Yes, after four years, three near misses, two lines and one very impatient cat we have finally bagged our first catch off the back of Esper! Under the guidance of our fishing guru, Matt, both Liz and myself caught a fish each within the space of 24 hours. Of course we frequently pull up a cage full of tiddlers and live-bait with our lobster pot but, according to our guru, “that’s not fishing, that’s just being lazy”.
Our recent visitors, Matt and Candice, will be writing a little piece for followtheboat so without giving too much away I can tell you we left the fruitless Turkish waters and dropped our hook at Pedi, an anchorage in the northeast of the Greek island of Simi, which immediately offered some piscatorial delights.
After a lesson in basic line fishing we dropped our hooks over the side and got like Huck Finn. It didn’t take long to see some action, Liz squealing with delight as bait was nibbled and floats nodded. However it was me who pulled off the coup by hooking and bagging what looked like a large sardine!
Of course Millie thought the catch was for her. Chirping and squeaking she wrapped herself around my ankles in an attempt to trip me up so I’d let go of her dinner. To prevent her from getting her grubby little paws on my supper I placed a piece of wood atop the bucket containing the catch, with three cushions on top of that to weigh it down. We left Millie ‘guarding’ our prize, who was a bit confused as to why we had not given the fish to her, as is the normal protocol.
We continued to fish all afternoon, discovering the delights of line fishing that many millions before us have enjoyed. We didn’t catch any more that day but it didn’t matter; the first official fish had been caught, marked in the log, celebrated and photographed. An occasion to remember. Here’s the proud moment:
What do you mean “is that it”? That, my dear reader, is the result of blood, sweat, sunburn and many loaves of bread and was worth all the effort submitted to catch it.
How did it taste? How should I know? Without any of us noticing the bloody cat swiped it and consumed the lot.
If you like our content and would like to support us, we will give you ad-free access to our videos before they go live to the public, discounts in our shop, access to Jamie’s iconic full-res photographs, and supporter-only blog posts. Click our ugly mugs for more info!
if you put in your tank and feed it every day, before too long, a year maybe, it will be a fish worthy of keeping and bragging about. Well done to you both, it’s bigger than anything I’ve caught off esper
😳 Well,as they say the longest journey starts with the first step,congratulations,bon apetite to millie,next time please do not send the picture of the fish, let us use our imagination…I bet Millie is still hungry 👿
much love 😆
Ian and Mandy,
Did you not just send me an email update where you said, and I quote, “We are now back in the marina and with the beach a stone throw away we’ve been enjoying beach BBQ’s and the boys taking Moli out to try out some new fishing lures…unsuccessfully!!”
One fish is better than no fish 😉
well done hmm I was wondering about the size, I imagined it to be humongous. I just went out and caught ribs and burgers, visiting a bring your own food barbie later if Mark can drag himself away from the golf course.
Love from sunny London
A 8)
can you actually class that as “catching a fish”?!!
Congratulations! And well done to Millie for pilfering the catch. Smart cat! Hope all good.