The Fishing Hall of Shame

Klappentext Sportswriters and celebrity fishing guides! expert anglers! and Hall of Shamers themselves spill the whole truth--hook! line and sinker-- in this wacky collection of the funniest incidents in sport fishing. Compiled by the creators of the bestselling Sports Hall of Shame series. President George Bush— America’s most famous fisherman—suffered the worst case of bluefish blues the world had ever seen.   With an armada of camera boats tailing him on his daily outings off the coast of Maine, the vacationing First Angler went an incredible seventeen straight agonizing, mortifying days without hooking so much as a minnow. And every day that the President returned fishless, the whole world knew.   Finally, with only one full day left to his vacation, a desperate Bush turned to prayer. And it worked. Within an hour after leaving church the President caught a hefty bluefish to put an end to his embarrassing jinx.   In August 1989 Bush had taken his family to their summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine, for a nineteen-day summer vacation. No sooner had he arrived than he hopped into his twenty-eight-foot cigarette fishing boat, Fidelity, confident he’d catch some bluefish as he had so many other times before. He didn’t mind that a flotilla of press boats was following him to record every moment of his expected angling successes.   Unfortunately, Bush didn’t catch a fish that day … or the next day … or the next … or the next. While those around him were getting strikes, the President was striking out—a fact reported daily by the media.   By the tenth day without even a nibble, the Portland, Maine, Press Herald began publishing a “fish watch.” Every day the paper ran a drawing of a bluefish inside the international symbol for no and gave the number of outings the President had gone without catching a fish.   This spurred his staffers into damage control. A White House press official claimed that although Bush hadn’t snared any blues yet, several members of the presidential fishing party had caught fish “under the President’s very careful tutelage.” But the press continued to report his catch of the day: zero.   With only six days left on his vacation, Bush’s fishing failures were starting to bug him—especially when he saw White House reporters wearing the Press Herald’s “no fish” logo on their press credentials.   With tongue in cheek the President called the logo “a vicious assault on my ability” and threatened to call up the newspaper editors and complain. Then he predicted the slump would end that day because he planned to go out and “murder” some fish. He was even bringing First Lady Barbara Bush with him for good luck.   Barbara’s presence did indeed bring good luck—for everyone in the presidential fishing party but her husband. Meanwhile, back on land, some entrepreneurial reporters began selling “no fish” T-shirts to their colleagues.   By now the chagrined President was desperate enough to seek advice from local anglers. Among their recommended strategies were spitting on the bait before casting and using depth charges from one of the Coast Guard vessels that always accompanied him.   As Bush readied his boat for his fifteenth outing, family members tried to buoy his spirits. They chanted, “We want fish!” and “Go for the blues!” Several of his grandchildren held up placards that read, A FISH A DAY KEEPS THE PRESS AWAY, FISH TILL YOU DIE, and GRAMPY, YOU CAN DO IT! Finally, the family serenaded him with an improvised song: “When the Fish Go Marching In.”   Despite all their support Bush went fishless again. “It’s gotten out of hand,” he told the press. “When I see it [his fishing failures] on national television, I know we’ve got to put an end to this monkey business. So we will prevail. I guarantee you—I positively guarantee you—that this jinx will end.”   Reporters nodded and wondered Zusammenfas...

Product details

• Authors: Bruce Nash, Allan Zullo
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Inc.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.05.1991
• EAN: 9780440503187
• ISBN: 978-0-440-50318-7
• No. of pages: 256
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 13 mm