A Bad Day of Fishing is Still Better Than...

by Alec Newell 



The North Jetty March 14, 2013 - photo by Newell

Most of the fishermen in North East Florida have seen the tee shirts and bumper stickers that say, " A Bad day of Fishing is Still Better than a Good Day at Work," and most of the time, it's true.  If the boat gets back to the ramp with all the fishermen and most of the boat in one piece the trip has been a success.  When you bring back fish it is a bonus, but when your catch is worth more than what you've already spent on ice, fuel, bait  and tackle, you've had a banner day.  Most fishing trips fall into a category that can be best described as a 'good news - bad news' joke, with the obligatory punch line about the fish that got away.  Saturday's trip was no exception.


Toadfish - photo by Newell

I'd fished the river the day before (Friday) with Phil Thomason.  It had been a disappointing trip.  We boated exactly one 13 inch flounder and a toadfish that was so unbelievably small I had to take a picture of it.  I had another trip with my son-in-law planned for the next day, so I offered the flounder to Phil, figuring that we would probably return home from the off-shore trip with a boat load of fish.  Phil declined the flounder, so I took it home.

The North Jetty 12/12/2015 - photo by Newell

The next day was unseasonably warm with no wind and a clear sky.  Leaving the channel, we noticed an abandoned boat that had been tossed up on the rocks of the North Jetty.  Beautiful weather doesn't always guarantee a good day of fishing.  Just beyond the sea buoy the VHF radio crackled to life and I recognized the voice of George Strate, captain of the Mayport Princess.  George has been running party boats since he was a teenager and is a fixture in the sport fishing community.  The Mayport Princess hadn't left the dock in 34 days and George was clearly excited by the day's prospects.

Matt Evitt with 'endangered' snapper
12/12/2015 - photo by Newell

About 12 miles off shore, on our second drift, the bottom finder lit up like a Christmas tree, so we anchored up and settled in for one of those red snapper bites where every second or third drop is a hook-up.  We stayed on that spot for almost an hour before we realized that if we wanted fish for the table we'd have to leave.  With four fishermen in our party, we had each put upwards of 20 fish in the boat that measured from about 20 to 30 inches each.  The catch from that spot alone should have easily yielded well over 100 pounds of fish, but we were in Federal Waters where there is currently a ban on keeping red snapper.  They all had to be thrown back.

By the early afternoon we had made a few more stops and thrown a couple of trigger fish, some sea bass and few sheepshead in the box, but the bite had slacked off and we were getting covered up with a rash of sharks.  I was spending more time untangling lines and tying on new tackle than I was fishing.  I had only put one sea bass in the ice chest, and with time becoming an issue, I was getting frustrated.  I knew that my wife Kathy was expecting fish for dinner, and I had begun to suspect that even with the flounder in the refrigerator, I might still have to run up to the fish house for enough shrimp to round out a decent meal.  When you're hot you're hot, when you're not - you're not.

Random reinforcement is bait that that keeps compulsive gamblers at the table, and fishermen at the rail when the fish have stopped biting.  The hook is in knowing that on the next cast, the next roll of the dice, your luck can change and you could still go home a winner.  There is also this thing called schadenfreude which is a fancy word that means 'misery loves company.'



Diamond Diver - photo by Newell

I had just baited up and was bracing to get slammed by the next shark when I started to think about the crew who had just lost their boat on the rocks.  A few minutes  later I had a little attitude lift when I felt something bump my bait.  In just another second or two the radio crackled to life again and everything in the world seemed to come back into its proper focus:


     "Diamond Diver, this is the Marissa D, come back."

     "This is Diamond Diver, what's up?"

     "Hey, did one of your divers shoot about a 40 pound cobia today and lose his shaft?"

     (pause - static)  "Yeah, why?"

     "We got it."

     "You got what?"

     "We got the fish...We got he cobia, the shaft was still in it."

     "Can we get it back?"

     "Yep, sure."

     "I mean, what are we getting?"

     "Just a sec." more static and another pause, "Diamond Diver, we keep the fish and you get the shaft."

     "Yeah, that's about what I figured."




Capt. George Strate's Mayport Princess returning to the dock
12/12/2015 - photo by Newell