I disliked fishing as a kid, too boring and cold fishing Northern CA rivers. Years later, I was in Alaska on a ship. A guy who was fishing for pink salmon asked me to hold his fishing rod while he did something real fast. I caught a pink a minute later and was hooked. As soon as the guy came back, I ran to the sporting good shop, bought a bunch of gear and my license. We fished lake trout, salmon, and halibut. It was awesome. Seeing as how this was all 20+ years ago, none of my photos are digital, save for these pictures of pictures.
One evening, we were anchored in a prime halibut spot. Our deck was blood red from all the fish we caught. Someone left their rod out with a line in the water when they went to bed. I was on the 4am-8am watch and the engineer making the rounds found something tugging on the line and decided to reel it in. He struggled for a while to pull in one massive barn door of a halibut. We actually hoisted it on one of our working booms to show the full size. Everyone was taking photos with it, as though they caught it. We all agreed the guy who reeled it in should get to keep it, but the guy didn’t even like fish!
A buddy flew up and we rented a USFS cabin on a remote late that came with a skiff. We chartered a float plane, rented an outboard motor, grabbed my gear and flew out there- the two of us the only people in the area. We ate well, but nearly sliced a finger off with the fillet knife the first night. Took a long time to stop bleeding- I was a bit worried at the time: no stitches, no radio, and no way back for 3 days. Can barely see the scar today.
Last fish I caught was this king salmon a couple of weeks before I headed back to the lower 48. A buddy on the ship was taking us out on the local channel as king salmon season started to heat up. Turns out my Captain was supposed to go, but a hesitation on his part caused some confusion and I went instead. My Captain went out the next week and didn’t catch anything. Oh well.
Only time I went fishing after that was a few years ago with my young daughter down in southern Virginia. She caught a small catfish off the dock one afternoon. She was all excited and super thrilled. No photos, we were too caught up in the moment.