[VFB] Most memorable memories

[DonO]

I was watching Norm Issac's saltwater fishing program, which I try to do every Sunday.  They had a small film clip showing a frigate bird, which is one of my most favorite sights when out in the salt.  I've watched them soar effortlessly overhead for 15 minutes as they inspect the surface for food.  Their unique silouhette is just a 'turn-on' for me, and I can sit and watch one until it disappears from sight.  I even videoed one for 15 minutes as it circled overhead at the Oasis Motel in Loreto.   There are many other sights and sounds, too many to recount, but one sound is the screaming drag.  A flyreel drag with a heavy setting going out at 40 miles an hour for 2-300 yards is a unique sound to be remembered.   Another sight is to have an enormous billfish show up and start ragging on your teaser.  They are so fast and so mobile it is amazing if anything ever gets away from them.   Another sight is the irredescent opalescent colors of living fish, from billfish to baitfish.  Cameras cannot capture the colors, and they fade with the life of the fish, so the memory is the only place to see these colors for long.  I've caught many dozens of dorado, but only one that had the color of hammered polished gold rather than opalescent yellow for the belly color.  The neon green on the fins is visable in the depths even before the fish is, and the parrot-green opalescent back colors are sometimes many hues of colors that make up a mother-of-pearl mosaic.  To behold one of these fish, like a yellowfin tuna, in your arms in direct sunlight is truly a memorable experience.   So, as slow as things have been on the vfb, I though I'd open up a thread of what we find memorable sights, sounds, smeels, feelings, etc., as we are flyfishing in our favorite spots for our favorite fish.   DonO