If you have ever been around sailor's or commercial fisherman, you know never to bring a banana in the boat. The nautical superstition is: if you bring a banana on the boat, you’re doomed not to catch fish. I have been known to break the rules, on Bass or Trout trips, but when fishing for Steelhead or saltwater fishing, I’ll be dam to bring a banana in the boat.
When I worked on fishing boats in Alaska’s, there where rules (or superstitions) not to be broken; rule number one, don’t ever leave the harbor to go fishing, on Friday the 13th, (very bad luck). Second, absolutely no change in your pockets when on deck, (you’ll sink if you go overboard), another superstition I heard was, when hanging a coffee cup up, have the brim facing outward from the boat, (if water comes in the boat, it will go out of the boat) and lastly, never bring bananas on the boat, this was grounds for termination, you could find yourself walking the docks looking for a new boat to crew on.
I always thought these superstitions where a bit amusing. The more time I spent around fishing boats, salt dogs, and sailors, I found myself drinking a whiskey or two, and talking about the catches of the season. On occasion, the faint words from a drunken sailor, sitting in the corner of a seedy old bar would be heard, “those dam bananas. “
The other day I found myself in the boat with a banana, I new I had jinxed myself just by seeing it. Dam Dave, “you brought a banana!” Dave replys, “I’ll just toss it over board.” I polity say, “ It’s OK, it’s just a banana, what’s the big deal. “ If I were the true sailor at heart, I would have tossed him overboard.
All day I tried to get the image of that dam banana out of my head, so when our friend finally ate it, the ghost disappeared.
I did get a tug that day but it did not stick, needless to say no one else got fish on our boat. We passed a friend later in the day, and he tell, the new angler on the boat got a fish, call it beginners luck or could it be, that we had a banana in the boat?
You got to wonder.
Do you have any superstitions about banana's in the boat?
