Extreme Fishing

Extreme Fishing by Robson Green Page B

Book: Extreme Fishing by Robson Green Read Free Book Online
Authors: Robson Green
Ads: Link
with short periods of time spent in estuaries or near-shore marine waters.
Steelheads, however, leave freshwater as juveniles and migrate long distances in the ocean, where they grow to maturity before migrating back to their original streams. As they travel to the ocean
as little’uns their scales turn a steel blue, hence their name.
    I admire my steelhead. What a stunner! She is about five pounds and with the most vibrant magenta hue along her side that morphs into a stunning bronze gilt around the rest of her form. After a
quick ‘donk’ on the head it’s time to get back to work. I am in the lead against the world’s cockiest Canadian and I’m planning on it staying that way. Time ticks by
and it’s one-all, but Roly soon hooks another. It’s a fabulous fish but as he reels it towards the boat it suddenly turns and is off. Oh no, he lost it! So sad. Never mind.
    Three hours and fifty minutes later, it’s two-all with ten minutes to go. I hook a fish and lose it. Damn. With only several minutes left on the clock, Roly shouts: ‘Fish on.’
He lands the steelhead during injury time and I am gutted. ‘I am not going in the drink,’ I mutter. ‘Oh, yes, I believe you are,’ he says, perking up.
    Everyone is goading me from the boat. The water is a balmy seven degrees – that’s only two degrees warmer than the water that killed the passengers of the flippin’
Titanic
. I’m going to die and he only beat me by one fish. But I am a man of my word.
Stiff upper lip, Robson. For Queen and Country and the Commonwealth, including Canada, which we
still rule – suckers!
    I walk in
au buff
.
    ‘I do this every day in Newcastle – not a problem!’
    I dive in and burst out of the surface for air.
    ‘Fuck! Jesus! Jesus! Oh, my God!’
    My testicles retract, I sing a perfect B-flat – I have never reached that note before, or since. I run out of the water using a dead salmon to protect my modesty, which is more like a mole
peeping though a set of curtains by this time.
    You might think that’s the worst thing that could happen, but you’d be wrong.
    The Curse of the
Ocean Pearl
    From the look of the eerie trawler and its rabble crew, my instincts tell me not to board, but as usual I don’t fully tune in.
    ‘Robson, I’ve been looking forward to this,’ shouts Captain Bob Frumani, his voice raspy from years of hard living. It’s exactly what a killer would say, just before he
carves you up. Bob is an unforgettable man, a man on whose face are etched the frightening things he has played witness to. His eyes are haunted – he has seen too much. His crew stand behind
him like wraithy heavies from a ship long gone, except instead of wearing swashbuckling kit they are wrapped in black hoodies, which only add to the menace. Nature has played nicely with me so far
but I am now about to witness her at her most despicable. I board the
Ocean Pearl
from a small fishing boat and the cameraman, Mike Carling, the director, Jason, and the sound guy, Stuart
Bruce, follow me up the metal ladder. The associate producer isn’t coming. Why? ‘I’ve got loads of work to do here.’ I later discover he suffers from terrible seasickness.
He made the right call that day.
    We’ve had sight of the weather forecast and it’s looking untidy, to say the least. Sleet and snow are predicted, so it will be not only stormy but also freezing. We are heading out
to a notorious stretch of the Pacific off the Brooks Peninsula. Explorer Captain Cook called it the ‘Cape of Storms’ and Bob does nothing to soften his punch: ‘This is serious
high seas . . . It’s like going to another planet. This is extreme fishing. I’m serious.’
    As we head out I’m having serious doubts about this. I mean, come on, guys – it’s only a bloody TV show. Isn’t this too much of a gamble with all our lives? I am pacified
by the director, who is between a rock and a hard place – he has to make a show or the production company could

Similar Books

Memoirs of Lady Montrose

Virginnia DeParte

House Arrest

K.A. Holt

Clockwork Prince

Cassandra Clare

In Your Corner

Sarah Castille

Young Lions

Andrew Mackay

Sharpshooter

Chris Lynch