Since the working, fishing, music making portions of our lives left little time for practice sessions, Ralph and I came up with a plan to work out our sets and teach Tony consistent timing.
Ralph flipped on the cassette player in the cabin. Tall lanky Tony started drumming on the engine box. I tossed my mesh bag holding a frozen block of chum overboard. Ralph and I baited up and threw our lines out while I flipped fresh chum from the five gallon bucket. Tony sang a song, then Ralph, back to Tony, then my word or two, and back to Tony.
Most sane fishermen would figure that there is no way we could catch a fish with all that cacophony taking place. Though their ears cannot be seen externally, fish have internal ear bones in their skull which hear amplified vibrations from their air bladder. Also, fish have a lateral line along their side that picks up vibrations in the water. During my years running party boat snapper night fishing trips in the Keys, I discovered that the hum of a genset produced more fish than running the night lights from the battery bank. Mixing a steady sound with an abundant flowing food source is actually a recipe for some very good fish catches if applied properly.
