Lucky Catch | Teen Ink

Lucky Catch

December 18, 2014
By Brandon De Melo, San Diego, California
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Brandon De Melo, San Diego, California
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Author's note:

I love to fish because my hole family fishies and when i easlittle i used to fish this tournameant with my family so i thought i should write a book about it.

Beeeep….Beeeep….Beeeep
“Time to wake up”
Cody Lam says to his cousin Noah.
“Aww time to get another one,” Noah says to Cody, Wiping the crust out of his eyes.
Cody replied, “yes sir”.
While Noah is getting ready Cody makes his way down the stars to go wake up his uncle Matt and Cody's dad ,Gabe.
     They all make their way down to the docks while carrying all their food and gear for the day. Eventually they got on the Lucky K, Cody’s boat. Once all the gear is loaded on the boat, Cody gets everything prepared to leave the docks.  While Gabe (Cody’s dad)  and Matt (Cody’s uncle) get the stern and bow lines unhooked from the cleat, Cody is daydreaming of how full the fishing grounds will be when they arrive. The last time they were out the banks were so full you could see fish for days. They all hop on and steam towards the bait docks.
Once they arrive at the bait docks, Matt takes the wheel from Cody.  Cody hops off the boat to pay one of the workers for the bait. The workers at the bait docks are smelly stinky and covered in scales.

“Hey Cody, how are you doing son,” Jeff asks.

     “I'm doing very well, about to go do some fishing at the 9 mile bank,” Cody replies.
     Jeff answers, “there was 7 Marlin caught off there yesterday. Well good luck son!’’

As he shakes hands with Jeff,Cody says, “Yeah...we are going to go try to get one or more of those today. Well, I’ll see ya around Jeff.  Wish us luck.”
After Jeff scoops the last little bit of bait into Cody’s bait tank, Cody starts the engines up.  He begins charging towards the open waters where the big Marlins are roaming. As the salty air embraced Cody’s face, he got really anxious to see what adventures were ahead.  While they are heading past the point, Gabe and Noah get some sleep down in the bunks. Cody and his Uncle Matt stay up running  the boat and telling stories.
Matt tells Cody, “man I remember one time when I got my first marlin.  It was a battle of a lifetime. First, the marlin was taking line. Then I was gaining line. And then he was taking line. And then I was gaining line. It was like that for a grueling one and a half hours. Then I felt him slow down a little bit and I gained a little more line then he jumps! He jumped so high as he danced across the water and took off. My reel was screaming and my rod was bent like i've never seen it bent before. After the fish made that long run,  I started reeling for awhile and  then I see it! I see its barred up body and its long sword like bill. He immediately came straight to the side of the boat as my dad and some other anglers pop the hook out and begin to hold on to his bill.  Then he swims right next to the boat. Right at that moment, my dad calls me over to hold on to it and check him out before I let him go. Man, you can't get anything better than that,” Matt says excitedly to Cody.

Cody replies, “Man I cant wait to get mine!”
Matt says, “Oh you will one of these days! Matter a fact maybe today! Well I’m going to hit the rack. Go ahead and wake me up when we’re there,” chuckled Matt.
Cody replied, “sure will.”
While Matt makes his way to his bunk, Cody makes his way towards the fishing grounds.

After a good 2 hours, the sun is barely peeking up over the horizon. Cody sets the boat on a course of 180 degrees and sets the auto pilot. He climbs down the ladder from the flybridge into the cockpit and gets his jig bag. Then he re-ties all the swivel clips on the trolling rods and prepares them for trolling. Cody always puts his favorite jig in the left outrigger. It’s a Zucker Mean Joe Green slanted nose, and that thing darts through the water like a little flying fish. Cody puts all the trolling rods in position and then goes into the galley to cook some breakfast for the crew.

As he is doing that Gabe, Cody's dad, smells something delicious cooking and jumps out of his bunk to see what Cody’s up to. He walks outside of the door, looks out at the horizon and sees jiggs popping in the water. Gabe takes a deep breath and walks up to the flybridge to see what is going on.

     Gabe says, “Good morning son! What you doing?”
Cody replies, “good morning dad. I’m just looking for tailing marlin or sleepers.”
Gabe said, “alright, I’m going to go wake up the rest of the crew and start eating breakfast i'll bring yours up in a little.”

While Gabe makes his way down to wake up Noah and Matt, Cody finds a patty.A patty is  a floating piece of kelp in the water where fish like to hang under. Cody goes and starts trolling towards the patty.  Gabe wakes up Matt while Noah starts finishing up cooking their breakfast. Cody is looking right at the patty but is losing sight of it as the waves are bouncing it up and down like a basketball.

     As Cody arrives towards the patty, all of a sudden he hears a loud screaming sharp sound.  It’s the left corner rigger. Cody’s lucky set up went screaming like bloody murder and the rod is  bending over sideways. Cody looks back to see. He sees a dazzling Striped Marlin jumping out of the aqua blurred water. Noah, Gabe and Matt run out of the galley.  They were throwing their food all over the ground, when Matt goes over and picks up the rod. Gabe and Noah reel in the other jiggs.
Once all the jigs were in, and the deck is clear Matt starts winding down on the marlin. Gabe goes and gets Matt a fighting belt so it will be a little easier for Matt. Matt starts winding and winding and winding but every time he winds his reel  the marlin pulls.  Just like what he told Cody in his story. Cody heads down to the deck controls so he can hear Matt better and just incase they need to chase the marlin down with the boat.

After a long hour, Matt finally is gaining line into his reel.  We start to see the marlin on top of the water just swimming nice and calm. Noah goes and gets his video camera so he can show it to all his buddies back at the marina. The striped marlin was just swimming right next to the boat and right at that moment Cody asks Matt, “do you want to kill it or release it?”
Matt replies “I'll release it because he is such in good shape and he put up one hell of a fight.”

Gabe takes the wheel from Cody while Cody reaches over the side of the boat and grabs the liter, which makes the fish an official catch. Cody has the liter wrapped around his hand.  He feeds the line to himself and grabs the marlin right by the bill. He holds on tight. Noah brings Cody the pliers to get the hook out of the marlins mouth. Once Cody ejected the hook out of its mouth he calls Matt over to hang on to it and let the marlin go.
Matt comes over right next to Cody and puts his hands right where Cody had his. He holds on tight then lets the marlin go to fight another day. After Matt let the marlin go, Matt goes inside and gets an ice cooled beer and sits on the couch to relax for a while.

After everyone puts all the gear away, they start heading home.  Cody goes to get a Marlin flag and puts it way up on the outrigger to show that they have released a marlin. While Cody starts pointing the boat  to head back to  shore, the rest of the crew goes and fixes themselves a nice meal.  It was a job well done for them!
 

After a couple hours of heading towards home they get to the marina and see Joe on the docks. Joe is one of Cody's good friends and he runs his boat out of Cody’s marina. Joe sees the marlin flag hanging from the outrigger off the docks. Right as Cody pulls into the docks, Joe and a couple other fisherman go and say hello to Cody.

Joe says “Cody boy, how did you do? I see one marlin flag up there. Where were u son?” 

While Cody is still backing the boat up he replies, “yes sir. We got one and he was about 115 lbs. Decent sized one and Noah got a video of him to show you guys!”

“Alright...sweet. Can’t wait to see it! I’ll be up at the office. I need to go over something with you,” Joe says.

Cody nods his head and starts loading the gear off the boat to give her a rinse down. After Cody was all done, Noah goes and gets his video camera to show to Joe as they’re all walking up the dock they go into the office. When they walked in, all the charter boat captains were waiting at the table.
“Hey guys, come take a seat. I'll look at the video later Noah. I got to talk to you guys for a second. I called this meeting because when I walked into the office today  there was a letter in the mailbox. I go and open it and its from the bank. The letter said that Cody needs to start paying the rest of his bills that he missed or he will lose the marina for good,” Joe informs them with a stern voice .

Cody and the captains all had a look on there face like a they just saw a ghost.

Captain Ron immediately asks, “ if the marina closes...how are we gonna provide for our families?!?!”

Captain Philip ads on, “ya! And we will all have to get new jobs!”

Once they have all calmed down, Cody speaks out and says that he will do anything and everything to save his marina.  He is going to find a way. But the bank only gave him till the end of the month. When the meeting was over Cody, Gabe, Noah and Matt all go over to Cody’s house to discuss what they are going to do. Noah suggested that they could try to start chartering every day.  This would make some money but not what is needed to cover the bills. They all sat there quietly and didn't say a word.

Then Cody’s dad speaks out and says, “LET’S COMPETE IN A TOURNAMENT!”

Cody, Noah, and Matt all look at each other and grin. Cody says, “you know what dad... I actually think that would work. But what tournament and it would have to be off the coast of San Diego.”

After they all stop discussing it, they all head back to their homes for the night. The next day Cody was taking his boat out to get it filled up with gas. Once he was at the gas station Cody saw a local fisherman named Paul Mark, who also owns a big competing marina, a couple blocks from Cody’s. Paul has been always asking Cody about his property and if he would ever consider selling it to him. Cody starts pumping his gas into his boat and Paul comes over to talk to him.

“Hey Cody whats up man? How’s life treating you? I heard you got a nice fish at the 9,” Paul says.

Cody replies “Nothing much Paul. Yea...me and my crew got a nice one”

     “So how is the marina doing,” Paul asks.

Cody replies, “we’re doing good. What about yours?”

Paul answers, “we are doing fantastic. In fact, we are wanting to expand. So... if you ever want to sell me your property. I’ll take it off your hands!”

Cody responds, “Thats okay man.  My marina isn't going no where. Well, I have to go Paul. Nice talking to you.”

Before Paul could even respond Cody hops into his boat and leaves the dock. He heads back to the marina to park his boat. After Cody parks his boat in his slip, he walks into the main office and sees a flyer in the window. He heads outside and checks what it is. He opens it and it is a flyer for a Catalina marlin fishing tournament with a prize of $500,000. At that moment, Cody saw all those 0’s and immediately started smiling.  Knowing that 500,000 is more then enough to pay his bills made his day.

Cody calls a meeting about this with the other guys. After everyone has arrived at the meeting he spills the news to the captains. Cody says calmly, “I have a way to save the marina.” He tells them he wants to have all the captains and their crews join the Catalina Classic. It’s a marlin fishing tournament and the winner takes home $500K! Also, if we all team up we can cover more water and work together to win the money... in the end we can save the marina.
“So what do you guys think?”

They all look around at each other nodding their heads and grinning. Then Joe speaks up and says, “I am in!”

After Joe said that, all the captains come in and say “I'm in too.”
Cody then gives them all the information and things they need to do to sign up. All of a sudden Noah spots Paul Jones in the back window. He must have been listening to the entire conversation that they had been having. Right as Noah sees him he flees back to his marina and calls a meeting of his own.

Next thing you know Paul does the same thing and gets all of his captains and crews together. He tells them that Cody is entering the Catalina Classic to win the money to save his marina. One of the captains speaks out and says, “well... we have to enter it to make sure they don't win the money. Then we can buy their property and expand areas.”
Paul adds on,  “WE HAVE TO MAKE SURE THEY DON'T WIN! WHATEVER IT TAKES...”

Cody is feeling shocked about the news he has just received. He received news about how his family marina is gonna close unless he make up their payments.

Cody and Noah head down to Zack’s tackle store to pick up some new gear for the tournament coming up. They walk into the store and and see Zack putting away some gear away in the back.

“Hey Zack, how’s it going bro,” Cody yells out.

“Cody my man, what's up” Zack replies.

“Just coming in to get some new gear for a tournament coming up” Cody says.

“Nice! Well you just came in time. The new set ups are in! Aviet just released their new reels and they’re the best out there on the market right now.  A nice Shimano caster will fit perfect on it.  Let me show you,”  Zack replies.

Zack goes into the back storage and opens up a new fresh box. Inside the box was about 30 new Avet reels. Man the look on Cody and Noah's face was like a kid in a candy store. He pulls them out and goes to get a nice Shimano rod to put it on.

Zack tells Cody, “Man, I'm telling you... the thing is sweet and you know what? I’ll sell the whole set up to you for $500! Im giving you a steel bro and it will give you an edge over the competition. What do you say?

Cody bites his lip and thinks about it for a while. Then he looks at Noah. Noah looks back at him and they both nod their heads.

Cody says, “yeah I’ll take it but I also want double jigs too.”

After Zack riggs him up and gets all of his things together. Noah and Cody start heading back to the marina to go take out the boat for a little bit in the bay. Noah and Cody hop on the boat and take off to a secret spot outside the point. They grab their light gear and start fighting some plastic lures into the water. About 30 casts in Noah hooks a nice bass! Noah swings his rod back super hard and the rod bends over. The line starts screaming out of his reel. Noah starts laughing because he loves to fish with light tackle the starts pumping away at this nice bass.
     Cody looks down into the deep dark water and notices that its not a bass but a big old yellow tail! Cody and Noah both look at each other.  Then Cody runs inside and gets a gaff. Noah starts reeling and reeling and relling but no line is coming back into the spool because they are on such light gear. Noah finally gets the fish to the side of the boat when Cody lays the gaff right in the dark water and sticks the gaff right in the head of the yellowtail. 
Anxiously he pulls him over the rail and on the deck. Right at that moment Noah and Cody can't believe they got a yellowtail right outside of the bay. Cody throws his lure back into the water to try to hook another one. The first cast Cody gets ripped! His line screaming out of the reel and rod bent way over the rail. After 2 minutes, Cody gets it to the boat and Noah gaffs him. Then he throws it in the fish box.
As they both continue fishing one boat rolls right up next to them and starts fishing. Cody recognizes the boat and as the boat is turning around he sees Paul on the back with his rod in his hand.
Cody runs up to the flybridge and calls him on the radio.  “Hey Paul, why are you coming up right on me and casting?!” Cody says with anger in his voice.

“Hey Cody how about we have a little competition see who can get the most fish in this spot and who ever does gets $200 what you say,” Paul proposes to Cody.

Cody goes down to the deck and tells Noah what Paul wants to do.

Noah says, “Hell ya lets beat this fool!”

Cody goes back up to the radio and calls up Paul and tells him, “Alright Paul I will accept this stupid challenge. It starts NOW!”

Right as Noah hears Cody yell “now” he casts his rod as far as he can while whipping his jig way out in the water. The jig hits the water and Noah lets it sink for a while Cody is making a chum line to bring the fish to the boat. Noah starts reeling his jig back in when suddenly he feels a big slash, swipe his jig. Noah tries to set the hook so he swings his rod way back but the fish pops off. Noah starts reeling again when the fish swallows the hook hole. Noah’s reel starts screaming with line spooling off of it like crazy. Noah lifts his rod tip up and yells, “Fresh one!”

Paul hears Noah yelling and right as Paul looks back at his reel, the line starts coming out of his line and rod bends over. Paul screams, “Fish on!”

Paul and Noah are both on a fish while Cody stops chumming and starts casting. Cody lets his jig sink for 2 seconds and gets picked up. He swings his rod back and it bends over all the way in the water. Paul yells, “Ooooooo another one baby!”
As Codys fish takes it off Noah is right at the boat. Cody puts his rod in the rod holder and goes over to dip the stealthy gaff in the water. He hooks it right in the head and pulls him in the boat. They both start hooting and hollering. Cody runs back to his rod while Noah gets the hook out of the fish’s mouth and puts it in the freezer.

Paul gets his fish next to the boat and gaffs him.  Then he lays him on the deck. Paul and his buddy starts yelling so that Cody and Noah can hear it. Cody keeps on winding and winding but the fish keeps on taking off after Cody stopped gaining line. Paul’s buddy Zane hooks up to a nice one. Noah spots that  Zane’s rod is really bent over. Noah starts seeing cooler for Codys fish and tells Cody, “wow bro... that’s a huge one!  We have to put him in the boat!”

Cody starts pumping and winding and pumping and winding when he hears Paul put Zane’s fish on the boat. He gets the fat fish right on top of the water next to the boat.  Next he is gaffing him right in the tail. The big fish gets angry and takes off. The gaff slips out from its tail and falls in the water. Cody and Noah both are stunned that just happened. Noah runs inside to find another gaff while Codys is struggling to hang on to his rod. Noah runs out on the deck with another gaff. Cody brings the fish to the top of the water and Noah puts the gaff right in the side off the fish’s head.  He throws him over the rail and in the boat. They both start screaming and yelling. Paul looks over to them and Cody holds the monster fish up to rub it in Paul's face. Right as Paul sees him hold it up he tells Zane to reel up his rod because they were heading back in. Cody looks over his shoulder as he lays the fish down into the cooler and sees Paul steaming off back to home.

After Cody and Noah pull a couple more fish up they start heading back in. After a few minutes Cody and Noah arrive at the docks and unload their fish. Cody runs up to the office to go see if his dad Gabe is there. Noah pushes the cart around the docks giving them to the other fisherman's at Codys marina. Cody walks in and sees Gabe and Matt sitting at the table drinking beers and laughing.

Cody says, “Hey you old geezers where were you guys? Me and Noah just got limits on yellowtail at the kelp!”

Matt responds,“Dang man you killed them! Me and gabe were just chilling here all day.”

Cody says, “That’s cool I’m going to go unload the boat and then go over to Paul's.”

Gabe looks over at Cody and says,
“Why are you going to go over there?  You know we all don't get along with him.”

Cody replies, “well, out on the water while me and Noah were stroking in the yellowtail him and one of his crew members pull their big old fat boat right in the same spot as me. Even though  there is no other boats around us he pulls right next to me. So he calls me up on the radio and sets a challenge who can catch the most fish and whoever wins gets $200.  I agreed and we tied 2 fish for him to 2 fish for us. But one of mine was way bigger than his combined. Then Paul runs away back home. So now I'm going to go rub it in his face that I won so I’ll be right back.”

Gabe says, “You shouldn’t go over there but whatever.“

After Noah unloads all the fish and hands them out to families. He meets Cody at his car and they hop in to head over to Paul’s marina. They get there and Paul is talking to some of the captains that work there. Cody gets out of the car and goes straight up to Paul and says, “Alright Paul I won the challenge so where is my $200?”

Paul laughs and says, “ha ha ha...OH my boy you did win but the bet was whoever gets the most fish not who ever gets the biggest fish.” Cody stays silent.

Paul adds on, “Oh yeah. I also heard you were entering the Catalina Classic.”

Cody replies, “Yes we are!”

Paul says, “as will I and my marina.”
Cody looks at Noah as Noah looks at Cody.  They both look at each other in fear because they both know how good their fishing marinas are.

Paul looks back at his fishing trophies and says, “I also heard that if you guys don't win this you will have to be forced to sell your marina. I have been looking to extend mine and since yours is a across the street it would be the perfect fit.”

Cody replies, “Well good luck with buying our marina because it’s not selling anytime soon. And you wanna know why?”

“Why,” Paul asks.

Cody replies, “because we are gonna win the Catalina Classic and not only are we gonna to pay off our bills but we are gonna make my marina even bigger and better!  So good luck in the tournament Paul. You will need it! Lets go Noah.”

Cody and Noah slam the door and leave Paul’s marina to head back to the boat.

Cody wakes up and heads down to the marina to pick up Noah, Gabe, and Matt  because today is the sign-ups for the Catalina Classic.
Cody arrives at the marina where Noah,Matt and Gabe are waiting. They all hop in and take off to the sign ups. Cody and his crew get to the sign ups and the first person Cody and Noah see is Paul with his crew. They're all wearing the same matching shirts which say “Sea Bandit”.  Cody hops in line while Paul heads right in the same line.  They both look at each other with hate in their eyes without saying one word to each other. While Cody signs up his crew, Gabe,Noah and Matt start some conversations with some other crew to see what they're going up against.

Cody gets up to the front of the line and signs up their crew. As Cody walks away Paul steps up right into Codys shoulder.  Cody gets off balanced and falls to the ground.
He gets up and yells, “what the hell was that for!”

Paul replies, “oh I’m sorry… I didn’t see you there.”

Cody replies, “Paul one more slip up from you with your mouth and I’ll beat the living hell out of you! You hear me...,I promise you, I will.”
While Cody is saying that, Matt runs over and calms him down.
Matt tells him, “don't worry. I will take care of him in the tournament. Alrighty there son, see you in the tournament.”
As Matt pulls Cody back to the car, Paul yells out, “hey Lucky K.  We’ll see you at the tournament.”
Matt yells out, “Yup you will see us holding the 500,000 dollar check above our heads.”
Matt slams the door while Noah and Gabe get in and they all drive off.
While there driving Cody says to his family
“Guys we need to start getting serious about this I mean this is our family business we are talking about here if we loses this we got no job and nothing to support are family. And I want to kick Pauls ass so bad you dont even now so I'm thinking we take the boat out tomorrow down to Catalina island to start looking around at spots and have a idea of where to go when the tournament starts. So what you guys say?”

All the boys agree in assessment and ready to get serious. They head to the grocery store and to each other houses. after they all get all the gear they head to Codys house to rig it all up and sleep there so that they can get an early start tomorrow. They start rigging gear when Gabe and Matt notice a nice pole and reel set up in Codys garage that they have never seen befor. Matt asks Cody
“Man Cody whose setup is that? That thing is sweet!”
Cody and Noah both looking at each other and grinning. Cody says.
“OHHH yea uncle Matt me and noah totally forgot about are brand new extension to are fishing arsonal. Check her out.”
Matt says with excitement
“OH Man this thing is sexy this will go perfect on your lucky jig in the left corner.”
Cody replies.
“Yup! well we are going to see how it does tomorrow.

After they stay up for a little bit drinking beers and watching football they crash out and fall deep asleep dreaming about marlin and fishing all night.

Beeeep….Beeeep….Beeeep….SMACK
“OH yea time to another one boys.”
Cody says to Noah, Matt and Gabe. They slowly get up grab some coffee and jump into Codys car. They head down to the marina while Noah looks up the weather for the day. Noah says.
“Well boys it's gonna be a hella of a ruff day.”
Gabe says.
“Don't matter they lucky K will charge right through the rough seas.”

After they arrive at the marina Noah and Gabe unload the gear onto the boat while Cody goes down to the engine room and turns on everything.
Matt goes up to the flybridge and starts up the engine. Cody and Noah grave the stern and the bow lines and Matt takes off they amy the boat to the bait docks.
Once they arrived at the bait docks they load up with bait and start charging through the rough seas towards Catalina Island. After they pass the point Cody goes up to the flybridge with Matt and hangs out with him for a little bit while Gabe and Noah are down in the bunks getting some rest before they half to start fishing.
Its 5am now and the sun is just starting to peak out and glaze over the horizon. The seas are very choppy and rough Cody and Matt both know its going to be a very rough day. As the morning goes on and they can see Catalina in sight and the seas get even rougher Cody goes down onto the deck and starts laying out the rods in the holders. Noah wakes up and notices that it is very rough he stretches out his neck and jumps down from the top bunk. He walks into the galley and falls over because the boat took a huge wave over the top throwing the boat unbalanced. He gets up and open the door to the deck noticing water falling off the flybridge like it was raining. Cody runs inside soaking wet.
“Cody what happened bro?” Noah yells while cody runs to his backpack and graves a towel and his slickers and tough jacket and runs into the bathroom. Noah walks outside when he notices no sun and very windy rainy and cold. He goes back inside and gets his slicker and and tuff jacket also. After Cody and Noah change into their heavy gear they walk out on the deck while the boat is getting thrown around like ragdoll and Cody and Noah are trying to keep balance. Matt yells down to Noah and Cody
“Alright boys this is a good place to start go ahead and put the jigs out. OH and also hook a Mackerel just incase we see a sleeper alright.”
“Alright. Hows is it up there nice and warm?” Cody says with laughter.
“GREAT!” Matt yells down

Cody and Noah go inside and get all there jigs they need to rig up. Cody goes into his little jig bag and graves out his lukey jig he looks over at Noah and shows Noah the jig.
“Man I cant wait to see how she does on the new set up!” Cody says to Noah.
“Bro we are definitely getting a fish today bro” Noah replies.

After Cody and Noah Fishing start laying out the jigs in the water they go inside to start cooking up breakfast, as they are doing that Matt sees a huge swell coming and yells
“Big swell HOLD ON!”
Noah heers him yelling and runs outside to hear what he is saying. As he is running out side the big wave hits the boat, like a rock throwing the boat off balanced and while the wave is crashing over the top of the boat. Noah goes flying on to the deck head first while water spraying all over him he gets up while water is trickling down from the flybridge onto his head. Matt stops the boat after it took that hard wave. Noah gets up slowly off the deck and walks into the galley holding his back in pain and sees Cody laying on the ground with eggs and bacon all over his body and looks behind him towards the bunks and sees Gabe on the floor still asleep. Cody gets up and cleans the food off his chest while Noah is laughing as hard as he can because he sees Gabe on the floor still asleep.
“OHHHH MY HEAD! WHAT A DREAM! Hey Noah may I ask how did I get on the floor?”
Gabe says as he is holding his head in pain
“Man you fell off you bunk as we took a huge wave on”
Says Noah laughing. Matt comes running down from the flybridge yelling “is everyone okay?”
“Ya were all good lets get back on the troll.”
Cody says. Matt agrees and goes back up to the flybridge  to start the boat up. Gabe gets up off the floor and heads outside to see how the weather looks.
“Man what a storm.”
Gabe whispers to himself.

After a couple of hours of trolling by Catalina island Gabe goes up to the flybridge to talk with Matt. Gabe and Matt start talking about the tournament when suddenly Gabe sees a larger school of bait jumping out of the water in front of the boat. Gabe yells down below to Cody and Noah and tells them to
“keep your eyes peeled boys there could be a Mr Marlin in the school of bait”
As Gabe looks back after talking to Cody and Noah Matt Yells
“OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!! LOOK LOOK JUMPER JUMPER!”
Right as Matt started yelling Cody sees a huge splash in the water right in front of the boat. Cody runs over to the bait tank with his rod and reel  and hocks a Mackerel through the nose and casts him out right where they saw the Marlin jump. matt stops the boat immediately. Noah starts reeling in the jiggs when Codys reel start SCREAMING as line is firing out of the reel!
“OH! where on where on!”
Cody is yelling up to Matt. Gabe runs down to the deck and starts helping Noah reel in the jigs while the boat is bouncing around as the waves are hitting it. Noah and Gabe get all the gear put away as the Marlin is still taking line from Codys reel.
“Hey Matt we are going to half to chase it down with the boat he is going to spool me.”
Cody yells to matt. Matt ams the boat towards where the line is hitting the water and starts slowly putting though the rough seas towards the fish. When Codys rod goes straight and the line slacks off.
“OH NO”
Noah yells. Cody starts reeling as fast as he can as reality sets in that the fish is gone. As Cody is slowly reeling his line back to the boat Gabe yells
“Ay Cody keep your head up boy we got a lot of fishing to do still and thats an amazing sign that we are seeing fish here and hooking up to them. This would be a good spot to start in the tournament. alright lets get back on the troll”
They all agree and throw back the jigs behind the boat and start trolling around catalina again.

After about 2 hours of trolling Matt decides to move the boat to a new area. So Noah Cody and Gabe reel up the jigs and Matt revs up the engine and starts charging though the very rough seas. As they are running towards a new spot they see a boat in the horizon also running though the seas. As the boat gets closer to them Gabe graves his binoculars and tries to look at the boat. Waves were hitting the boat so hard that he could not keep the binocular balanced. Gabe finally thinks he knows what boat it is. He runs up to The flybridge to tell Matt and Cody and Noah.
“Hey boys. You guys see that boat in the horizon” Gabe said
“CCC HHHHHHHHHHHH Hey Lucky K is that you guys running on my starboard side?” as the radio interrabs Gabe. Matt picks up the radio and says.
“Yes this is the Lucky K. Who I am I speaking to”
“OOOO hey Matt this is the Sea Bandit its Pual. You guys here early for the sign ins to?”
Noah, Cody, Matt and Gabe all look at each other. Matt looks over at the boat as it makes a hard right and gets right behind their boats wake Matt places the radio back by the steering wheel and makes a sharp turn right as Paul follows them.
“Man this guy will not leave us alone!”
Cody says. Right as Cody closes his mouth Gabe sees a Marlin tailing though the water slowly right in front of the boat.  Matt pulls back the throttle while Cody runs down to the deck and casts a Mackerel right on top of the Marlins head. At that second Noah Gabe and Matt are just looking into the rough and windy sees and sees the Marlin turn right on the Mackerel and swallow it whole. Codys reel starts screaming like a banshee as it rips awesome skin off of Cody's thumb. Cody sets the hook and lifts his rod up in the air as the Marlin starts taking off.
“OOOO S***! Guys look who is hooked up right in front of us!” Paul says to his crew
“O MY GOD boys how did you not see that! Alright will go metering around them maybe there is another one close by.”
Zane says to Paul as Paul agrees.

its been 30 minutes body is on the Desk trying to fight this huge striped Marlin.
“Hey Cody how you doing”
Matt says to Cody from the flybridge.
“I Am doing pretty good”

Cody Starts cracking away at this huge Marlin when it jumps way out of the rough blue water on to his back. At that moment Cody feels the line slacking off he starts reeling as fast as he can but senses that nothing is there. Cody stops reeling.
“O MY GOD!!”
Cody yells out loud.
“Matt hey Cody its okay bro  we got 2 more days till the tournament will get one. Though the jigs back into the water I'm going to get in a little bit shallow water”
They put the rods out and though the jigs into the water then go inside to eat.
After trolling all evening Matt Cody Gabriel and Noah get very tired and they all agree to go ancor up inside by the island and sleep.

he sun peaks up over the island though the window of the hull into Cody's eyes he wakes up while stretching his arms way out.
“Hello captains! if you are entered in the Catalina Classic Tournament we need you to report to docks and and head down to the grass area asap Thank you.”
Cody jumps out of his bunk and wakes up all of the crew they get ready with their team shirts and call a water taxi over to pick them up. They hop on the taxi and Cody noticed someone sitting in the front
“Hey guys hows it going. Looks like its shaping out to be a beautiful tournament. Hey Cody you thinking about letting me buy your Marinna yet?”
“Shut the f*** up Paul! I'm tired of you running your mouth about that. No i'm not ready to sell my Marina to you and if I were to sell it I would make sure it doesn't go to you!”
“Alright you don't half to sell it to me anyways the bank will do it for you.”
paul says to Cody as the boat pulls up to the dock. They all hop off quietly and make there way to the sign ins. Cody goes in the line and gets all their tools and things they need in order to fish the tournament.
After Cody Matt Noah and Gabe Get all their things from the sign ins they head back to the boat to prepare the boat for the morning. They clean all the rods and Reels and  prepare the boat for the morning. Noah heads in the galley to Cook them up Some dinner. Cody and Gabe go out on the Deck to try to catch some bait for their day, While Matts up on the flybridge mapping out there day. Matt heads down to the deck to Go over your plan for tomorrow.
"Alright guys this is the plan for tomorrow we are going to head back to the spots that we are at yesterday And troll around and find some life if nothing is happening over there we will troll back down closer to the island and hope for the best."
"alright Matt let's give it a go"
Gabe says as Cody and Noah agree.
"Come get your food boyz!"

Beeeeep....beeeeep....beeeeep
Cody wakes up from his bunk and shuts off his phone alarm. He heads to the captions room and gets up Matt
             "Matt hey Matt wake up bro time to do it."
             "Aaaahhhhhh alright boy time to win this thing and save the marina."
             Matt and Gabe throw on some heavy clothes and head up to the flybridge they turn on channel 72 On the radio to hear the people on the radio start the tournament. After about 25 minutes the heat something in the radio
             "Ccchh Catalina Classic tournament is now open good luck anglers and be safe out chhh"
             At that moment when the radio goes silent you hear a screeching sound of all 76 boats pushing their boats full throttle and steaming towards their starting fishing grounds. Matt pushes his throat down and starts heading out west to where they were 2 days ago.
             "Cody go down starts and get the rods in the holders and hook a mack roll up in the tank ready to go."
             "Yes sir right on it. hey let's get bro we got this!"
             Cody runs down to the deck from the flybridge and sets the rods in the rod holders when Matt starts yelling.
              "HEY GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE!!" Cody looks over his shoulder and sees Paul and his crew right next to their boat. Cody goes inside and graves a long heavy rop. he runs out onto the deck when he gets hit right in the head with a water balloon. As Matt almost does to. Cody gets up and slips the rope right underneath Paul's boat. He feeds the rope into the water when he sees Paul's boat come to a hard stop. He throws the rest of the rope into the water as they keep moving along as Paul's boat is stopped in the water.
               "What the hell happened back there" 
               Matt says to Cody.
               "Don't worry I took care of them they will be down for a long time."
Cody responds to Matt.
Cody runs back down to the deck to finish setting up the gear.
“Cody what's up bro what are you doing?”
Noah says to Cody.
“Nothing just put in the rods in the holders setting up everything getting ready for the day.”
“Alright I'm a go up and talk to Matt.”
Noah runs up to the flybridge and sits down in the seat next to Matt.
“Matt bro what's up? Where are we heading out to?”
“Sup Noah we heading out to the west to the spot that we fished two days ago hopefully the marlin is still there.”
“Alright i'm going to go downstairs and start up some breakfast I'll bring yours up when it is ready.”
Noah runs down to the galley and starts cooking up some eggs and Bacon.
"OOOH what a night"
yells Gabe as he rolls out of His bunk. He walks into The galley and snags a piece of bacon off The grill
“I am going to go see what Cody and Matt are doing”
Gabe walks outside and takes a nice deep breath of the salty air
“Hey Look who is a live!”
Cody yells up to Matt. Matt yells
“Hey Gabe how about you come up here with me to help me spot some fish.”
Gabe runs to the flybridge and takes a seat next to Matt
“Where are we at Matt.”
Matt replies
“We are out west by the spot we were at two days ago, maybe that marlin stuck around the area.”
“Hey you kooks breakfast is ready get your asses down here. I will bring yours up Matt.”
Noah Yells out, Cody and Gabe start eating their breakfast. They hear Matt yelling up at the flybridge. As they hear him yelling the boat comes to a hard stop
“Get out here there is a jumping Marlin!!”
Cody runs out on the deck and casts out A fresh Mackerel out of the bait tank. As Cody has a Mackerel out. another competitor comes blowing by right next to their boat and scares away the marlin Cody starts retrieving his Mackerel and throws him back into the water let's get back on the troll guys we are almost to are spot. Ill deal with that yahoo later.

As the long day goes on with nothing happening but trolling we start to think that we might not be able to save are marina
“CHHH Hey Lucky K What's up guys. It’s Paul. Guess what we just pulled aboard our boat.”
Cody heres the radio but don't want to answer it.
“CHHH its okay you don't half to answer it we just pulled a fat Marlin up abroad the Sea bandit will see you guys at the docks.”
“S***! Guys Paul just boarded one, we got to get going on this stuff else we will be looking at are marina with Paul in it as we are living in a box across the street! Come on guys. We need a new plain we got 4 hours left of this tournament to pull a fat one in and win this thing.”
“Alright Cody I got one more spot but its far away but I think its a best bet for us to win the tournament. So you guys want to play it safe stay here and try to get one, and if we do it will be small or do you want to risk it all and zoom down farther west and try to get a monster.”
The boys think hard about it and all look at each other with grins on their faces.
“Yea yea lets do it boys!”
Cody yells out.
They all run outside and reel in the jigs while Matt starts getting the boat heading to the spot. After the jigs are all in the boat Matt lays the throttle down and starts charging to the spot. after about an hour they get at the spot and start trolling around the area where they see bait.
After about 30 minutes of trolling Cody is sitting inside on the coach. He is tilting his head down in depression when he sees something in the corner of his eye. He slowly looks at this flashing fast moving Marlin in the water bouncing from jig to jig striking them with his tail when suddenly he disappears under the water Cody gets up and runs on to the deck looking where the marlin was when he sees him light up underneath the water and exploded on the left corner jig. Cody is astonished by what he has seen he runs over to the reel and picks it up while Matt and Gabe look back and stop the boat.
“HOLY S***! Cody let him run let him run. Noah Gabe get the deck cleared! Cody tell me where he is going.”
Noah and Gabe fly down from the flybridge and reel in the other jigs. While Cody's real start screaming line out of it
“wow look at that line peel off. this thing is huge.”
After about 30 minutes The Marlin starts to slow down and Cody starts to gain a little bit of Line back into his reel. About another 30 minutes go by and they are still doing Toggle war. Finally the fish slows down and Cody starts reeling fast. all of a sudden the Marlin breaks through the salty blue water and flips over onto its right side
“Oh my God Did you See that!”
Right after it hits the water again the Marlin takes off peeling line from the real as fast as it can. Cody knows that if they dont  chase this fish with the boat it will take all the line off of it's a real. Cody tells Matt to chase the fish down with the boat. Matt starts chasing the fish down with the boat. Cody reels the slack in. They get close enough to where they're on top of the fish. The fish is swimming deep Cody starts winding and winding and winding but nothing is giving. Finally about another 30 minutes goes by of toggle war and Cody starts feeling the fish give Up. Cody starts whining as hard as you can pumping away at this giant Enormous fish. Finally he gets it close enough to the boat where they can see it
“wow look at that thing that thing is like 300 pounds man we got a landed it!”

Gabe puts on his gloves and gets ready to put the fish in the boat. Gabe grabs the leader to make it an official catch. Then he slowly pulls the fish to the side of the boat as Noah sinks a gaf  into the water and gafs it right underneath the belly. Gabe ties a rope to the boat attached to the fishes tail right as he finished tying that note around the fishes tail. Cody falls onto the deck of relief as Noah and Matt gather on Top of him when Gabe jumps on top as sign of relief when all of a sudden they hear this noise coming from the radio every
“angles must report to the docks in an hour to turn in their catch Thank you.”
Matt jumps off all of them and runs up to the flybridge. Matt and Gabe throw the Marlin inside the boat and pack it down with ice. Matt puts the throttle down and steams towards the docs as fast as they can.
After about 45 minutes they can see the docks but not that clearly. Cody runs up to the flybridge and whispers to Matt
“I don't think we're going To make it.”
“don't say that bro don't worry we are and bro how was your first Marlin on your new rod”

“bro I'll tell you later. Let's go let's go let's go come on lucky K you Got this baby”
10 minutes goes by as they have five more minutes to get there.
“alright we are ready to announce the winner of your 2015 Catalina classic Marlin tournament Champion. I will first tell you the three people who have the biggest. one of them is the Sea Bandit the other boat is Holy Macrollin and the third boat is Saving Time. let's give it up for these three boats and for the rest of you better luck next year guys”

“Come on come on!”
“We're not going to make it!”
“We're Almost there”
As they get the check ready and the trophy to give to the winner time expires at one second for all fish to be turned in
“alright the new winner of the 2015 Catalina classic tournament Is?”
“Wait look lucky K just pulled in with a marlin flag raised!”
The crowd rushes down to the docks to see what they caught
“Oh my god”
“look at that thing”
“that thing is huge”
“that's winning for sure”
Cody and Gabe put the marlin up on the crane next to the other three Captains look at the marlin in shock Cody whispers over to Paul “how's your motor doing I heard you Got a rope stuck in it I wonder who would that be from? Oh and PS looks like I'll be around at my marina longer than you thought.”
“Wow well we got to way this one.”

“alright we have A new winner the winners marlin Wade an astounding 332 pounds and 5 ounces caught by the lucky K!! the announcer reach over and grabbed the check and handed it to Cody. at that moment Cody felt like a 1000 pound weight lifted off of him. Now he can relax and know that his family won't be in trouble or his Marina as the whole crowd stands up clapping. Cody sees his other captains of his marina in the crowd And tells them to come up to the stage they all come up to the stage and they all get together And hold the check up together knowing that all the money will be going to the marina to Save their marina.

After Cody Noah Matt and Gabe all make it back to San Diego Safely they head down to the bank to pay off their bills. After they paid the bills they head back to the marina to share the good news. Cody walks into the office when he hears someone “surprise!” all of the families from the marina where all there to surprise them and welcome them back home. Cody walks in the room and thanks everyone for all the support and now we get to keep our marina and keep on Living are good lifes. After the whole crew eats and says hi to their families Cody calls a little meeting outside. He pulls the guys over to the side and Paul walks around the Corner. “alright guys I know you're not happy to see me but I have a little idea that you might like to listen to. Alright my idea is we both have really great marinas, but I was thinking since our marinas are so close to each other we should combine them into one marina and we would become one of the biggest marinas that the West Coast has ever seen. That means more income More profit more everything! lIsten guys if we do this it's all the same pay just Times 10 and I know none of us have gotten along but I am willing to bury the hatchet and become partners. What do you guys say? Cody takes Gabe his dad over to the side and talks about it “Well Cody you know what I think this is a good idea, we get more profit and you know what this is a good thing for you to experience and how you could be one of the best marinas in the West Coast Cody I think you should do it.”
Cody goes into his office and thinks hard and long about this decision. He finally comes out and talks to Paul. he says
“Paul we have never gotten along very good but we better start because  you and me are going to be one of the best owners in the west coast i am in!”
“Yes! Alright sweet bro all go and talk to the bank with you later this Week.

As a month goes along they start combine being there to marinas Together as more and more captains join their Marina and start Adding and adding more fisherman to the industry. A whole year goes by and Cody and Paul's Marina is the number one Marina in the West coast. Paul calls a meeting for Cody and Cody walks into the office and says what's up Paul What do you want oh nothing just got a email sent to me it said the Catalina classic is Coming up and sign ins are already here so what you say you want to fish it No Paul I'm going to fishing with my crew and you can fish it with yours some competition hey maybe this year you'll beat me Ha
Beeeeeep....beeeeeep....beeeep smack wake up Noah time to get one.
"Aaaahhhhh time to add one more to the list lets go bro."



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