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Fishin'
with Jeanne |
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It was the fourth time Floridians stock-piled supplies, filled gas tanks, and shuttered homes in the past six weeks. I've learned from the past few hurricanes that evacuations and curfews make fishing on the coast damn near impossible in the days during and after a big storm. So I went fishing while I could. After disconnecting and bagging my computer and other accessories at work, we were let loose early to prepare and secure our homes for the potential hurricane winds to come. After some last-minute shopping and filling my freezer with water jugs, I went to my friend Chuck's house to help put up the shutters he had just removed a few days earlier. A few hours later we decided to go fishing. It was about 11pm when I met Joe, Derek, Will, and a few other of their friends out at the end of the Pompano Pier. Hurricane Jeanne was wreaking havoc a few hundred miles east of us. She was tearing thru the northeastern Bahama islands, having already hit much of the southwestern Caribbean. But here in Pompano, the weather was only a little breezy with big swells passing quietly underneath the pier before breaking on the beach. In stark contrast to calm mornings with crystal clear waters, the recent 'canes have churned the water into soup with the clarity of the Mississippi River after a mudslide. Even with the powerful overhead lights of the pier, I lost sight of my shiny cut mullet bait nearly as soon as it hit the water. And speaking of mullet.. they were everywhere! Huge schools feeding and fleeing, sometimes so thick they mimiced giant carpets gliding across the surface. Occasionally the water would boil as the mullet paniced. This was a good sign. A sign that predatory fish were nearby. While large snook were feeding closer to shore just outside of the breaking swells, the bluefish were busting the mullet out near the end of the pier. They weren't the 20-pounders that folks catch in the northeast in Spring and Summer. Instead, most were between 14 and 20 inches. At this time of year, they're on their southward migration along the Atlantic coast. Bluefish are notorious for becoming somewhat less edible in the warm tropical waters. The meat becomes soft and oily. They're not really worth eating during their northward migration in the Spring, but in the Fall, they're still quite tasty. So, bluefish were the "fish du jour" on this trip. During the night, Joe and I had both caught Ribbon Fish. They're relatively uncommon to catch off the pier, but with the recent storms and high seas all kinds of fish are coming in off the reefs to feed in the bait-rich surf. Ribbon Fish are kind of a cross between a moray eel and a mackrel. A very streamlined and somewhat menacing fish with skin that looks like liquid chrome and teeth that could give H.R. Geiger's alien the willies. As the hours ticked by, the fishing got better, the winds picked up a bit, and a few brief showers blew through as Jeanne crept closer to Florida. After 1am, the bluefish started hitting regularly. In the next 3 hours, we accumulated 16 keeper blues which I immediately bled and gutted. This reduces the fishy, oily flavors that bluefish are known for. The night's catch included a few ladyfish, ribbon fish, snappers, moonfish, bluefish, and a trio of sharks of different species. The sharks were all less than 24 inches, and included a nurse, a blacktip, and a gray reef. Joe had hooked into a pair of very large snook near the beach, but they both managed to break off in the rough surf before he could get a drop net under them. At 4am the pier closed down. The threat of hurricane Jeanne, still over 18 hours away, was enough for the authorities to issue an evacuation of the coastal areas. So, the cops kicked us out. A real bummer, since the tides and conditions were looking really good for excellent pre-dawn fishing action. Oh well. We headed home with about 20 lbs of fish. Not a bad deal. Time to buy a fish smoker for the blues!
-->Bill Buckley parrothead1973@mac.com
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