A Fisherman in the Family

By Steve Gabay

My son Noah Gabay (In the red shirt) caught this 35 pound Salmon at the Santa Cruz Harbor August 12 at 8 PM. Salmon have been coming into the harbor to spawn and the harbor has allowed fisherman to come down and fish. Because so many people responded they wanted to give the kids a good experience fishing so they made the even numbered days for kids 16 and younger only and on the odd numbered days everyone can fish.

I dropped my son off at 6 AM that day. At 8 p.m. (14 hours later), he caught the salmon. It was the biggest fish of the day. As you can see, the head of the fish is as big if not bigger than Noah’s head. The fishing community has been wonderful. When one of the kids hooks a fish, they call out “fish on” and everyone else pulls their lines out of the water. This is so that their lines do not get tangled so the kid gets to work on bringing in their fish. The people cheer him on and there is someone with a big net there to help them get their fish out of the water. There are also experienced fishermen on hand to give advice, such as showing the kids how to tie a knot, or to loan them a hook or some bait.

I thought you might like to use this in your paper. It is such a cool experience for a young budding fisherman. I know that we have a fisherman in our family now.

•••

Interview with Noah Gabay

Q – Noah, How long have you been fishing?
A – I started fishing when I was eight years old. My first memory of fishing was caching a Blue Gill up near Lake Alminor.

Q – What bait did you use to catch the Salmon?
A – A Pink trout worm and a yellow fish pill.

Q – How long did it take to land the fish?
A – About five minutes.

Q – Where in the harbor were you fishing?
A – In the upper yacht harbor at the top.

Q – What have you done with the fish?
A – I brought it to Johnny’s at the harbor and they filleted it for me. (Then) we ate it. We had sashimi, we baked it with three different sauces and we had creamed salmon sauce for pasta.

Q – There are a number of kinds of Salmon, what kind was this?
A – King salmon.

Q – Is this the biggest fish you ever caught?
A – No. The biggest fish I ever caught was earlier this summer in Florida. It was a 75 pound seven foot long sailfish. That one took me 35-40 minutes to bring in. We were 25 miles out in the ocean from the keys.

Q – What did it feel like when you brought it in and actually saw how big it was?
A – It felt great. It was very exciting.

Q – Were there a lot of other kids there fishing at the same time?
A – Yes, about 20-25 other kids fishing. It was so crowded that we were pretty much shoulder to shoulder.

Q – How did you bring in the fish without getting your line tangled with the other kids lines?
A – When you hook a fish you call out “Fish On” and everybody else brings their lines up so that the lines don’t get tangled.