Fishing with and by FDG Jr
Dad
had a tee shirt that said “Born to fish, forced to work”. In later years he also responded to the VMI alumni magazine request for class comments with something along the lines of "I have to keep working so I can keep fishing". In the truest sense I
don’t think either were true, but he sure loved to fish. I never asked who or what got him interested in fishing or where that was, but I have seen some
minutes from the Virginia Anglers Club that indicate he was one of the prime
movers for its formation and a charter member back in mid 20th Century.
This is a photo from a fishing trip he made to the Eastern Shore of Virginia referred to below. No fish caught but he was ready. Here's another good photo of him fishing:
At places in this narrative I will insert a page of his recorded fish catch that he entered in the Anglers Club books.
My
plan for this little book is to write down some of my recollections from fishing trips
he and I went on together, to make more permanent and more legible various
notes I have found in his fishing logs, and to ask friends and family to add in
their memories of fishing with him.
[Addendum:
March 2024
I was cleaning out my Dad's office and found a
small vinyl 6 ring loose leaf notebook. In it were about 10-12 more
pages of fishing logs. Now I have found fishing logs in two or three
different places. The puzzle is a bit more complete but I bet there are
more logs to be found.
The plan here is to type these new ones up as one post and then to enter them in another color as an update to the original.]
My
first memories of fishing are trips to the pond at Old Town Farm with Dad
rowing the boat and me trolling behind it. In particular I remember using a
funny green lure with two treble hooks that wiggled through the water. It
caught me a pike that sticks in my mind more than 65 or so years later. Our
objective at Old Town was to catch large mouth bass but I never could catch one until
about 20 years later. We nailed the bream or sunfish and silver perch. John adds here his memory of Chief Cook's snapping turtle rigs- big hooks, bait, tied to a permanent stake.
The
second early memory is him taking us for shad in the early spring. We would go
to the Mayo Bridge area and walk out on the rocks in front of Cauthorne Paper
(now inaccessible due to the flood wall, and the paper plant has become
condos). We used a small wedge shaped weight about 2 1/2 feet up from a golden
spoon. It seems like it was non stop catching fish back then plus we got to hop on rocks across the river.
Old print of Richmond from the James looking back with Pratt's Castle on the left and the capitol visible on the right. Good idea of the rocks we played on and the guy with the fishing net implies shad and herring.
In
the late 1950s-early 1960 my grandfather (Pop) bought a Matthews 42 foot
sports fisherman. The captain at first was Gene Dalton. Dad, Pop, and we boys
would go out in the bay bottom fishing from where the Annabet (Anne, Nancy, and Elizabeth) docked at
Little Creek. We mostly used blood worms for bait and caught skate, sand
sharks, spot, croakers, an occasional flounder, and occasional sea robin, and blue crabs.
Here is a photo of my grandfather fishing or taking a break from fishing during these days:
The first Annabet must have given Dad the bug about big fish. Here is a recorded catch card from Va. Anglers Club:
A
little later in time Dad talked our mother into going to Cape Hatteras for him
to fish in tournaments out of the Cape Hatteras Marlin Club (this explains the
CHMC burgee the different Annabets flew for many years) for a few years. When
we were there we stayed in the abandoned Coast Guard station. I specifically
remember once fishing for Cobia with Dad off Ocracoke Island and fighting a big one
for a long time only to land it and to have it bounce off the upright of the
fighting chair back into the water.
Ibby, Dad, marlin, Captain Mike Finch, and mate Gene Carnes:
We
also used to go to Islamorada in the keys for a couple of spring vacations from
school. We’d stay at the Islander or Cheeca Lodge and go out flats fishing. This probably
laid the base for Dad’s love of bonefishing, tarpon fishing, and later permit
fishing. At this time we occasionally used fly rods for fresh water to catch
bream and perch but never even considered fly rods for these salt water fish. We
were only using open faced spinning rods.
Sometime
in here the family replaced the Matthews with the Annabet II. I think by this
time Dad and Bruce became enthralled with Rybovichs and that the A II was a
Rybo. We had by this time hired Captain Mike Finch (1962 I think) and the order
for the next custom made Rybo, mostly designed by Mike was probably in planning. This
next Annabet was in service from 1968 to 1988, and in 1988 Mike had some tee
shirts made with the words “Annabet 1968-1988 Dead Solid Perfect”. Photos courtesy of Ted and Mark.
When the new
Annabet arrived the rigger started to sport another burgee with the 3 G logo on
it (Dad, Pop, and Bruce). This is another Annabet tee Mike made along with a tee of Annabet's little sister the Humdinger:
There could be another whole book to be written about Mike Finch, his military, fishing, and marriage exploits, and my disastrous experience trying to operate on a skin lesion on his very weathered neck. Oh yes, and his two signature bits of cuisine- Beans Annabet and Dolphin a la Mike.
'68 Annabet taken in 2007:
Burgees on SarahBeth china:
Annabet and old SarahBeth together:
The
Annabet tied up in Virginia Beach on the inside of the newly opened Rudee Inlet
at a slip owned by Mike’s police friend Wayne McCluskey. There were also a
series of smaller Rybos to complement the Annabet. I can remember a Little Bet,
a Poquito (which means “a little bit”) (probably named by Andres in 1966), the
Humdinger, and later the Addie Ann and then the Helga G (now the Ad Lib).
During
summers of the mid to late 1960s and the early 1970s Dad and I and others would
wake up at about 5 am and go out deep sea fishing off Virginia Beach for
marlin, dolphin, and tuna, with varying luck. I got my first citation dolphin
in 1968 and my first marlin in 1972.
This is not my fish:
John's memory of these days fishing off Virginia Beach is a little different- "long, long boat ride, rolling seas, few to no fish, plenty of barfing followed by long, long return to port and ultimately the most cherished sight- dry land," followed by the even better feet on dry land.
For my part I could never figure out why, in those days and for years to come, Mike would get so excitable and borderline angry at his anglers when the Annabet raised a billfish. Then I learned that Dad and Bruce had a $ bounty on every billfish caught or released. No wonder.
From a letter to Dad's African safari guide and friend Lionel Palmer dated Jan. 21, 1969- "Jimmy got his pilots license Saturday and we caught 4 sailfish in Palm Beach week before last."
FDG
log- June 1, 1969 at Bimini in the Bahamas on the Humdinger, a smaller sister
of the Annabet, and named after one of my grandfather’s favorite expressions-
“that’s a real humdinger!”. Dad had a fishing journal he sporadically made
notes in on pre-printed loose leaf 6 hole cards which covered name, place, time,
air temperature, weather, wind direction and strength, water condition, and
feeding activity. This is the earliest entry I found- 95 degrees, sunny, light
to moderate winds from the northeast, clear water and slow feeding activity.
The result was 2 barracuda, no tuna (I am guessing this was the purpose of the
trip, to the same place where Hemingway would catch tuna), but he “saw several
white marlin.”
From Stuart Lee, who must keep great records of his fishing trips- Monday July 30, 1973 -
Virginia Beach: Capt.
Finch and I ran the Annabet to Norfolk Shipbuilding for bottom repair having
thrown a blade off the propeller through the bottom on Saturday. Returned to
Lynnhaven and I ran the 25 foot Bertram with Mr. G and a couple of his VMI
classmates out to the Chesapeake Light Tower to fish for big bluefish. The
bluefish were around big schools of cow-nosed rays and we managed to catch four
bluefish and came in after two hours of trolling.
The
Masters Tournament-
This is borrowed from Michael Rybovich's Unabridged History of the Rybovich family and boatbuilders:
In 1963, after several years of planning and refining, Johnny (Rybovich) founded the Master's Angling Tournament. Sponsored by The Sailfish Club
in Palm Beach, it was the first of its kind. The all-release tournament
rules were devised to make the anglers' skill count as much as possible
and to maximize the chances of the fish's survival. Anglers were not
permitted to fish their own boat, and fished a different boat each day.
All anglers fished identical 20 lb. Dacron line, and a marker was
secured to the line 100 yards from the leader. As long as the marker was
between the rod tip and the fish, the boat could be maneuvered to
accommodate the angler. As soon as the marker reached the tip of the
rod, the boat must be dead in the water unless it was necessary to move
forward to keep a fish from moving under the boat. Upon hook-up, each
fish was worth 100 points. After 10 minutes the angler began to lose
points at the rate of five points per minute until, at the end of thirty
minutes, he had no points at all. The tournament was a huge success
with the average time to boat a sailfish at 8.7 minutes. First place and
the title of Master Angler for the inaugural event went to James Baldwin. The world's most prestigious Release Tournament to date had been born that year, thanks to Johnny.
It must have been in the early to mid 1970s that Dad got
the Palm Beach bug and began fishing the Masters Sailfish Tournament out of the
Sailfish Club.
The
Masters attracted a mostly old crowd of men. Many of the contestants would
contribute their own boats to the pool of boats available. Anglers would be
paired and assigned boats at random (so it was possible to fish one’s own
boat). The rules were strict regarding gear (light tackle, leaders etc); once
hooked up an angler would be on a timer, with more points for a shorter period
of time from hookup to touching of the leader; all fish were released. Each
evening there would be a social event either at the club or one of the owner’s
houses. These were almost another contest with the contestants showing off wilder and
wilder tropical clothing and Trophy wives where available. There was a leader
board which would show the day’s fishing results and the total standings.
Here's Dad and John Rybovitch. Also note the Palm Beach pants Dad is wearing.
I
have a few photos from these tournament activities taken by Dade Thornton, the
pro photographer of many deep sea fishing events. In Dad’s files on the
SarABeth we also have what seems to me to be three chapters of a long article
or book by Dade about some of these tournaments and which adds more flavor to
this description.
We
have Dad’s blue rain jacket with patches for many of the years he fished in the
Masters. I was lucky enough to fish in two of these with him, including the
1976 tournament which Dad won. See the Richmond Times Dispatch article about
this event.
It takes luck and skill:
I
remember many of the anglers from my couple of years, some of whom were super
serious and some were big jokers. JoJo DelGuercio was very intense; Deering
Howe was the closest to my age; Sam Evert was very patrician but had some good
jokes; Bob Spilman was another Virginian; Guy Billups from Miss. or Alabama was
very friendly; and then there were Dad’s two buddies Steve Sloan and Ted
Naftzger. There were days when the fishing was red hot and days when it was so
boring with nothing biting. Sam Evert once quipped as he was eating lunch that there's nothing biting and threw his sandwich overboard, whereupon a sailfish came up unseen and out of nowhere to eat the sandwich. There were days when the seas were kind to the stomach
and many days when the wind and waves would put down even these experienced
anglers.
One
last recollection from the Masters- the crews had their own tournament going
with big money in a “Calcutta” based on the winning captain each day and on the
whole.
What
I thought was most impressive about winning the Masters is the prize- a
sculpture of The Old Man and The Sea along with a first edition copy of
Hemingway’s book. We still have this on the SarABeth from 1976.
In August 1973 Dad went with A B Horn and a
geological engineer named Applegate to the Yukon and NW Territories of Canada
to look for energy properties. Butch and I tagged along because at the end of
the trip the group was going to Great Bear Lake for lake trout fishing. Nothing
came of the business aspect of the trip but the fishing at Great Bear was
amazing. We trolled for lake trout and cooked some of our catch each day for
lunch. The accommodations were spartan- just a shack really, and 20 hours of
daylight was very confusing. Luckily when we couldn’t sleep we could get up and
fish for grayling right from the camp. I wish I had been using a fly rod on
that trip.
I include this page of Anglers Club records here because in the middle you can see the lake trout at Great Bear Lake:
Just to show a Lake Trout, here is a photo of Pop with one from a trip we took with him to Lake Pend D'Oreille Idaho when I was in about 8th grade:
Also
in 1979 or 1980 Dad and I went to try Turks and Caicos for bonefish. My memory
of the fishing has been overshadowed by our trip home. The airline we took down
to T&C from Florida went out of business on the day before our return home.
We chartered a plane to Miami with an OB doctor and his wife. Once aloft the
captain told us he was missing a certain piece of equipment that was required
to land in Miami so we were going to Fort Lauderdale. A huge storm came up that
hurled us 1000s of feet up and down in the sky with torrential rains. We were
all praying harder than ever and had very shaky legs when we put down in Nassau
to regroup. After that, easy flying home the rest of the way (and I made it to be on call in the hospital the next day).
Lizard
Island- By 1980 Dad was seeking bigger game. In November he, Mike Finch, and I
went to Australia for 1000 pound black marlin. When we landed in Sydney we saw
the news that Ronald Reagan had won the presidency. We flew from Cairns to
Lizard where there was nothing but a small marina, a few cabins for anglers and
crew, and huge lizards wandering all over the sand. The mountain on Lizard is
somewhat famous as Cook’s Look, which is where Captain James Cook came to look
for a hole in the Great Barrier Reef for his repaired ship to escape through.
Dad, Mike and I climbed it and got certificates proving it.
We each caught a few
black marlin during our time there. Dad kept his 1000 pounder and we have the
photo. I released my largest one, which of course the crew said was over 1000
also.
In
the 1980s, after getting married, with kids, I started to lose enthusiasm for
deep sea fishing (long runs, early wake up, a little nausea if things weren’t
perfectly calm) and leaned toward more flats fishing for bonefish.
Dad
humored me by saying he was as interested in that too.
[May 20, 1985 Boca Paila Mexico (not the first trip there)
"Fished
with John. Jorge guide- fair. Cast to lots of bonefish but no takers-
moon dark. Caught several small barracuda. Saw a few permit and snook.
Fished near camp and on the Boca.Tried crab on bait but no takers. Have a
good wading flat near camp. Couldn't tell about tides very well."
This
may be the very trip where the Boca Paila guide told John the famous
line "Stupid cast" that soured him on fishing with native guides.]
Christmas
Island, January 1986, on the day the Challenger exploded- After a trip to
Yucatán Mexico for bonefish with Angus Powell, Gerry Bemiss, CB Robertson, Dad,
me and another guy or two, Dad and I put together a trip to Christmas Island
through Frontiers and Orvis. The anglers were Dr. Bob Fowler, a friend from
Reid Provident, Gerry Bemiss, AB Horn from Ethyl and his son, Butch G, Dad and
me. We flew to Hawaii and then another three or four hours directly south to
Christmas which sits on the equator. I think they did some A bomb tests there
early on and there was a lot of wrecked army issue materiel. The island got its
name from Captain Cook again. He landed there in 1777.
The
Captain Cook Hotel was spartan, the food very basic, the fishing good but very
different. We would take skiffs out to different parts of the atoll (now the
nation of Kirimati) or be driven to various flats. The guides were not very
helpful after getting you to where you were going to fish for the day. There
were sharp drop offs at the edge of the flats and if a fish could run to the
drop off he was pretty much home free. The fish were generally on the large
size and we caught plenty. For variety we would sometimes go Giant Trevally
fishing with a spinning rod and a big plug. I don’t remember the flies or lures
used for bonefish, but I do remember very often mistakenly casting to milkfish which had
escaped from the pen where the natives were raising them for food. They don’t bite on
bonefish flies.
Memorable
but too long a trip to go back.
1989
saw the retirement of the Annabet and the launching of the first SarahBeth in
Manitowoc WI. Mike Finch played a big part in the design and probably drove
the Burger shipyard folks crazy. The whole family went to the christening in Wisconsin. Sally and Beth wore sailor suits for the occasion and Meg's father Sam Newell came along to bless the launching.
Mike in full uniform. Adam below looking to port.
FDG
log- Nov. 7, 1989 at Cooperstown in the Ábacos of the Bahamas. At this time we had the
SarahBeth and began going to Cooperstown, probably based on the recommendation
of Bill Goodwin who was a partner in the Hope, a mother ship that was anchored
more or less permanently there for bonefishing. One of the former partners was
Jimmy Wheat who was at VMI with Dad. The notation in the log
for this day may well have been on our first trip there- “Beautiful area, fair
number of fish. Trouble with fly rod.”
SB at anchor in the Abacos.
Cooperstown
turned out to be a steady “go to” place for a number of years. We would fly
into Treasure Cay, catch a cab ride with Ruth to the landing, meet the skiff,
and go to the SarahBeth. We always fished that area with O’Donnell or Odie who had
great eyes for bonefish. I learned a lot about tracking bonefish from him and
also was introduced to the term “nervous water” from him. After a few days in
the C’town area we would fish the Brown Bar, Chicken Shack, and the Marls,
occasionally Moore’s Island.
This is from a print by Trip Harrison called Castaway.
With
the SarahBeth fully at his disposal, it being a sports fisherman in style, Dad
could go to Chub Cay for deep sea fishing, but we also bonefished there (bigger fish but more wily) and
continued exploring the Ábacos, Deep Water Key, Joulters and even made a trip to South
Andros.
On a
trip without Dad I went back to South Andros to Charlie’s Haven in Congotown.
The guides went on strike while I was there. The Charlie in the name was
Charlie Smith who invented the Crazy Charlie fly which we all use now. I
learned later that one of the guides we now use, Benry, is Charlie’s son and
probably was working in the kitchen for that trip.
October 3 & 4, 1990- From Stuart Lee
FDG, John Snow, Barry Truitt and I spent the night in the
abandoned Coast Guard Station on Hog Island on the Eastern shore of Virginia.
Getting up on the 4th we found the weather to be marginal. Winds were SSE at
20-25 knots but decided to give it a try so we ran down to the north end of
Cobb Island to surf fish for Red Drum. We found the current, caused by both the
wind and the tide, to be very strong which made holding the bait on the bottom
almost impossible. We did manage to catch two red drum, both about 40 pounds.
We all enjoyed seeing all of the shore birds.
I think Dad won the trip in a Nature Conservancy auction or something like that. TNC provided the boat and if I remember correctly Barry Truitt was affiliated with TNC in some way.
John Snow adds that the second red drum may have been the same one as the first.
Note FDG's hat. This is the trip on which John Snow took the photo that begins this narrative.
FDG-
July 11, 1991 in Costa Rica, cloudy, high humidity, light south wind, and
moderate feeding activity. “5 sailfish up, Sloan caught 2. I broke 1 off after
an hour and a half.” Sloan is the late Steve Sloan (at W&L when Dad was at VMI), a fishing buddy Dad met at
the Masters Tournament in Palm Beach, partner with the late Ted Naftzger and
Dad in a charter boat the DoubleHeader which they kept in the Azores (and where
a young Dennis Merten was the mate). This day was a warm up for a billfish
tournament.
Partners in the Double Header- Steve, Dad, Ted
FDG-
July 12, 1991 in Costa Rica, first day of the tournament. “3 fish up before 10
am, 2 strikes, 1 on for 2 minutes, broke test line.” Then at 11:25 Steve Sloan
catches 1, “12:15 Gottwald hookup, pulled hook.” “1:45 Fish number 6 up didn’t
take my lure.” “2:15 Steve hooked number 7, pulled hook; 3:24 Steve lands
number 8.” Sounds like a pretty exciting day!
Sailfish busting ballyhoo by Meltzoff.
FDG-
July 13, 1991, second day of the tournament in Costa Rica, sunny, high
humidity, wind from the southeast at 15-18 knots. Raised 17 fish pretty
steadily through the day; 15 caught. Note on the back of this card Dad has
written a shopping list of what’s needed for the boat for fishing (12 foot
leaders) as well as many other things ranging from knee pads , paper towels and
first aid cream to fly swatters and spaghetti.
FDG-
July 14, 1991 on the third day of the tournament, sunny, southwest wind. Steve
and Dad alternated catching fish and breaking them off. Final count- “8
sailfish, 2 marlin” at least one of which was a striped marlin.
FDG-
July 15, 1991, fourth day of the tournament, 90 degrees, sunny, high humidity,
5-10 knot southwest breeze. Hard to read this entry but it looks like 6-8
sailfish, 1 black marlin and 1 other marlin.
FDG-
Nov. 1, 1991 at Deep Water Cay off Grand Bahama. This may have been the trip
when we 3 brothers first referred to ourselves as the Slug Brothers.
Dad’s
notes say “caught 2 bones 2 1/2 pounds on shrimp (probably spinning rod) and
broke off 2. Fished with John D. Saw a 10 pounder. Skeeters and "no see ums" bad
at 4:30- did air conditioner and fan at night. Jim and Bill got 5.”
FDG-
Nov. 2, 1991 Deep Water. “Fished with Jimmy. Guide Stanley- very good. Jim 6 on
shrimp, FDG 6 on wiggle jig (definitely using spinning rod). Lost one on fly-leader
too light to keep out of mangroves. Each of us lost 2.”
FDG-
Nov. 3, 1991 Deep Water. “John caught one in the morning. Met Bill at Brush Key
at 12:15 and transferred to Stanley’s boat from Whitney. Bill and I got 2 each
at Brush Key, went to Powell’s Key (same sandy beach spot as yesterday). Caught
3 each. Caught one large on feeding on the edge of the mangroves (Brown wiggle
jig (spinning)). Hooked one on a pink (Crazy) Charlie (fly rod), lost him
around mangrove. John and I had engine trouble in the morning. Cleaned spark
plug and engine ok.”
This is Let It Fly by Al Barnes.
The
double cabins at Deep Water were adequate but open at the top, so you could
hear everything said in the cabin next door. Dad told all three brothers
countless times about how once some board members of the Ford Foundation were
in the other half of his cabin and he heard them distinctly saying “if Henry
Ford knew where we were giving his money away he would roll over in his grave.”
This was repeated to be a lesson for us countless times regarding his Herndon Foundation.
The March April 1992 edition of the International Game Fish Association magazine has a front page story on FDG Jr's election to the IGFA board of Trustees. He joined his friends Ted Naftzger and Steve Sloan as well as Curt Gowdy and other eminent fishermen on this board. I believe that he remained on the board at least until 2011. (An interesting aside in the 1992 magazine statistics page says 25 people were killed by sharks in 1991 and 100 million sharks were killed by people during the same time. And, the number of current (1992) record Atlantic blue marlin caught on artificial bait was 4 while no record swordfish were caught on artificial lures.)
FDG
log- April 26, 1992 Isla Mujeres Yucatán Mexico. “Arrived and fished by myself.
One fish (marlin or sail) up. Trolled very slow 1.5-2 knots. Picked up Bruce
and Nancy at Hacienda Del Mar. North wind 15, 82 degree water.”
FDG-
April 27, Isla. “Around 12 noon double header plus one fish in lures (teaser?).
Nancy lands sailfish, I pulled the hook. About 1 dozen knockdowns spread over
the day, no hookups. Saw bonito, pilot whales or porpoises. North at 15.
Not sure if this is from Isla but it is an interesting picture of Dad on a dock somewhere before or after marlin/sailfishing:
FDG-
April 28, Isla. “Leave dock at 11 am. About 12 fish up. Quit at 5:15. Bruce
caught 3, I caught 1 and lost 1 at the boat. Left rigger on ballyhoo caught
most. White skirt did well. One fish caught at bird teaser with mirror plug
behind. Wind north about 20. Need to vary speed and try new teasers. No whales
or dolphin, saw no fish tailing both days.”
FDG-
May 2, Isla. “East wind 10 knots. Start at 12 noon. Saw lots of bonitos. 2pm
first sailfish in the S teaser. Spreader rig with rubber squid. Fish moved to
my left rigger, hooked and broke off.”
FDG-
June 14 and 15, 1992, Little Palm island, FL. “Left dock around 10 to Coupos
Bay for tarpon. Saw one or two. Tried bonefish on Content Keys, no luck. Moon
full (eclipse).
“1st
day of tourney. Fished with Jim Perry guide and Greer Rickerton. Saw lots of
bones on ______ flat. Used shrimp wading but should have used fly. Flat calm,
rained all night and day. Greer got 1 bone, 1 cuda; I got 1 bonnet shark. Guide
was good.”
FDG
log- June 26-28, 1992, Deep Water Cay, Grand Bahama. “Started fishing at around
2:30. Saw lots of bones on flat to right of creek exit. Bill and I both hooked
one. Bill broke line on 4 pound test . I pulled hook on 10 pound test. Saw 3-4
schools with large fish. Fish went all over my jig but didn’t hook up. Used
white 3/8 oz (wiggle jig). Tomorrow will try pink. Went to several other flats
to right of creek. Caught a 5 pounder and lost another at boat. Saw some jacks
and one large shark. Saw several dozen bones in the area. Quit at 4:30. Wind SE at
12 knots, tide high at 5 pm.
“June
27. Fairly clear but windy. Bill 3 FDG 5 all on w/ jigs. Fished with William.
John and Sam fished with Joseph. See large permit feeding behind ray in the
afternoon.
“June
28. Sam fished with me and William. Sam catches first bonefish then the second.
Sam breaks the line on two other large fish- all on shrimp. Bill and I catch 3
bones in the afternoon with Joseph. See large feeding permit.”
Bonefish up close by Beth G:
FDG
log- April 9–10, probably Cooperstown. Trip with guys from work- Dixie Goins,
Charles (or Garner) Moore, Rudy Demeuse, and George Newbill. “Caught 4.” Next
day- Saw 11, caught 5, caught the last one in the last 15 minutes.
At
some time in the mid 90s the Masters moved to Isla Mujeres or had a second
session, I believe in May. This next note was from the Masters in Isla,
probably May 1994, on the same fish log page as the business trip to
Cooperstown- one sail in 6 minutes for 45 points, one in 8 minutes 23 seconds
for 20 points, and one overtime for 5 points for a total of 70 points.
I am
guessing it was June of 1994 that Dad, Dennis, and I went to a Bahamian like
island that actually is part of the Virgin Islands because we had read an
article about the great bonefishing there. The island is Anegada and it is
about 16 miles north of Virgin Gorda, but it has much sparser vegetation than
the rest of the BVI. We did well but not great. What I most remember about the
trip was taking my small fly rod after hours to the landlocked lagoon and
catching countless small ladyfish. No need to go back.
FDG
log- July 2, 1994 Virginia Beach on the Sarah Beth. 90 degrees, fished 5 am
-6pm, overcast with high humidity, light southwest wind. “1 white marlin, 6
Yellow fin tuna, 1 dolphin. Ate dolphin for lunch.”
FDG
log- August 5, 1994, Virginia Beach on the Addie Ann. “Glassy calm. 1 white, 1
white threw the hook, 1 small dolphin.”
FDG
log- August 12,1994 Virginia Beach. “After cold front. AM wind south 10,pm wind
south 15. 1 100 pound blue, 1 white (Matt), 1 31 pound dolphin took 25 minutes
just to wire into boat, very strong fish, thought it was a blue.”
See this note from Toby who was a mate on the SB back in the 90s about one of the first sails on a fly rod in 1995 (FDG is 73 at the time):
May 27 1995 Isla Mujeres
Participants- Tony Dowell, Charles Young, Joan Johnson, Joan Farley
"Caught
first sailfish at 12:10. Weather calm flat. Caught 4-6 bonito. Tony
caught a sail around 12:30. Charles caught a sail around 1 pm. Hooked
fish for Joan J. Joan F tried the same fish and Charles landed it.
"Tried
fly again from 2-4:30. Hooked one of about five fish and broke off when
he jumped. Knot broke at leader. 15 # test to 50 # leader."
May 30-31, June 1 1998 Key West
"May 30 clouds, not many fish hot and sweaty.
"May 31 off Demolition Key jumped a few.
"June 1 Northwest wind 10 knots caught 1 with a 10 wt rod; jumped off three; had lots of followers, red fly."
[August 5, 1995 Virginia Beach
"Tried to fish SB with Matt,
Sally, and Jim. Returned to port because we couldn't get speed. (Later
turned out bottom covered with barnacles)
"Went out on Addie Anne
with Dennis, John Merten, and Peter. Started fishing 10:30 Caught 2
white marlin around 12. Hooked up on three [but] turned and lost all
three. Hooked and lost 1 more marlin and broke line on a tuna (20#).
Quit at 3 after two hours of no action. Water 83 degrees, Position north
of the Cigar. Moon quartering on wax."]
Permit on a fly rod- 1996 Key West with Simon Becker as guide:
Ever
on the lookout for new places to fish and to visit, in 2000 we went to Belize.
I think this next note comes from one of Dad’s trips that followed my spring
vacation trip with Michael, Beth, and two of their friends.
FDG
log- March 19, 2000 Belize. “High tide at 10 am, 12 wading, 6+2-1 40-50 pod.
Dark moon better. Placentia, hooked one, nice day, wind good, casting medium.
Charlie (Walker) caught tarpon in afternoon trolling (?!?).”
FDG
log- Feb. 11-14, 2001 Key West, with Simon as guide.
“Day
1- lots of fish, casting poor.Wind 20 knots. Simon changed flies ending with
lead 4 inches ahead of crab. Approaches not pick up. Day 2- ditto above, not
many fish. Day 3-Used Hell’s Bay boat, very quirky, no pickup. Day 4- New
Mirage no handles for rough weather, went to _____ Key. Not many feed there but
did see a few tarpon.”
May 6-8 2001 Marathon and Big Pine Key
"Ferand Braun and Dennis guides. Wind NE 20-30 knots. Fished in Bay. Had a good casting lesson. Saw a few small tarpon.
"Bill
Schwecter and Christian Mauria AM. Mark Rohr and Christian with Bil in
PM. Cast to two tarpon. Christian cast to tarpon on bonefish flats and
got 3 nice bonefish. Dennis and I saw one lousy bonefish in PM. Wind
still 20-30.
Schwecter and Mark next day. Same wind. No tarpon in
coupon bight. No bonefish in pond. PM fished back country and saw a few
bones- no real shots. Discussed Burma, Cook Islands and the Atoche
salvage."
June 21, 23-24 2001 Key West
"Cast to between 50 and 100 tarpon. 2 takers and about 5 followers. No hook ups. Guides Brian and Dave. 22nd worked on GLK."
Tarpon fishing in the Keys:
March 1-3 2004 Chub Cay
" Guests Mark Rohr Paul Rocheleau
"Mar 1 Fished with Dennis Not many fish 25 knot winds. Paul and Mark did well with David as guide.
"Mar 2 Paul and I with David. Paul catches bonefish first cast with fly rod. I hooked 4 landed 3; one 8-9 #. Mark caught 4-5.
"Mar
3 Paul and Mark fished offshore. 1 white 1 sail 1 wahoo and dolphin. I
fished with Felix and Dennis. Cast to lots of fish with one take and
several tried to take. Fish all ran away from us."
Dad did not forget about big billfish of Isla Mujeres in Mexico. He took some of the ALB guys there in 2004 and here is a photo from that trip:
May 6-15 Isla Mujeres
Guests- John Steitz, Tony Parnell, Dan Harker, Mark Rohr, Jim Harris (Exxon)
Total 14 sails; 1 white marlin; 1 blackfin tuna; 1 wahoo; 3 dolphin
October 19-20, 2004 Key West
Guests "John Sherman and Chuck Stewart Very fair weather, fish skittish, saw a lot but didn't connect. Fernan and Simon guides"
FDG
log- June 11-14, 2005 off Andros. This may have been the first
trip to Williams. “5 days after the dark of the moon. Deer flies. Stormy rainy
all day. Tide in about 1:30. Two bones. Not many fish. Fish had been there and
left. Lat 24 39.156 N. Long. 78 29.158 W. June 12- Wind still SE. Hot and lots
of sun. Danny guide, had fished over at Andros. 5 fish. Pulled hook on 3. Still
can’t cast with wind over right shoulder. Work on tomorrow. Saw lots of fish.
Beautiful sunsets both nights. Planet in the east. 2 ospreys. June 13- 10 fish.
Afternoon no sun very slow. June 14- Fished til 10 am, caught 6, hook 8-10 fish
in addition pulled the hook. Shark got 1 and almost the rod tip. Total for trip
approximately 35 hook ups, caught 23. Great Trip!!!”
Dad
married Helga on his 83rd birthday- July 31, 2005.
August 18 2006 Virginia Beach
"Bruce Jr and Hays; 1 white marlin; off Cigar; 5 dolphin, 2 white marlin."
On 8/18/2010 he makes an
entry in the log about the Helga G- “LOA 33 Width 11 Engines Cummins 380 HP in
line 6 cylinder.”
FDG
log- Day after Labor Day 2010, Virginia Beach. Note- he is 88 years old as he
writes this: “A perfect day. 1 blue marlin 45 minutes. 3 white marlin. Pull
hook on two hookups. Had all baits active with fish twice. 16 hookups. Lots of
marlin and Mahi that would not bite because so much bait. Several other boats
got 20.”
FDG
log- Oct. 28-31, 2010 at Moore’s Island from Cooperstown. “Guide Clint Kemp.
Caught 1 5 pounds in the morning. No strike rest of day. Bill caught 12.
“Oct.
29- Fished with Dennis. Caught 3 in late PM. Weather hot, tide low. Tunnel
boat.
“Oct.
30- Clint Kemp. Wind 15-20. Tide low. Hooked 5 caught none.
“Oct.
31- Bill and Dennis at Brown Bar. Bill caught 7 and I caught 3. Line around
reel-wind knots.”
Mention of wind knots brings up knots in general. When Dad died he must have had 20 or 30 books on fishing and nautical knots. They were in all sizes ranging from cards to carry in your pocket to War and Peace size books. They were at home, in his office at work, on the SB, at Virginia Beach and in his condo. He would practice and it looks like he would also practice them by drawing them:
For
several years at this time, we made regular May trips to Andros. John
and I would alternate being with FDG each of those years.
2012- Nifty Nance at Williams and the "cook off". On this trip Bruce's boat and the SB were both at Williams Island. John Miller was with dad and me, and Shaun Leadon was our guide. For most of the time it rained cats and dogs. Actually an Orvis heir pulled up to the SB out of the middle of a squall and asked to take shelter with us until he could find his boat. For one night Bruce invited us over to the NN for dinner. Bruce had a chef who thought he was good enough to wear a chef's hat. The dinner was great. When we got back to the SB, Drew, the chef on the SB drilled us on what they served because he knew they would be coming to the SB the next night and wanted to be prepared to outdo the French chef.
FDG
log- May 16-20, 2013 Andros with Bill and Connie. “PM fished with
Dennis 12 bonefish. Bill and Benry 7.
“May
17- FDG 25, WMG 28. May 18 FDG 12 WMG 20 and a tarpon (with Benry). May 19 FDG 9 WMG 18. May 20 WMG 11 FDG 2. Total Bones 130 Tarpon 1.”
Bonefish heaven:
March 21, 2014- Dad made a trip across FL in the SB and stopped off for some fishing in Okeechobee. This photo shows he was still happy to catch a largemouth bass-
FDG
log- June 12-14, 2013 in Key West. “Wed. June 12-Moon 1/8 waxing. Dennis and
FDG cast to one dozen plus but no takers (dark fly) (Tarpon). June
13- ditto Wed. June 14- Fish started responding. Lost 60 pounder at skiff.
Hooked another, broke off on hookup. Cast to 24 plus or minus with good response.
Major solunar at 1:45, 2:35, 3:30 each day.”
FDG
log- May 6-9, 2014 off Andros with Bill, Connie, and Beth. “We are
trying to rename the SarahBeth and include Addie!"
“May
6- 10 before lunch with Dennis poling, only one after . Bill had 6 and I caught
a 5 pounder.
“May
7- Five before lunch. 3 fish pulled of after hookup, one lost in mangroves.
“May
8- Fished with Beth. She caught one on spin, three on fly. We came on Bill
catching a permit and took pictures. A nice day.” I remember this permit- it
was a baby swimming with some bonefish. Benry was guiding.
“May
9- Fished with Benry. Caught only one by 2 pm. Benry wouldn’t let me eat lunch
until I caught more. Ate at 3 pm, ended with 7 fish.”
Again from Stuart- Thursday May 28, 2015 - West Andros: Mr. G
and I fished with Capt. Dennis. Less wind and clouds today which made for much
better visibility. We fished along the Andros shore on bright sand bottom. Very
good fishing - Mr G had 6 bonefish and I had 5. Here are the guys on that trip-
And here's Dad working on a bonefish in his cage:
Surprise Boys- Dad got a new boat at age 93, a Westport 130, now with Addie in the name- SarABeth.
Dad invited us for a shakedown cruise at Key West in Feb 2016.
In 2015 or so Dad and I caught up with a VCU researcher working on James River sturgeon. We each helped with his research a little and got naming rights to a couple of his tagged sturgeon as well as news on our fish's migration. I named mine General George McClellan since he got close but never made it to Richmond and his nemesis Jeb Stuart. Dad honored his mom and named his Annie Ruth. Annie was observed in 2017 off Ocean City Maryland. Richmond Magazine in Feb. 26, 2014 has an article called Out of the Depths which is all about James River sturgeon.
On April 16, 2016 Matt called Dad down in Florida to tell him about the birth of Matt's son Ben. Dad called back and left Matt a message congratulating him and saying he knew he would have good luck fishing that day when he got Matt's message about Ben. He did- he caught three permit that day. Here's one of the permit from that day:
Virginia
Anglers Club Entry May 14, 2016- 3 permit on spinning tackle with live crab, 20
pound test line at Key West; 12, 17, and 21 pounds.
The above photo is from 2017, West Andros.
I think the last trip to Andros for bonefish would have been in 2019 or 2020. I remember the pilot of our float plane being amazed he could climb the steep steps into the plane at 97 years old.
Last page of Anglers Club records:
Last fish recorded were the 16 pound permit and 9 pound cobia on March 24 and 25 2021, age 98.
July 29, 2021 Dad celebrated his 98th birthday and his anniversary on the SarABeth at Cohoke.
This book in one page:
