A true story that I had published quite a long time ago (1990's).
The Curse
During the fishing seasons when I lived on Long Island I worked as the first mate on the inshore charter fishing boat Sandbar Mike out of Amityville, New York. Captain Mike not only owned and operated the boat, but he actually built her before he began running charters. The Sandbar Mike was a beautiful vessel, with prominent, polished teak and a classic lap-strake hull design that could make even the most experienced boat designer take a second look.
She was a beautiful vessel, whose appearance was only surpassed by her performance. The twin Detroit Diesel engines would push her up to 26 knots, but Captain Mike rarely ever brought her above ten. However he often joked that if we wanted to we could water ski behind her if the fishing ever got too slow! The Sandbar Mike was 45 feet long and carried up to 38 passengers on our charter fishing trips and moonlight cruises. Captain Mike was one of the most decent people I have ever met in my life and it was a pleasure to work with him. In the years we were a team, he only raised his voice one time, and that is when I was first introduced to the many superstitions of fishermen.
We were fishing for winter flounder in the protected inshore waters on the south shore of Long Island. Our approach would require us to anchor up over a deep hole, which in the bay could mean we would be in water that was only 10 feet deep. Once anchored, I would begin chumming by throwing cracked clams and mussels up into the current so their juices and pieces would sink and drift back past the boat. The fresh scent of these shellfish would more often than not, attract hungry winter flounder to the baited hooks of the anglers on board.
While I was throwing the chum, our charter fares would drop double hook rigs baited with sandworms, bloodworms or clams to the bottom hoping to entice a nice fat winter “flattie”. I really enjoyed this kind of fishing because it was in protected waters, there was usually a lot of action, and fresh black back flounder fillets are pretty hard to top as table fare.
This particular season the fishing was very good and unusually consistent. We had fished every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday for two months solid, and it seemed that no matter where we fished or how many anglers we had aboard, we would end up catching around 150 fish. Over the previous weeks we fished mostly in and around the same areas, and all produced flounder consistently. It seemed that the only time we needed to move was to find bigger fish. One particular Sunday afternoon was a very different story however.
On this day, we fished our usual areas with the same baits and same methods we had been using successfully for years. By noon, we had only one fish to show for it and that was extremely odd as the day before we had 20 fares that left with 165 flounder. By this time the 33 paying passengers on this trip were getting restless and my stories of how good the fishing was the day before were not helping matters. In fact I learned that nothing makes a paying customer madder than telling them “You should have been here yesterday”! I even started to think half-heartedly that I was going to have to take Capt. Mike up on his water skiing offer.
I could not figure it out and neither could Captain Mike. Boats around us were catching plenty of fish; in fact, this was the first time I could ever recall anybody out-fishing us. And this time everyone was out fishing us! We pulled the anchor and tried a few different spots. Once we realized we were on another unproductive spot we would pull the anchor to try and reposition the boat. We tried one anchor, then two; we moved up a few feet then back a few more. I tried to stir the bottom to add natural chum to our mix, nothing worked. At 12:30 Captain Mike called me up to the bridge to discuss what we could possibly be doing wrong. He had been fishing these waters for over twenty-five years and had never seen anything like it.
We discussed the rigs I tied, the bait we were using, the chum I was throwing, the direction I was throwing it, the current, the tide, the moon, you name it we covered it. We even wondered if our bad luck was due to something the fares were doing. So Capt. Mike grabbed a rod, baited it up and proceeded to fish for twenty minutes without a bite. No matter what we looked at we just could not figure it out. So we decided to take a lunch break and come up with a new approach or maybe even move to a new area completely.
He opened up his lunch bag and unfolded from an aluminum foil wrapper his usual egg sandwich. This was one of the things that always surprised me about Capt. Mike because he was about 6’4” and never ate anything more than an egg sandwich all day. I grabbed my lunch bag, and that is the moment I was introduced to “The Curse”.
Captain Mike looked into my lunch bag and saw what I was about eat and immediately grabbed me by the arm and let me have it! “Do you have any idea what those things can do to a boat?” he shouted and then grabbed a banana from my bag and threw it overboard as far from the boat as he could! He handled my lunch like it was a live grenade! I had no earthly idea what was going on! And that is when he told me about the horrible fates that fishing vessels met whenever someone was dumb enough, like I was that day, to bring a banana on board!
I could not believe what I was hearing! I was completely surprised, shocked and even a little scared. Here was this seasoned, very mild mannered, very big Captain scolding me because of my lunch? I knew we were having a tough day, but that seemed a little extreme to me.
After a bit of a tongue lashing, I went back to the fares with a face that was as red as the red-dyed clams we were using for bait. I wanted to curl up and hide, but there was nowhere to go. A very uneasy silence fell over the boat, as no one wanted to speak. I was completely embarrassed at this point, but there really was nothing I could do except go back to work and try to catch fish for these folks.
After a few uneasy moments, I began to loosen up and joke with the fares a little. “You guys should have been here yesterday” I joked. “We had apples for lunch and the fishing was terrific!” Everyone felt a little more at ease, and about fifteen minutes after my lunch ended up in the drink, the fishing picked up. It started slowly, one fish here one there and then it exploded! We started catching fish like no other day I had ever witnessed! Fish started coming over the rails two at a time. It was like we had appeased the fish catching Gods and they were now smiling upon us! Over the next four hours we ended up catching 250 fish and more than made up for the slow start!
The late ride back to port was fun as everyone enjoyed blaming me for the slow morning bite, and praising the Capt for ridding the trip of my lunch. More than one person aboard wondered aloud how many more fish they would have caught if the forbidden fruit were discovered before we left the dock. By the time we finally got back no one would even refer to a banana by name instead they called it the “fruit of the devil” or simply the “fish repeller”.
At the end of this long day, after I had finished filleting all the fish and helped our passengers to load their cars, I started the hour-long process of scrubbing the boat and storing the gear when Captain Mike asked to speak with me. I thought for sure he was going to fire me on the spot and I was going to lose the job I loved. Instead, he apologized for embarrassing me. Then he made it clear that if I ever brought another banana on his boat not only would he throw it overboard, but I would still be attached to it when it hit the water! He even joked that as a reminder, I should throw away my yellow foul weather gear and buy a green set instead.
Since that day over twenty years ago, I have met a few people who still do not believe in the banana curse. Of course they are all welcome to tempt fate on their own boats, but not on mine. I have not only banned bananas from my boat, I also have banned anyone who has eaten one within 24 hours of our trip, just to be on the safe side. _________________
Joined: Oct 26, 2005 Posts: 563 Location: Wilson/Sneads Ferry
Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 11:08 am Post subject:
Dave I went fishing with Bouncer Smith out of Miami a few years ago. Bouncer is frequently seen on the Mark Sosin show. Bouncer will not allow anything Bannana related on his boat. This includes Bannana Boat Sunscreen items etc., it also included "Fruit of the Loom", which HAD a bannana on them. He took out a guy one day and was not doing that great. He ask did anyone have on Fruit of Looms. The man replied yes. The man asked why and Bouncer responded with his beliefs and they clipped the tag out of his F of the L's and went to catching fish. It turnrd out the man is the CEO of Fruit of the Loom !! Long story short; check your drawers, you'll no longer see a Bannana!!! _________________ If you cant feed it, don't breed it !
Joined: Oct 17, 2006 Posts: 448 Location: HAMPSTEAD
Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 11:47 am Post subject:
NO BANANAS ON MY BOAT EITHER.MY DAD BROKE ME OF THAT WHEN WE USED TO BASS FISH.I BROUGHT ONE WITH ME ONE DAY AND WE DID NOT HAVE STRIKE ALL DAY.I TOLD MY DAD I WAS HUNGRY AND WAS GOING TO EAT.I PULLED OUT THE YELLOW DEMON AND HE LET ME HAVE IT.BOY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?I REPLIED IM GOING TO EAT THIS BANANA.HE SAID YOU EAT THAT BANANA AND YOU CAN EAT MY FIST AT THE SAME TIME.I DECIDED NOT TO EAT NEITHER THE BANNA OR THE FIST.I THREW THE BANANA AWAY AND ATE A PACK OF NABS INSTEAD. ABOUT 30 MINUTES LATER MY DAD CAUGHT A 10.5 POUND BASS THAT WON THE TOURNAMENT.SINCE THAT DAY I DO NOT GO FISHING OR LET ANYONE GO FISHING WITH ME WITH A BANANA. _________________ GROUPER HUNTER
2006 SEASWIRL 26 FT CC
TEAM FISHZILLA
HAMPSTEAD NC
Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 34 Location: Charlotte,NC
Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject:
A kid on my boat pulled out candy RUNTS which have bananas this past Saturday and we had a terrible day of fishing. I guess I will have to buy his candy for him next time!
Dave I went fishing with Bouncer Smith out of Miami a few years ago. Bouncer is frequently seen on the Mark Sosin show. Bouncer will not allow anything Bannana related on his boat. This includes Bannana Boat Sunscreen items etc., it also included "Fruit of the Loom", which HAD a bannana on them. He took out a guy one day and was not doing that great. He ask did anyone have on Fruit of Looms. The man replied yes. The man asked why and Bouncer responded with his beliefs and they clipped the tag out of his F of the L's and went to catching fish. It turnrd out the man is the CEO of Fruit of the Loom !! Long story short; check your drawers, you'll no longer see a Bannana!!!
THAT is the funniest thing I've heard all day!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!! _________________ Florida-Offshore.com
Joined: Nov 28, 2006 Posts: 185 Location: Wilmington/Atlantic Beach/New Bern
Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 9:28 pm Post subject:
Can we get some of those stickers made up? _________________ Seaward Action Charters - 10% off all charters for active military and LEO!!!
www.SeawardAction.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waWh1le_-mc
"Slow Ride" - 21' Contender - $23,000
"Seaward Action" - 25' Ranger
Joined: Aug 01, 2007 Posts: 990 Location: Raleigh/Wrightsville Beach
Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 8:06 pm Post subject:
chumpuppy wrote:
Bull! I had a banana in my lunch when I caught my biggest wahoo - 83 lbs.
I'am with him....... its just a superstition......I had a banna for breakfast the day that I caught my famous hognose snapper.......... _________________
"In My Dreams"
34 Yellowfin Ice Blue
Triple 275 verado's
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