Skishing

Skishing is a variant on saltwater shorefishing that involves wearing a buoyant wetsuit and swimming out from shore with flippers to fish with rod and reel (typically a surfcasting rod), often using live eels. It is practiced as a means of getting further out to sea in order to increase the chances of catching a fish and can be dangerous. The term skishing is a portmanteau of water skiing and fishing, named as, when hooked, the stripers pull the angler through the water.[1] Skishing has been described as extreme surfcasting.[2]

The activity was invented by Paul Melnyk, a cabinet maker from Montauk, New York. Melnyk has explained that the activity is similar to skiing because "if you hook a fish over thirty pounds, it will generally take you for a ride".[3]

References

  1. "Skishing; Extreme bass fishing, in which anglers don wetsuits and flippers and, with a rod tucked under and arm, swim a couple of hundred yards offshore, typically on moonlit nights, to cast live eels while drifting with the current. The term is a cross between skiing and fishing, because when you hook a big striper, it typically pulls you along as if you were skiing." Skishing Best Life Nov 2006 page 34
  2. John Waldman 100 Weird Ways to Catch Fish Skishing Page 149
  3. Anne H. Soukhanov. "Word Watch". The Atlantic Online. May 2000. Retrieved on August 28, 2009.