Fishing? I had never even thought of that. I was shocked but excited at the same time as I had never been fishing before. The fishermen knew my dad really well. I always thought that going fishing was just to get on the boat, go out on the ocean, throw the line and wait for the fish to bite, but I was totally wrong. First of all, they didn’t use simple lines or nets to catch the fish. They used something called a ‘simbra,’ a Spanish term for a trap. I have never seen one anywhere else till this day.
I was very concerned about getting on the boat and feeling all the movements of water. My cousins had told me that when they got on a boat for the first time, they got really sick and started to throw up. This was something I really wasn’t looking forward to, but unfortunately, it was something that I couldn’t get out of. My granddad advised me not to look at the water so much and to keep focused on the job so I couldn’t think about getting sick. He said it was going to be ok. I didn’t know how I was going to work it out but I just knew that it was going to be some experience
As we approached the dock, we could see a lot of other fishermen arriving as well. Same as us, they were carrying ropes and many other things which were needed. It seemed like everyone knew my granddad because every time we came across someone, they would say “Hi” to him. I was getting worried because we had to board the boat, I was nervous and my hands were shaking. We then finally boarded the boat.
When we were on the boat, I saw Kevin reach out for a bottle of water and at the same time, Elaine threw a hook. The hook caught Kevin’s leg and jerked him overboard. I screamed at the top of my lungs, calling his name and telling my granddad to stop the boat. When he realised that Kevin was in the water, he grabbed the main line and used all of his strength to stop it from going down. Elaine dived into the water. I was about to jump in too but my granddad told me not to do so as it was too dangerous. They grabbed Kevin, cut the line where he was hooked and brought him back to the boat. I couldn’t stop crying because Kevin was in so much pain and I didn’t know what to do to help him.
He grabbed the hook still stuck deeply in Kevin’s leg and with one quick pull, pulled it out. Kevin went crazy and started screaming and kicking but we held him tight. My granddad quickly took off his shirt, ripped it and tied it around Kevin’s leg to stop it from bleeding. I gave him aspirins to ease the pain, helped him to get to the bow and tried to make him comfortable.
When my granddad started up the boat, he said “Kevin is officially the first shark we have caught today.” It was really funny and it helped break off the silence. I stood up and instantly felt dizzy. My stomach was very upset and the vomit in my throat began to rise. I couldn’t stop it. Yuck! I started throwing up everything that I had eaten that day. I kept doing so for fifteen minutes until I had nothing else left in my stomach.
I couldn’t stand staying in the boat for another hour so I persuaded my granddad to turn back and go home. “Back on the land,” I said loudly and excitingly, I was really glad to be going home. From that day onwards, I despised fishing, and I told my granddad never to arrange trips like that again. I also learnt that it takes a lot of guts to go fishing and that fishing is really risky and dangerous.
