As Gertrude and I have been taking some time to rest after a busy month at NITI. This past Saturday makes the third time in my life to go fishing. There has been a 25′ yacht, The Bitter Sweet, traveling around PNG for nearly a year assessing the travel needs between different islands for the missionaries working here.
The yacht owner had planed a fishing outing that I was able to join. It was a beautiful day to be out on the water. The sun was bright, with a slight breeze and the water was very calm. We were out on the water for nearly three hours before we got our first bite. Timo caught a 10 pound yellow fin tuna. An hour later he caught another one a little bigger. Then a third. I was beginning to wonder if I would catch a fish. Then Timo pulled in a 5 foot shark which took about 40 minutes.
At long last after being out on the water for over 6 hours I hooked a fish. There was the initial excitement and uncertainty of what I needed to do and how to set the reel. Then I learned how pull the rod up and reel it down to keep the tension on the line as I was pulling up the fish. Timo and Larry were trying to guess what kind of fish I hooked by the way it was resisting. At long last we saw that it was another yellow fin tuna. The largest of the four tuna caught at 20 pounds. I was pleased, but I think Gertrude was more pleased. She has been after me to take up fishing so we can have fresh fish when we are in the village. I enjoyed it more than I expected and certainly enjoyed it that night. I just may do a little more fishing.
NicholasNews 