So a couple of nights ago, we were all sitting in the kitchen hut after dinner and had just pulled out the freshly baked cookies (thanks Jen) when there was a knock on the door. Isn't it funny how visitors come at the most opportune times? Anyway, it was a couple of the guys that are doing some fish research down here, and they stopped by to ask us if we wanted to go fishing with them. After some hot chocolate and cookies, we went and suited up for a snowmobile ride. Luckily, the fish hut was only about a 5 minute ride from camp. Of course, as soon as we open the door there's a seal using our hole. This wasn't promising, since the fish we were after is the main prey for Weddell seals. But we fished anyway. Now, this was high tech equipment. I was using a Sponge Bob
Squ
arepants rod, while Derek had the
Scooby-
Doo rod. They get some salt in the reel and don't exactly let out line very well, but when your quarry is about 6 inches long, it doesn't take much. So, our rig consisted of a couple of sinkers at the end of the line, a hook a few inches up with a small chunk of fish and/or a chartreuse grub, then sometimes a
glowstick a few inches above
that. We would drop it down to the bottom (about 70 ft), then jig it a little,
reel it up a few cranks, jig it some more, a few more cranks, so on and so forth until we were back to the surface. So, as I said before, seals equal bad for fishing. We didn't catch what we were going for, but we did catch a few emerald rock cod off the bottom. It wasn't the most rewarding fishing trip, but it was fun. And now I can say I've been fishing in Antarctica.
So a couple of nights ago, we were all sitting in the kitchen hut after dinner and had just pulled out the freshly baked cookies (thanks Jen) when there was a knock on the door. Isn't it funny how visitors come at the most opportune times? Anyway, it was a couple of the guys that are doing some fish research down here, and they stopped by to ask us if we wanted to go fishing with them. After some hot chocolate and cookies, we went and suited up for a snowmobile ride. Luckily, the fish hut was only about a 5 minute ride from camp. Of course, as soon as we open the door there's a seal using our hole. This wasn't promising, since the fish we were after is the main prey for Weddell seals. But we fished anyway. Now, this was high tech equipment. I was using a Sponge Bob Squ
arepants rod, while Derek had the Scooby-Doo rod. They get some salt in the reel and don't exactly let out line very well, but when your quarry is about 6 inches long, it doesn't take much. So, our rig consisted of a couple of sinkers at the end of the line, a hook a few inches up with a small chunk of fish and/or a chartreuse grub, then sometimes a glowstick a few inches above 
that. We would drop it down to the bottom (about 70 ft), then jig it a little, reel it up a few cranks, jig it some more, a few more cranks, so on and so forth until we were back to the surface. So, as I said before, seals equal bad for fishing. We didn't catch what we were going for, but we did catch a few emerald rock cod off the bottom. It wasn't the most rewarding fishing trip, but it was fun. And now I can say I've been fishing in Antarctica.
4 comments:
I still don't understand fishing and not eating the fish.
so that picture of you in that room, that's where you fished?inside the room?
rachel
Yep, we were inside. The hut is pretty much the same as our kitchen hut but with a hatch in the floor. They are heated which helps keep the hole from freezing over and it's much more comfortable than fishing outside. It's kind of like an ice fishing shack.
cool!!!
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