People think that it's warm and sunny on the ocean but in reality it’s cold, wet, salty and windy when you are on a fishing boat early in the morning. When the sun does come out, it feels like 1000 burning coals on your face. The salty air punctures my lungs.  My stomach plummets as the boat bounces up and down over the waves. There is no land in sight. My mind starts to wander, looking out over the endless ocean. I was thinking every worst possibility, what if I was pulled into the water, when…Snap! 

The fishing rod hunches over like an old man’s back. The line spins out as the fish takes my bait and races away. It was time for me to catch my first barracuda. 

    My slippery, nervous hands grab onto the tough metal rod. Instantly, my whole body shifts forward to the edge of the boat. At this moment I was scared, terrified of the monster on the other side. But, it was like I am “two face” from DC Comics . I wanted to prove that I could do anything. The muscles in my body tighten. Energy starts to flow in my arms. I pull back the rod with my entire body and reel in the fish little by little. The fish feels the pull and abruptly changes direction. 

    I feel a big hand on my back. With a proud face, my dad directs my body where I should be. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I see it. My heart skipped a beat. There it is, the barracuda. The monster that I fear, silver and blue like a serpent. Just then , I stumbled on the slimy surface of the boat and I’m  thrown off balance. For a second, I can't feel anything with my left foot and when I look up the silver in the water is gone. I regained focus but it's too late. The fish is going back where we started. The hand is back on my shoulder, forcing me to go back to the other end of the boat. It felt like I was playing tug-o-war with a sumo wrestler. The muscles in my arms were on fire. I felt like the barracuda was going to rip them off. The rod was bending so far now that I thought it was going snap like a branch in a windstorm. The barracuda fought with the intensity of a lion. 

     In reality, it only lasted a few minutes but in the moment it felt like forever. When I finally got him close to the boat, he came up to the surface of the water, on his side, like a defeated fighter. It was no longer a monster, he was the coolest fish I had ever seen. He was silver with blue stripes not like a serpent but, like you see on a race car on T.V. He had a mouth of long, pointy razor sharp teeth. I was trying to figure out how to pick him up when Connor, our fishing guide, reached in and picked him up by his tail. It’s the biggest fish I have ever seen. I can’t believe that I caught it.

I was flashed back into reality by my mom taking photos.  Looking back at the photos, I see my cheeks creased side to side with pure joy. This experience reminded me that early humans had to fish to survive. I felt like this experience gave me a glimpse of what that might be like. I had to fish for my reward, a lifetime of fun memories.