Banana on board!

[Boatloadakids]

Fished Lincoln Saturday with two g-sons, Catrat and Catcarsen. Started at the Knolls and fished a couple of hours without so much as a weak inquiry. Marked fish but no love to be found. Headed back toward the orchards and worked deep and shallow but not a bite to be had. Bummed and ready to give it up we decided to grab some of the snacks sweet wife always puts together for us. Shocked, shocked i say, to see that she had included three bananas in the gurb pack. I recognized the reason for no fish immediately and told the boys about the banana taboo. I got nothing but guff-awws from them until Catrat checked with Siri and my veracity was vindicated. The internet offered a prayer to recite to remove the banana curse. Catrat pronounced the prayer and sure nuf, right after that Catcarsen caught a nice 27 inch cat.

After that nice cat, Mike (MSM1970) stopped by and told us where to find the white bass. Great tip, and we loaded up on white bass. Thanks Mike.

Lesson learned: Never, never allow bananas on a fishing boat.

BLK

[Tarponjim]

Only "bad" day I've had in 6 weeks was one where a customer had a banana on the boat, and didn't reveal it until 1:30.  They were 0 for 15 until we disposed of that thing.

[Bduck]

 

---

???

[lowdown]

I found this pretty hilarious. Still chuckling.

[MSM1970]

After that nice cat, Mike (MSM1970) stopped by and told us where to find the white bass. Great tip, and we loaded up on white bass. Thanks Mike.

Your welcome, glad you got some bait, never seen anyting pulled in at the island other than the 3 wb I found, they where right at the big rock to the west you have drop your G-son off on, most where fishing for cats, been wanting a warmer days until I was loading up and looked like everyone showed up, sure made me miss those late feb early march days of 4 boats on the lake, Mostly no powersquadren they where living up to there expectations.

[deafman]

tried to go fishing,  trolling motor wouldn't start..main motor lasted long enough to get us quite a ways out then broke..then while we waited for a tow my fellow fishermen decided to eat lunch,yep !!! they had banana's !!!

[TubeDude]

I shoulda knowed I didn't stay far enough away from you guys (antisocial distancing) while we were both getting ready to launch.  Your banana virus got me too.  It also kept me from getting even a bite for the first two hours.  But then I found a few fish with the antidote and caught 3 within about 15 minutes.  Must have had a relapse after that 'cause I didn't get any other bites for the next two hours.  And after a couple of the growing crowd of wackos hit the water and had to buzz me at close range just to show off their daddys' boats I departed hence.

I am sure that the heavy north winds of Friday had the fish scattered and skittish.  I saw little on sonar...not even white bass.  And the fish I caught were all in the low twenties (inches...not pounds).  But it was a lovely day...early...until the entire population of Utah County showed up.  And none of them were wearing masks neither.

[Tin-Can]

Fished Lincoln Saturday with two g-sons, Catrat and Catcarsen. Started at the Knolls and fished a couple of hours without so much as a weak inquiry. Marked fish but no love to be found. Headed back toward the orchards and worked deep and shallow but not a bite to be had. Bummed and ready to give it up we decided to grab some of the snacks sweet wife always puts together for us. Shocked, shocked i say, to see that she had included three bananas in the gurb pack. I recognized the reason for no fish immediately and told the boys about the banana taboo. I got nothing but guff-awws from them until Catrat checked with Siri and my veracity was vindicated. The internet offered a prayer to recite to remove the banana curse. Catrat pronounced the prayer and sure nuf, right after that Catcarsen caught a nice 27 inch cat.

After that nice cat, Mike (MSM1970) stopped by and told us where to find the white bass. Great tip, and we loaded up on white bass. Thanks Mike.

Lesson learned: Never, never allow bananas on a fishing boat.

BLK

I don't remember why or when, but someone I knew as a kid said if he ever found a passanger on his 42 ft. deep sea fishing boat with a banana, he would heave them over the side, along with the banana .  I have never allowed one on my boat. And just a week or so ago wife and I were watching "Wicked Tuna" and they found a banana on one of the boats. So Lynn, I had a good laugh this morning when I read your post.

[PBH]

my wife continues to try to disprove the banana curse.....someday it's going to be worse than just no fish...

[obifishkenobi]

No banana muffins, Banana Boat sun screen, no banana Laffy Taffy, no Banana Republic T shirts, no banana hammocks, I even discourage the consumption of banana 24 hr. In advance of a trip

[BURLEY]

If you are serious about "No Bananas on Board Your Boat", then be careful about asking this fellow BFTer to go with you. He takes a banana to eat every morning. He seems to be immune to the curse as he consistantly is able to boat a ton of fish, although most are caught after the banana has been eaten.   He is well known by us and is one of the nicest person to fish with that you could meet. Since he was my sturgeon fishing mentor, I will always put up with his morning routine. Especially since I am still able to get tugs on my line while with him. He does seem to complain about not getting his fair share of bites while sturgeon fishing with me. May have something to do with the banana, but you won't convince him of it. I won't name him here, but I'm sure that dozens of us have been on trips with him. I know that I'm waiting anxiously to go again with him, bananas or not. I'm sure many of you are real serious about this, but for me, I will welcome him aboard my boat any time. Thanks Kent. Opps, I wasn't going to name you.

[TubeDude]

Just remembered a fave expression:  "When the going gets tough, the tough go bananas."  I guess it's okay as long as they don't go fishing with bananas.

In my younger years I worked on southern Cal party boats and did some commercial fishing.  I learned quickly that all the seasoned salts had a definite aversion to anything related to bananas on board.  I personally witnessed skippers taking bananas out of paying anglers' lunch bags and throwing them overboard...and threatening to do the same with  the offending "tangler". 

On the flip side, back in the "olden days" in Utah, some of us float tubers would have "Gorilla floatillas"...where we fished at night for big cats out of our float tubes.  One of the guys flaunted our superstitions by hanging bananas off the side of his float tube.  And whaddayaknow...he caught plenty of cats...including some "gorillas".

They say that everybody has to believe in something.  I believe I'll just go fishing.

[Kent]

If you are serious about "No Bananas on Board Your Boat", then be careful about asking this fellow BFTer to go with you. He takes a banana to eat every morning. He seems to be immune to the curse as he consistantly is able to boat a ton of fish, although most are caught after the banana has been eaten.   He is well known by us and is one of the nicest person to fish with that you could meet. Since he was my sturgeon fishing mentor, I will always put up with his morning routine. Especially since I am still able to get tugs on my line while with him. He does seem to complain about not getting his fair share of bites while sturgeon fishing with me. May have something to do with the banana, but you won't convince him of it. I won't name him here, but I'm sure that dozens of us have been on trips with him. I know that I'm waiting anxiously to go again with him, bananas or not. I'm sure many of you are real serious about this, but for me, I will welcome him aboard my boat any time. Thanks Kent. Opps, I wasn't going to name you.

Thanks for the kind words (your check is in the mail) and sure glad you didn't name me. Yep a banana is on my menu, for breakfast, every day that I go fishing and every other day that I eat breakfast.

[Jig-fisher]

I had never heard of this and get a good chuckle out of how superstitious anglers can be. I have eaten so many bananas out fishing and have never noticed that my catch rates vary. My standard take along breakfast is a bagel w/cream cheese and a banana. It is also my morning pack breakfast out hunting and it doesn't affect that either.

Anyone want to go fishing? I have to warn you that a banana will more than likely be on board!?

[Tin-Can]

I had never heard of this and get a good chuckle out of how superstitious anglers can be. I have eaten so many bananas out fishing and have never noticed that my catch rates vary. My standard take along breakfast is a bagel w/cream cheese and a banana. It is also my morning pack breakfast out hunting and it doesn't affect that either.

Anyone want to go fishing? I have to warn you that a banana will more than likely be on board!?

[font]Paul, I have heard that superstition since I was a kid, but no one could, or would ever explain where it came from. Probably something pretty old, kinda like the old belief that women on board a ship was bad luck.   I tend to believe that one more than the banana one, at least for me. My wife on the boat with me, about 75% of the time means she out fishes me , even without a banana on board.[/font]

[Cowboy-up]

Fished with an old buddy in his boat about three times a week for about 5 years. He always brought a banana and some other stuff for his morning snack. We always caught a lot of fish and then he got old and died. Maybe it was them damned bananas.

[Tin-Can]

This conversation about bananas got me real curious, and as I didn't have much else to do today, I did just a little research. I got the following from Snopes, and it was about the best explanation(s) I could find. 

mall">[b]When top-heavy ships of earlier eras would sink, precious little other than the bananas they’d carried would be found floating on the surface, thereby leaving some to conclude conveyance of the fruit itself had led to these naval mishaps. [/b]

• Spiders, snakes, and other poisonous vermin living among bananas carried in the hold would, on long haul trips, expand their horizons by infesting other parts of the ship. 
  

• Because the speediest sailing ships were used to get bananas to their destinations before they could spoil, those attempting to fish from them never caught anything while trolling. 
  

• Fisherman became ill after eating the fruit. 
  

• Other fruits would spoil more quickly when bananas were being shipped along with them, causing folks to deem bananas “bad luck.” (Actually, it wouldn’t have been ill fate that resulted in the spoilage of other foodstuffs, but instead the ethylene gas emitted by bananas as they ripen.) 
  

• Crew member injured by slipping on discarded banana peels. 
  

• Fisherman misses landing the big one due to a case of “the runs” caused by bananas he’d ingested. 
  

• Banana oil rubs off onto the hands of fisherman, thereby “spooking” the fish. 
  

• Early anglers in Hawaii would embark upon lengthy fishing trips in dugout canoes provisioned with (along with other food items) bananas. The farther they went, the fewer the fish, causing some of them to mistake correlation for causation. "
  

[fish_digger]

This is my favorite banana mythbusting video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKU0ex2yN7s

[lowdown]

Three bananas in the boat today. Zero fish. I'm off bananas from here on out.

[Anglinarcher]

Thanks Tin-Can.  

I did some research several years ago myself and also found out there was one of those poorly designed ships that was running a load of bananas from South America to the US that sank.  They brought her up, repaired her, then sent her on the same run.  She sank again, so it must be those Bananas.  At the time, that myth busting site thought that was the start of the superstition.

The funny thing is that in our store there is a brand of scent that has, yes, wait for it, BANANNA.  For the last two years, when Strawberry was hot on the ice, that was one of the favorite scents.  It killed the fish.

In the late 90's, a guide on the Columbia River for Sturgeon would go through his client’s lunch and toss out the Bananas.  All the guides would, and the river had those yellow things floating for miles.  LOL  SO, I, BEING a little bit of a trouble maker, snuck one in my coat.  I use to help Len so I never paid, I was an unpaid and unofficial deck hand.  One day the regular deck hand was there so I got to fish, and after bringing the top three fish to the boat, one over 12') I pulled out my Banana and ate it in front of the clients and the crew.  LOL

Funny, I was never asked to be a deck hand again.