Lord Of The Things

When the connected future finally arrives, Jahangir Mohammed will be sitting there, reeling it in.

- Will Bourne, photo by Ramona Rosales

MY SHIPMATE IS NOT HAPPY. It isn’t the 100-degree heat, although his stubbled brown skull is visibly sweating. And it’s not the fact that we have caught exactly one tiny fish this August morning (a five-inch kokanee salmon we discovered dead on the hook). It’s not even the paramilitary vibe of the Koke Addiction, a well seasoned, 20-foot Boulton aluminum fishing skiff—bristling with antennas and nets and rods and rod holders—that would have looked right at home hunting for Viet Cong, circa 1970.

No, the problem here on the Addiction is the machines. They’re everywhere: There’s the TR-1 autopilot system, the Garmin fish finder, the side-scan sonar, the shortwave radio, four machine-gun-like black Cannon electric downriggers, and the 200-horsepower Yamaha outboard paired with an 8-horse Yamaha trolling motor. And then all around us are the damn Jet Skis, the boats pulling inner tubers and water skiers, the houseboats, and the other fishing charters. If you like your nature as God intended it, in other words, Lake Berryessa which looks from space like a blissful blue parallelogram just north of Napa, California—is a special slice of hell. “This,” says Jahangir Mohammed, glumly, “is not how fishing should be.”