WILD BLOG: I wonder if "The Boss" and Bocephus ever halibut fished ...
POSTED April 22, 2009 / 9:50 .m.

Salmon and halibut have good taste in music. How do I know? The fish bite better when music they prefer is blasting from above.

Last spring, while sorting through a stack of old cassette tapes (Yes, cassettes. CDs skip when you’re bouncing over waves and I didn't get an iPod until halfway through the season) aboard the Huntress, I finally found a few I could actually stand. The tapes belonged to another captain, whose tastes in music were substantially different than mine.

The only thing close to country was the Dixie Chicks, which I flat refused to play. I wasn't a Bruce Springsteen fan until that day in late May, when we landed not only the first 100-pounder of the season, but No. 2 and 3 as well while The Boss was belting out “Born in the USA,” “My Hometown” and “Dancing in the Dark.”

From that day on, each hog-hunting outing began with Bruce Springsteen's greatest hits.

My fishing play list: When I finally got an iPod, I loaded it up some of my favorites. The halibut liked some, but didn't bite too well on others.

Fishing songs - “Fishing in the Dark,” “I'm Still a Guy” (Brad Paisley mentions a largemouth under a log in it), “Lucky Man” (Eddy Montgomery talks about his new rod and reel), and “A Country Boy Can Survive” (Hank can catch catfish from dust to dawn) - lured many trophy halibut to our baits. “5 O'Clock Somewhere,” “Down on the Corner,” “Famous in a Small Town,” (Miranda Lambert loves to fish!) also led to the early death of several halibut.

I like Johnny Cash, George Straight and Trace Adkins, but their music just doesn't do it for big halibut.

Some of the other captains in Seward also use music to entice fish. But theirfavorites (this is one of the hot topics of discussion every morning on VHF channels 68 and 69 on the way to the fishing grounds) makes you wonder. One swears Elton John does the trick for him. Another always listens to Brittney Spears.

Just another brick in The Wall: A common misnomer in Seward is “The Wall,” a hot coho spot in August, got it's name because it's a steep, rocky cliff that comes straight vertical out of the Gulf of Alaska and rises several hundred feet. The Wall actually got its name from a captain who happened to be listening to Pink Floyd's “The Wall” as she was loading up on silvers several years ago. She told one of her other captains about it and when the talked over the radio, they called the spot “The Wal”l.

Now most charters know where The Wall is, although those eavesdropping don't know the true meaning of schooling the fish there.

Each day before leaving the dock, I hand the iPod over to the customers and let them select a play list. But I make sure to add The Boss and a few of the other halibut tunes.

-AM