I took the lead as the biggest looser in the fishing category yesterday. Jeff and I lost my only king salmon to a seal 100 yards from the dock at the end of our fishing trip earlier this spring. After blowing me off for a month not accepting any requests for fishing or berry picking, I was assigned babysitting duties of one Samuel Conteh yesterday, and therefore he could not decline the request this time. The trip did not start off well. The boat stalled about 1/2 mile from the dock. Water in the fuel – again! Hopefully this is just a remnant of the early trouble. I got the small kicker going and figured we’d just troll out to George Rock and back for the time we had on the little motor. Near the rock, we caught a big coho. Samuel tried to hold the rod but was too scared so he had me land it. A big, fat 10 lb coho. As soon as I got the gear down again, another fish was on. Then the downrigger drag slipped, and 150 feet of line went out and the wire jumped the pulley and it took quite a while to get it back on the pulley – this is a flaw of Cannon downriggers. I had put the first fish on a stringer, broke a gill, and was towing it alongside the boat. Then I put the second fish on the stringer after fixing the downrigger and we trolled on. Then the little motor quit. I could not get it started. Again, looked like a fuel issue. In drained the fuel filter, pulled the plugs, and as I was doing so, Samuel was pulling up the line that held the fish in the water and letting it down, pulling it up and letting it down. After I was worked up into a lather both physically and emotionally trying to get the boat going for 15 or 20 minutes, Samuel says “hey, where did the fish go?”. I look back and he’d work the double half hitch loose. The line with the fish were gone. A short outburst Samuel’s way led to laughter as now the trip was complete. Two motors out of service and the only bright spot so far -the two fish- were now gone. I told Samuel this story would now replace his first trip to the cabin, where he announced he wanted to go home as there was no video games or TV at the cabin. I finally got the little motor going and we idled back to the dock. –