Spear fishing in the Puget

The rocks were slippery, covered in "Seaweed" we had to be very careful, as we made our way from the beach in to the water at low tide. Once we got out up to our knees in water, we were in the hunting ground for "Sole". Our fishing ground, was a band of sand, about 30 feet wide and couple of hundred feet long.

We would put our spears a foot or two under the water, and start wading, looking for that single eye in the sand. The sharpened broom handle turned out to be a very poor spear. Most of the time, the "Sole" would dart off, from our attempt to stab them. If my chance one of us did stab a Sole, it would slip off the broom handle as we were bringing it out of the water.

We had been in the water for a couple of hours, our legs were numb, and each of us, had stab a couple of sole, but no one was successful in keeping their prize. I was just standing there with my spear in the water, when I felt something bump my leg. I looked down, but I could not see anything.

SHARKS! I looked up; Roger was jumping up and down stabbing at the water with his spear, then Larry yelled SHARKS! He started jumping up and down.

Everyone started running out of the water, there was not much speed in our attempt to get out of the water, since our legs were so numb from the cold water.

Once we got on the beach, everyone was talking at the same time. Roger had seen a "Mud Shark" swim by his legs with a sole in its teeth. Larry had a "Mud Shark" take a Sole off his spear. Mud Sharks are not very big, only a couple of feet long, but they sure got our attention that day.

Before our next attempt at spear fishing, we had better spears and a plan. Larry’s dad owns a machine shop and he brought home five, six-foot lengths of 3/8 steel rods, with barbs welded on the end. The plan was, if we got a sole on the end of our spear, we were to walk out of the water, up to the beach to take the fish off. The wounded "Sole" is what brought the "Mud Sharks" in.

After fact…..After that summer we never went spear fishing again..

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