madame zenobia's

all fisher-people have fish tales. mine is true. one summer, my dad was enlisted to help sell a friend's boat. now this boat was a fishing boat. no cabin to take up too much room. the stern was roomy, and the two chairs sat on swivels so it was easy to fish. our boat is much more of a cruiser, and so fishing, especially when the whole family goes, can be kinda complicated. well, on this trip, it was just me and dad.

it was late afternoon when dad asked me if i wanted to drive down to the storage spot and check on the boat. we decided that we should take the boat out, you know, to test it. so, we bought some live bait, put it, and made our way to "the cut," our favorite fishing hole. "the cut" is actually the beginning of a channel off of the banana river. lots of fish come thru "the cut" as they seek the protection of the channel...plenty of mangroves and the like to hide in. and, during certain times of the year, fish spawn in the channel. we anchored right at the mouth of the channel and fished, fished, fished.

as soon as i dropped my line, i was gettin bites. in fact, i got the first bite, a big deal when fishing with my family. and for the rest of that late afternoon and into the evening, i was bringing 'em in. i mean i must have caught six or seven sheep-heads and drums, nice-sized ones. i haven't had a fishing day like that since.

the florida waters have been so over-fished. i remember when we first moved to satellite beach, the rivers and channels were so full of fish. one was guaranteed to catch some mullet with a good throw of a casting net. nowadays, all i see are juveniles, no adults. and that's not a good sign. for breakfast on some saturday mornings, we used to have fried mullet and grits. not anymore. and forget about buying mullet at the market...too expensive...

i've learned three important lessons from fishing with my dad.
1) never pass the bait shop -- for some reason, we always thought that bait purchased from shops closest to the fishing holes would catch more fish. then, we would get down to the hole and discover no bait shop around. we'd have to turn around...cutting into fishing time is never a good thing.

2) trust your equipment -- this is especially true when deep-sea fishing. when we fish out of cape canaveral, we head out until we can't see the coast. and out there, no road signs are posted to point you in the right direction. so, you have to trust your equipment. but i think the larger lesson here is the importance of maintaining your equipment.

3) what's in this hole for me, you can't get -- fishing is all about patience. moving to a spot where someone else has just caught a fish won't increase your odds. just sit still and wait. you'll catch your fish.

i can't wait for the summer.