pafret Loc: Northeast

Every time I went out on the ocean, no matter how big the boat was. I ended up "chumming" over the rail. Rough seas didn't bother me, pitching boat didn't bother me, it was the damned smell of fish that got me every time. If the wind was high enough to blow the stink away I was fine even when others were losing it, but give me one whiff of fish stink and up it came.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

I'm fine until someone else throws up. One whiff of someone else getting sick sends me to the rail.

malachi

Yipes. Did they have refueling then?

malachi

That's a good mechanism in time of need !

son of witless

I did a lot of party boat fishing at the Jersey shore growing up. I never got sick until I was in my 20s. After that it was pretty regular. I remember being sick and listening to a couple of dozen other people being sick, which is what you do not want to hear when you trying to keep down your lunch. I would have gladly paid somebody to shoot me in the head to end it.

RoyinNC

I understand! Although I never got seasick in the Navy, about 10 or so years later, I had occasion to go fishing on a 60' "head" boat that typically carried about 50 people fishing. So many people around me were sick, until it made me feel queasy for an hour or two. That boat bobbed around in the water like a cork, compared to the way destroyers rode.

son of witless

I never get sick in small boats like canoes and kayaks, and I've been in fairly rough water with them. Put me in a big boat in rough water and I'm a basket case. I would have never made it in the Navy, and yet I love everything about the ocean and ships. My stepfather served in the Army in the Korean War. He said the trip over and then a year or so later back was aboard transport ships. Both trips he puked his guts out every minute.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

My favorite thing to do on fishing boats is to spot someone looking a "little green in the gills." I go to the galley to get a greasy hamburger, bring it to the person about ready to heave (if they haven't already done so), and say something like "you don't look so well, maybe you need to eat something." Then I present the burger in front of them so they get a good whiff. Works every time!

son of witless

No, better than that was done to me. We were out with full coolers of beer and food and could not touch any of it. These young guys on the other side of the boat are swigging down down beers and scarfing down meatball sandwiches. They had a great time and we could only watch with envy. The worst part, the fishing was lousy.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Took my sons and their Scout troop out for a day of Mackerel fishing off New Jersey's coast. We were in a brand new, day-fisher, party boat, which had two decks, the upper was just open to the sky and had no easy access to the water. The sea was rough and one of the other dad's was standing at the rail, with me, and slugging down beers at 6 am.

People were already turning green but it didn't bother me until we hit the fishing grounds. Everyone went to the rails and cast in the multi hooked lures. The jigging started and lines were pulled up with six to ten fish on each. I was absolutely delighted that my boys got good catches as well, until I got a whiff of the fish. Instant overwhelming nausea. The Beer Drinker helped my guys get the fish off the hooks and recast.

Seeing that they had the drill down I arranged for another parent to keep an eye on them and climbed the ladder to the second deck. The boat was pitching and torquing to beat the band but there was a stiff breeze and I could not smell fish. As long as I stayed up there I was good; try to come down to the main deck and I would start dry-heaving all over. I couldn't even get to the bottom of the ladder.

About half the boat was "hors de combat" from the rough sea and they were pleading with the Captain to return to port. The Captain ignored all of them and stayed out the allotted time despite the curses and imprecations that even the women on board were heaving his way. I was fine at the top level even though I was getting a bath, from spray carried by the wind, and getting a bigger swing from the waves. No fish smell, no problem.

By the end of the trip only the die-hards who were out fishing all the time, the captain, and a few customers, like my beer drinking buddy and my sons were still immune to the sea and smells. Two of the mates were heaving over the rails but they weren't incapacitated.

Got back to shore and the boys had their catch in a large garbage bag which I put in the trunk of my car. When we got home I carried it into the kitchen and my wife asked the boys "How did you do?" I said they did great, look at all these fish and opened the bag on the counter. The smell hit and and I had to run for the porcelain throne because the stink affected me the same way on land.

son of witless

You reminded me of the best day I ever had ocean fishing. In the days when I did not get sea sick. We went out for mackeral with 4 lures per line. We actually missed the height of the run. If we had gone a few weeks earlier, they were catching 200 fish per man. As it was between the 3 of us we had about a hundred, which was more than enough. You would fish for an hour and get nothing, then for 5 minutes as fast as you could pull them in and unhook them and get your hooks back into the water that is what you could catch. The pattern repeated itself all day. 3 and 4 fish were on every time you reeled in.

We waited until we got home to clean them. We had a huge plastic bag of guts. Later on when we spoke to friends they chastised us for not saving the roe. They said you eat them with fried eggs. The prospect of eating fish eggs did not appeal to us. I seem to remember that the fish tasted good, but I've had mackeral since then and I don't care for it much. I remember getting about 8 one time. I cooked one or two and froze the rest. The ones I ate fresh were palatable, but those I froze and ate later were not good at all. The guy who fished with me back then told me he liked to catch mackeral, but would never eat them. He fed them to his pets.

pafret Loc: Northeast

You are right, I completely forgot that the neighbor was down visiting at the time and when I got cleaned up the women were gutting the fish. Diane (the neighbor) kept exclaiming about all the females with full roe sacs. Those got sorted into a bowl and after cleaning and filleting the fish she dipped the sacs in a batter and pan fried them. My wife and Diane went to town eating those roe sacs; none of my four kids wanted any and I couldn't get too close either.

Mackerel is a strong tasting oily fish and not to many people's liking. Blue fish is another that is very strong tasting. I will eat both if there isn't anything else but I won't go out of my way to get either fish.

RoyinNC

Don't know about Mackerel but bluefish are good, eaten relatively quickly, but not so good if frozen for very long.

son of witless

Yea I've had good fishing for Blues, but they are not good eating when big. We used to catch small ones in the Bay and somebody told us they were snapper Blues. Those were good eating. I remember my father and I going out for the big ones. We had 5 each, and I told him to stop, but he caught 5 more and I ended up cleaning all of them. Of the big ones there is lighter and darker meat. The lighter meat isn't too bad. The darker meat is horrible. They are a lot of fun catching. They bend the pole over and run up and down the side of the boat. You spend a lot of time untangling the lines to see whose fish it is.

pafret Loc: Northeast

When you get a big Blue it seems like all the meat is dark and that brings back memories of those as well. I worked in Cherry Hill N.J. for a time and there was a fish store that sold fresh caught, brought from the shore daily, about twenty miles away. When the Blues were in season I could buy the catch from a couple of hours ago, scaled, gutted, beheaded and filleted for about 7 cents a pound in 1969. I would call the wife and get the amount we needed, four, five or more. She would set up a fish fry with the neighbors and we would have fish and chips and ten thousand other goodies to eat.