No Bananas: A Superstition in Fishing

Ask any charter captain or fly-fishing guide from Seward Alaska to Key West Florida if you can bring bananas on the boat. The answer will consistently be no.

In fact, chances are they’ll ask if you are in possession of any bananas before you board their vessel. If you are, they will end up in the water or on the dock. The bananas will not come on board. They all have stories to back up why bananas on fishing boats or fishing trips are taboo. I’ve got lots of them myself.

Most captains probably started their careers with banana phobia skepticism like I did. Then the evidence for no bananas added up. Now they won’t mess with them. They don’t even consider it.

Some will say that bananas while fishing are bad luck. Some will say that bananas on a boat are bad luck. Skeptics will say that bananas don’t lead to bad fishing or bad luck. The notion is simply a myth, a superstition, or an excuse. I say, "Read On."

No Bananas on the Boat: It’s Not a Myth

If you google bananas and fishing, you will find many articles and blog posts written about them. I’ve referenced "NO Bananas," several times on blogs myself. There’s a long history about shipping and bananas. (Think spiders, termites, spontaneous combustion, food spoilage and shipwrecks). Bananas have developed a bad reputation over a long period. In modern times, things have not gotten any better.

I’ve seen many unbelievable, negative occurrences when bananas were either on the boat or in the possession of an unwitting angler. Sometimes it’s the entire party that suffers. Sometimes it's equipment. Sometimes it’s just the poor sucker with the banana. Sometimes the bad things happen to me.

What are these situations, you ask? Inexplicably poor fishing results in the middle of prime-time conditions. The inability to catch fish during a wide-open bite, even with the same gear everyone else is using. For example: broken lines, broken rods, failing reels and untenable tangles; boat engine trouble, lines or fishing nets tangled in the prop, flat tires on the trailer, trailer winch failure, and drain plugs knocked out; crazy wildlife encounters; anglers falling out of the boat: and hooking themselves, others, and even me. You name it. General bad stuff occurs.

You can call it bad luck, bad Mojo or bad Juju. "Bad things can happen on any given day," the skeptic will say. Yes, they can, but they always seem to happen on days with Bananas!

Evidence Supporting the Banana Ban

Once, I was on the ocean guiding a silver salmon trip out of Seward, Alaska. I traveled for miles and miles searching for fish that had been recently plentiful in close. When we finally found some fish, things got a bit strange.

We landed in the middle of a feeding frenzy with Silver Salmon crashing into a bait ball. Initially, we could not hook a salmon, because a platoon of Puffins grabbed our baits. That created some major chaos on the boat. After the Puffins were safely cleared, a couple of salmon were hooked. Before we could land one, a Porpoise ran through our lines, breaking all four off. As I was repairing the damage, Humpback Whales arrived and ate all the bait. When we were finally ready to fish again, the ocean was like a desert. No more birds. No more porpoise. No more whales. No more salmon.

Then I found the banana. It had been nefariously snuck into my lunch cooler by another guide.

Further Evidence in Support of Banning Bananas on Boats

On my first trip to Key West, Florida to chase tarpon, I was fishing with my good buddy, Captain Eric Lund. He guides around Islamorada, so it was new water for him. We looked at Google Earth and picked a route to fish.

As we headed out the channel from the Shark Key boat landing, a tarpon rolled. I picked up a rod and caught him. My first Florida tarpon trip, new water for Eric, first fish spotted, first cast, first eat, first hookup, 100# tarpon landed. It was an epic event. Unfortunately, all we had to photograph the fish was my cell phone.

When we pulled into the landing, I jumped out of the skiff waving my phone, ready to show off the picture to some other fishing partners. My barefoot planted on a banana some captain had forced a client to discard. The squishy slippery feeling startled me, and I dumped my cell phone straight into salt water. So much for the evidence of my catch.

"You brought bananas?" "Yes, would you like one?" "Sure, please hand me the whole bunch."

While bananas on the boat are never good, I have seen the removal of bananas turn a bad day into a phenomenal trip. Here was the clincher episode for me.

This happened on a mid-September fly fishing trip in Alaska. After missing uncounted fish, breaking off many hook ups, breaking two fly rods and generally getting our butts kicked, we stopped for lunch. Out came the bananas.

I said to the clients, "You brought bananas?" "Yes, would you like one?" "Sure, please hand me the whole bunch."

I chucked those four bananas as far as I could. The clients were mortified until we began fishing again. That afternoon was magic. No more broken lines. No more missed fish. More big rainbows than anyone deserves.

The Banana Ban: Doubters & My Personal Decision Regarding Bananas

Near the end of that season, I was with a group of guides discussing bad banana stories. One guide said that earlier in the month, his client pulled four bananas from the river and tossed them in his boat. I asked the guide what he thought about the bad fishing and bad luck with bananas superstition. He laughed and said it was just a myth.

I asked him about his day after the bananas came on board. He paused and then said, "Well, the fishing was ok, but the guy did end up breaking a rod."

There will always be doubters out there. There are anglers who scoff and wear banana suits. They take pictures while eating bananas and catching fish. Some will even use them for bait.

To them I say, "You don’t know what you’re missing and messing with."

How much better might their fishing day have been without the banana? How many more fish would have been caught? How much larger would those fish have been? Maybe that 30# King Salmon would have been the new world record.

They’ll never know, and I will never knowingly venture forth with a sinister monkey pickle on my boat again.

Just say "NO" to Monkey Pickles...