littleriver
6/22/2007 2:09:00 PMI've always identified very strongly with the main character "Santiago" from that epic tale of the 1950s.....
the movie starred Spencer Tracy and he rowed out into the Gulf and caught this huge piscatorial (Blue Marlin or something)
and then rowed it back into port.... of course, by the time he reached port the sharks had eaten most of the carcass and
all he was towing was a huge skeleton but the skeleton was all that was needed to prove his accomplishment...
but the "rowing" stuff was artistic license... Hemmingway based his novel on a real person who used to guide sport fishers in the Gulf
area and who was fascinated with large fish and, like santiago, he used to always fish from a small boat... the tales of this guide's adventures with the
large fish are still legend in that region to this day... but this "real person" did use a small outboard on his boat...
Like the producer of the movie I also think the "rowing" stuff works much better artisticly also and that's why I have been honing my skills.
now a 25 pound Chum is a long ways from a 1,000 pound marling but I'm just taking this one step at a time...
maybe next year I'll tie into one of those 13 foot sturgeon down on the columbia...
Mike Carey
6/22/2007 10:58:00 PMlittleriver
6/23/2007 1:22:00 AMold enough to remember it... This is one of the reasons I took the boat down into the gorge this spring to see how it handles in very windy,
wavy weather. I was actually rowing around out by the wind river and wind mountain dodging the wind and sail surfers... not comfortable
or easy but, surprisingly enough, doable...