SEA SICK

By: Randy Williams (June 8, 2007)

The plan was to film a TV show on Wednesday morning and we were to fish for Coho’s and Kings on Lake Michigan by Milwaukee. The Charter Captain called and said don’t show up until noon. The weather report predicted that the waves should calm down by then.

Finding your way through Milwaukee is tricky enough, but with all the road construction, Jeff, Tadd, and I got lost traversing through town. I mean two phone calls and thinking about breaking a man law by stopping for directions, we were lost. Not a great start for a trip that would turn even worse. The marina we were to take off from was McKinley. That was the same area of the unfortunate jet plane crash which killed the doctors the afternoon before. There were police, Coast guard, and news reporters everywhere. The landing was closed and taped off with the crime scene ribbons.

We thought that we were not going to be able to get out to fish; however, the captain had talked to the Coast guard and received permission for us to pass out of the harbor. It was a somber feeling with the helicopters and recovery teams searching the lake just east of us. We avoided any chance of interfering with the search teams and headed north. As soon as we left the safety of the Harbor we knew the search crews had a difficult task. The waves were up to almost 7 feet. The large waves and the search mission changed our trip plans in two ways. The procedure for taping a show usually starts by getting a few “take off” scenes as our boat would leave the harbor and also a recap at the dock on return. We did not want to look like freelance reporters stealing news footage, therefore, we did not bring out the cameras until we were well away from the marina. This meant we would not have much footage and had to do an exceptional job of filming on the water. The relentless wind kept producing waves that would not allow us to do this

Even though we were in a 32 foot boat a few waves managed to wash over the bow. When we got to the fishing area, we turned to troll with the wind, and set up some lines. Though they didn’t look it, going with the wind made the seas feel a little bit calmer. But we were still bouncing around enough to make it next to impossible to keep our landlubber legs sea worthy.

The Captain said when we get to 130 feet we should start catching fish and when we reached 130 feet we started catching fish. We caught 7 Coho’s and 2 king salmon and were heading home in less an hour and a half. The reason we were heading home that soon was not because the captain and I were done catching fish or because we had all the film we needed for the show. We were headed home already because Jeff and Tadd had green faces and were chumming (throwing up). These two ‘big’ TV stars were reduced to two little green monsters that in the end wasted my home baked cookies and hand picked apples… I don’t get a lot of respect from these two younger guys as they tried to lay a line on me (because you know I have never tried to lay a line on them…haha). The captain said that the reason Jeff and Tadd were chumming over the side of the boat was because they had been looking through the view finders and that magnifies the chances of getting sea sick. The chummers tried to convince me they were just faking it. These funny chummers said that the reason they faked being sick is because they wanted me to learn how to run the cameras. Well the joke is on them…Jeff even admitted the footage that I took turned out fantastic!

To prove how sarcastic these two kids are to get along with (I mean tolerate), let me tell you what happened at the restaurant after we got our legs back underneath us. The waiter was very cordial and asked me “sir would you care for some coffee?” I said, “yes thank you”. Then the waiter heard me mention to Jeff and Tadd that I was older than they are and they should give me the kind of respect that the waiter did. I said, “Boys even though you are both former students of mine how come you never called me sir?”.

They sarcastically rolled there eyes. A few minutes later that same waiter returned. He leaned over to me and said, “Slime ball you want a refill on that coffee?” Jeff and Tadd somehow thought that his comments were funny and even rewarded this outrage by leaving the waiter a $10. Finally on the drive home, to shove our nose in this failed trip, the wind that ruined it relaxed to a dead calm. We are planning on going back next week to hopefully, get enough tape for the show. That is if those boys can muster up a little less chum and keep up with me Randy Williams!