A Morning with The Fish Whisperer By Hollie Sessoms
We went out on an incoming tide as the sun rose slowly over the Lazaretto.
The November day was frigid, the wind rough, biting against our faces,
forcing us to rub our hands together and breathe deeply into them. Forgotten
were the months of muggy summer weather that coastal Georgia is famous
for, forgotten were bikinis and suntan lotion, forgotten were long swims in
warm bodies of water. The chill of fall was everywhere. Deep inside our
bones.
Captain Nick, dubbed “The Fish Whisperer,” of Big Fish Charters had met
us at dawn by Bubba Gumbos, near a quaint cluster of sea-battered buildings
selling bait, seafood, and kayak rentals. He is stocky, with longish hair and
a goateed face. Dressed in cargo pants, Dickie jacket, and a backwards
bleach-stained cap, Captain Nick looks every bit the Georgia boy though he
originally hails from California.
After procuring shrimp for bait we took off in the Key Largo. I was bundled
as much as my limited Southern girl wardrobe allowed in fleece-lined tights,
yoga pants, hoodie, two jackets, hat, scarf, and gloves, and still I trembled
in the chill fall air as the boat cut through the water to Captain Nick’s supersecret
fishing location. The first rule of fishing with Captain Nick: Don’t talk
about where Captain Nick takes you fishing. I wasn’t psyched about the
early wake-up initially, but as the sky put on a show of a myriad of colors
welcoming the day and dolphins swam alongside us, I began to change my
mind.
Expectations were high among my husband and two teenage boys, David
and Zach, who didn’t mind braving the weather and early wake-up one bit if
it meant a good day of fishing. Zach is something of a Fish Whisperer junkie
and looks forward to his column in the Beachcomber each month, admiring
the pictures and discovering the fish forecast, so for him to actually be on a
fishing expedition with The Fish Whisperer was a true adventure.
Zach took the first cast into the water and we
waited with bated breath for him to feel the sweet
tug of a bite. David and Husband soon joined him
with lines in the water and it wasn’t long before
David struck first blood, pulling in a 17 inch Red
Drum. Salivating, imagining him fileted and fried
up in a pan, we quickly put him on ice and then
followed him up with a 19.5 inch Drum.
Once we hit the stride, there was no stopping us.
Trout and Drum were caught, indiscriminately,
upon our lines. So many that we soon realized we would never be able to eat
them all. There were few moments when we weren’t either still giddy from
the last fish caught or catching another. Husband was barren for a while.
He’d been looking forwards to the chartered trip since his fishing expeditions
with the kids usually consisted of him baiting hooks, untangling snares, and
unsnagging lines. But even with the aid of the Fish Whisperer, he was still left
on the sidelines watching them reel in fish after fish.
10 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | JAN 2018
Finally, after an hour or so of casting and reeling, Husband snagged a Trout,
followed quickly by Zach reeling in a Red Drum. I prayed for David to get a
Flounder (which happens to be my favorite) at the exact time so we could
have an inshore slam, but no luck!
The sun began to peek between clouds, but just when it would start defrosting
my frozen fingers, it would hide away again to be followed by a chill breeze.
Warmth, it seemed, was not in the cards for us. No matter, the glow of my
boys’ excited faces was enough to make the cold bearable.
Soon the tides turned and the Red Drum stopped
biting, but there were still plenty of Trout out
there for hunting. Captain Nick, with his years
of experience and a certain savvy intuition, was
able to tell us exactly where to put our lines to
pull up fish. It was a slight bit eerie and uncanny
and reminded me that if you only know where to
look, you can learn to see so much.
We had one run-in with a persistent seagull who
thought he deserved a chance at the shrimp we
seemed to be giving away, but soon discovered it wasn’t worth the trouble
and flew away to find a better, more manageable, breakfast.
The day seemed to be winding down as we hit a bit of a lull. Our bellies were
rumbling. The coffee was no longer warming us and needed desperately to
be replaced with whiskey. But the boys weren’t ready to pack it up quite yet.
Captain Nick looked to Husband and with a shrug told him that you never
knew how fish were going to behave. Anything could happen. As if on cue,
Zach had a fish on and reeled it in to reveal a five pound Sheepshead. It was
without doubt the catch of the day and the ugliest fish I have ever seen in
my life (yet, quite tasty).
The boys tried a few more casts, but after the excitement of the Sheepshead
nothing much else seemed to be happening, but then Husband reeled in an
18 inch Trout! Good
times! We counted
ourselves blessed,
reeled in and headed
back to shore. We
ended up catching
about 30 nice fish
over a three hour
period and kept 6
Trout, 5 Red Drum,
and a Sheepshead.
Captain Nick filleted
them with expertise
and sent us home with two large bags of cuts that we fried up that night
with a side of hush puppies. Not bad for a day’s work.