I once read somewhere that sharks and other fish have a keen sense of smell. I think that sharks can sense as little as 1 part per million (or billion) of blood in the water. Was blood magic? I began to wondered was it just blood or perhaps blood was pertinent to the story and they can sense other things as well. How about soap? Bleach? Maybe some pine detergent? I thought about how we wash the boat after every trip taking a random bucket, filling it with all kinds of pleasant smelling soaps and stuff and scrub the boat down. Next week, maybe the day of the big shark tournament, we all get up at 3 am, invest in 3 or 4 cans of chum, a hundred pounds of bait, fuel to reach the grounds 50 miles out, lunch (there's the big part of the bill) ice... Everyone is all hyped up. We each have our special secret rig or new rod we are dying to try out. We break the inlet, the sun starts to rise & someone begins the task of cutting up some chunking bait and defrosting the hook baits. In a bucket. Which bucket? Was it the one we used last week to clean the boat? Any bleach left in there? Maybe more than 1 part per million? Pine scented mackeral. Yummy! So, one day in a tackle store, I saw these blue buckets. Only two bucks, it was worth it. I bought one and designated that bucket as our washing bucket. No other bucket on the MegaByte was to ever touch soap or bleach. Period. And while we're at it, no soap or bleach on the cutting board either. I can't tell you if it has helped, but, I know it hasn't hurt. Furthermore, the blue bucket doubles as the garbage bucket during the day. That just kind of keeps things orderly.
It has been years since that blue bucket has moved on to bucket-heaven. It was replaced with a red bucket which, in black magic marker was affectionately labeled "blue bucket". It's fun telling someone new to go get the blue bucket and have then return from the cabin saying there is no blue bucket. Seconds later Bob goes down and emerges with the red bucket labeled "blue". This year, the blue bucket is white. Labeled "blue bucket" of course. If it isn't helping us catch any more fish, at least we get a chuckle out of it from time to time.
Good Fishing - Captain John
(cr) May 2002