the river. After loading Gnarly’s gear on board, the trio was off to find productive fishing grounds. However, rather than make the long 78-foot trip from the launch to their usual favorite hole, JP decided to actually run the boat up the river a mile or so to another “secret” hole which Gnarly and Lindy Lu had never fished. JP was looking for any advantage he could get.

Gnarly and JP finally got the anchor to hold in the swift river current and the fishing began in earnest. Now JP knew that the best fishing had always been on the near-shore side of the boat and he also knew about where the hole was along the shoreline. The water was murky, so unless you had some previous experience fishing the spot, you could easily waste a lot of time trying to hook a fish.

Gnarly was baited up and casting off on the river side of the boat, in the channel. JP was chuckling to himself about Gnarly’s choice of location! Then, suddenly, Gnarly had a bite! He reeled in a colored up “humpy.” JP scooped up the fish in the landing net and Gnarly quickly removed the hook. Gnarly decided to release the fish since the day was young, so JP rolled it out of the net and back into the river. It was gone with a swish of its tail!

Shortly thereafter, while fishing in the “wrong” spot, Lindy Lu set the hook and the battle commenced. Gnarly offered his usual “assistance,” which Lindy politely ignored as she brought the fish alongside the boat. JP quickly netted the approximately 10-pound male silver and the first fish was in the box.

Not to be outdone, Gnarly set the hook on a small 4-pound coho female about a half-hour later. Two fish were on the stringer and JP hadn’t gotten a bite yet!

About an hour later, Lindy Lu had another hook-up and JP netted her 8-pound female silver. Lindy was limited out on cohos. She could now concentrate on judging the contest between the guys.

The boys fished for another three hours or so. Gnarly had one hook-up but the fish threw the hook a fraction of a second before JP could get the net under it. From his look, JP thought Gnarly might be thinking he had been a little slow with the net, but Lindy Lu didn’t call a foul so that was that.

JP wouldn’t give up on trying to catch a fish from the “best” spot behind the boat and only managed to break off one set of gear on a nasty snag. His persistence in fishing this one location did result in using up about half of Gnarly’s bait supply, so there was some positive from his futile efforts.

In his eagerness to limit out, Gnarly even resorted to his fly rod, but only managed to lose his favorite fly in a tree on a back cast.

When the day was done, Gnarly was declared the winner; however, the boys both realized who the true angler was on board that day.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.