HeeeeRE Fishy Fishy - guest post by Elliot

Today I travelled from Hillsborough to Bangor, excited for my deep sea fishing trip on the Bangor Boat with Brian yesterday. Managing to once again catch the 7:40 train to Bangor and losing track of time by diving into my book, I had sooner realized that the train had come to its final stop at the Bangor railway station. Although spirits depressed in the realization that I had missed a fantastic day yesterday with beautifully clear skies, it looked as if the weather might remain dry with only some grey clouds blotched across the sky.

Upon arriving at Eisenhower Pier, I observed the motions of the waves back and forth while waiting for my guide to take me out to the fishy world, noticing the apparent dullness of a seagull’s mind as it failed to notice a bright red frog lying motionless upon an algae covered rock. On the dot at 9:15 as stated the previous day, Brian arrived and invited me to join him on his ship, the ‘’Blue Aquarius.’’ As we crossed to the other side of the marina to pick up passengers who would also be joining us, I strolled to the stern of the boat to select my weapon of choice against the fish of the sea.  Upon greeting the other passengers when they boarded the boat, we started off into the open water.

Waiting several minutes, while listening to the chatter of the other passengers to Brian, to catch a fish I noticed that the three passengers had obviously been on the boat before. Finally, Ben, one of the other passengers, caught a glistening mackerel and I couldn’t help but feel a tug of jealousy on my rod and jerking upwards expecting to see a fish as well, I reeled quickly to see a one, but saw that it was only the weight at the end of the string and I learned to not be so hasty. Several more minutes passed and as every other person admired their own personal catch, I wished that I would catch one soon to participate in the glory.

Soon enough as the thought crossed my mind, I felt a tug on my rod and jerked upwards and started reeling in. Expecting disappointment again, I didn’t get my hopes up, however, as I saw the lure slowly rising to meet me I saw something large and green on my hook and upon lifting it out of the water saw a mackerel, every bit as big as the first one caught. Receiving congratulations from the crew members, I felt my confidence rise and soon started catching more and more. Catching a trio of fish three times, which were split between all three of our stops, felt extremely good especially after hearing that the first person to catch a fish today, also fished 3 times a week all over Northern Ireland. 

Upon returning to the harbour, we fed the seals and Brian taught me how to fillet a fish... or at least attempted to. After finishing tying up the boat, I said my farewells to the other passengers and headed off to the train station with my bag of filleted mackerel. When I arrived in Lisburn I quickly trotted off to Marks and Spencer, with which I have fallen madly in love with, and bought several items for my mother’s  birthday. After taking the bus home and stopping on the way to get some soda bread, I got home shortly before 4:00. Later I decided to test the taste of the fish by adding some tomato chutney as well as rice with added vegetables, and I daresay it was very tasty (due to my mother's cooking).