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WHERE THE COHO FLASH SILVER (Lloyd Arntzen) In Port Hardy one morning I cast off my lines The sea was all smooth and the weather just fine And for Castle Rock I was headed away Where the coho flash silver all over the bay It was just before dawn when I reached the fish ground And I lowered my poles and I let my lines down And I lit up my pipe and I waited and prayed To see the coho flash silver all over the bay Well, the sun came up shining and so did the fish All the bells were ringing -- what more could I wish And the gurdies were humming; I was making it pay Where the coho flash silver all over the bay Well, they bit all that morning until well after two They're so hungry they'd strike at an old leather shoe "This has got to be heaven!" to myself I did say Where the coho flash silver all over the bay When I tied up that night, they asked, "How did you do?" And I showed them silver darlings two hundred and two They said, "Arnt, you're the high boat, the best here today Where the coho flash silver all over the bay" Now there's doctors and lawyers and bankers and more And big wheels and promoters with their deals galore But let me be a troller and king for a day Where the coho flash silver all over the bay "My father, Arnt Arntzen, was a commercial fisherman in the Strait of Georgia near the coast of British Columbia. I wrote the song in 1970 on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He was getting on then. I used to notice him in the winter, getting shorter and shorter. But at the beginning of April, he'd start getting taller, because he was busy getting the troller outfitted to be ready by April 15, when he had to head out through the narrows. I'd swear he had grown two feet. He was also a musician -- he played guitar, flute, and piano accordion, and he was a singer, although not a professional. Arnt also loved to fish, and I wrote this song after he said that someone should write a song about when the coho salmon flash silver." copyright Lloyd Arntzen @fish filename[ COHOSILV JN oct96 |
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