it’s a sight to behold watching our hero yell “FISH ON, FISH ON,GETOUT OF MY WAY”

while scurrying down those wet and slippery rocks trying to hold onto the “monster fish”  and

drag it to a sandy spot on the beach so he can  stuff it into his big WHITE PAIL…that

formerly contained spackle and now holds a 21 pound blue fish. A new odyssey now begins.

After I retired from the newspaper business, my fondness for the sport of fishing led me to a

part time job with a company that acquired fishing data for various government agencies

that watched over all fisheries on the entire east coast. Their functions included; regulating

the size of fish caught by commercial and recreational fishermen both inshore and offshore,

limits of fish caught, period in which fish can be caught, location and time  of catch, and the

migratory habits of mostly the  pelagic species such as the tuna ,swordfish, shark and marlin.

My job was to wait for charters and party boats to return from their fishing trip and interview

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the captains  with questions that describe the total catch in detail, as required by the various

agencies, who then study and carefully analyze the data that me and hundreds of other field

persons  have gathered. After  sending this data to our company via Fed- Ex  inVirginia,

they in turn send it to the appropriate government agency that makes the necessary regulatory

decisions that can be properly made in order to keep the fishery healthy and intact.

As I have demonstrated through this essay, fishing has always been fun and pleasure for me and

thousands of other ”fishanatics”.  And if you want your children and grand children to enjoy

the wholesome healthy benefits of fishing…let them know that it’s more fun fishing,,  but

much more fun in catching.

Gotta go now…. FISHING THAT IS….(see you under the lighthouse).

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