Local Legends

[Bert Rodgers]

Admin's Marlin Kill question reminded me of an OC legend that I know for fact to be true.

Back in the mid 60s the catch and release days of white marlin fishing was in it's infancy, and while charter captains still hung a lot of fish the craze was catching on; more so with private boats however. In those days there was a DC contractor name John Day who owned a pink Rybovich called the 7 Days.
His captain was the late and infamous (quite a story on his own) Freddy Voss.

During a particular stretch of the season Freddy passed through the inlet with double digit flags for several succesive days. In those days Capt. Bill (Tuffy) Bunting was still running a Charter out of his family's Angler Docks.
At the bar one evening Capt. Tuffy accused Capt. Freddy of cheating by flying release flags for fish he didn't catch.

Both Captains survived the near riot to fish the next day. That evening the 7 Days passed the inlet flying 2 full riggers of flags and instead of going into their private boat house in W. OC, made the turn and pulled into the Angler Dock. Freddy and his mate Tiny then proceeded to throw 21 white marlin on the dock then pulled out and went home.

Bert

[fishskipper]

GREAT READ!! You gotta love it when a plan comes together.

[Deep C]

Over the years I have been given that "Look" or had accusations of "BS" tossed directly at me. A few time along the way on a much smaller scale I have made my point clearly...

Several stand out in the old memory banks as being fun... One stood particularly clear as I was thinking about this thread.

I was running out of Islamorada. We had a local fellow that always fished on the bigger boats on "A"dock. Kind of a big boat snob. Frequently he would go out with them and come back to see me flying sail flags off my skiff.
Now most of the fleet in the winter concentrated on kings, the passengers would take a few and the rest would be supplimental income. Sails were common but the guys would push kings for the money. Since on my skiff I could only carry two passengers, at forty cents a pound it wouldn't pay to chase them so I went sailfishing.
One day we had run a half day trip and this fellow had been on another boat with a catch of kings. I can't be sure what was in his craw but he came over with his son of maybe 13 or so and opened up on me... "You're full of crap! you can't catch sails on a little boat! Look at that dock of big boats. Not a flag in there and you've got two!!!"
" They're kingfishing sir. I was sailfishing..."
"You can't catch sails on a skiff"
"Book me some time and lets give it a try..."
He started to turn red at this point. "Right now... Double or nothing on your charter rate...But we gotta actually catch one!" He turned to his son and said "THis is how you deal with bullshitters!" He looked back at me "I'll even mount it!"
Challenge was on. I put down the deck brush and turned the key "Lets go"

Bait was tough. Brutally tough. A slack tide had the hoos hanging back and it took over an hour to get just six. It wasn't looking good and was already getting late in the day as I slid four of them out behind the boat. The water had calmed all the way out which is not good condition and it was looking like this guy might "prove a point" ...
I saw a free jumper a couple hundred yards away. Now they almost never eat but there could be a second fish there. Sure enough the hoo started hopping around with that "Oh shit a sail" dance. The fish ate, I took no chances. I did the charterboat thing, dropped back, bowed it up and passed it off. It was game on.
About ten minutes in we were gaining nicely. I guess it dawned on him about then that the deal was to "Catch" one cause he started getting jerky with the rod and stopped reeling . I was quick on the draw on that one. I slowed the boat chase down. Then I saw that palm heading for the spool. ... This time I throttled up a touch. "Leader!" I went up past him and ofcourse there was no leader anywhere close so I just grabbed the line and handlined the fish the last 75 feet!
Back at the dock he wanted to renegotiate. I whispered in his ear that his kid was watching. He peeled the money off and I took hime to the dock office where he had to deposit for the mount... It was a good day.

[JOE_DIRT]

Great stories. Sometimes the look on peoples face when you prove them wrong is worth the aggravation of putting up with them.

[JDLM]

I can confirm the Freddy Voss story as well.I think Tuffy's boat was the "SPORT" , a 37 Post. I was 8 or 9 then,hanging around the dock and the old railway that was on the Talbot Street Pier side.There are a ton of stories from that dock and there has been a lot of talent come out of there.I understand now though that it is pretty much just sightseeing and go fast boats.