The Old Men and the Sea
You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old. - George Burns There’s a well-known old bumper sticker that says: At my age, “getting lucky” means finding my car in the parking lot. Although I’m in my 60’s now, I really can’t fully identify with that quote, mostly because – living in Key West – I almost NEVER drive anywhere, so I don’t deal with parking lots. (When I used to live in Southern California, however, I dealt with lots of them. They’re called “freeways” out there!) But, at this advanced age, the ways that I am likely to “get lucky” are more limited and, when it does happen to me, it usually involves finding good fish for some great people. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to“get lucky” like that quite often and it makes my advancing age easier to tolerate. From a serious point of view, the real problem that age causes for a charter captain like me is the increasing possibility that the limitations it can cause you physically can hamper or even destroy your ability to do a job that you love. Because of that, I make a conscious effort to stay in as good of shape as I reasonably can by going to a gym regularly, riding my bike or walking everywhere, and eating well. My job itself helps as well, as I have to daily engage in fairly rigorous activity maintaining our boat and running charters. (Try standing at the wheel for 8 hours in 6-8 foot seas someday and then tell me afterward that it’s not a workout!) Those latter activities, however, also make me extremely aware how physically demanding being on a boat can be, especially fishing in rough seas. Because I know how it can beat up my “30-something” mate Jerry and me, I often worry when I see older folks getting on my boat for a charter on days that are predicted to be rough. That was exactly what ran through my mind as I watched a good “older” friend and customer of mine, Terry Keehn (56), and his group board our boat on May 14. The others in that crew included George Groves (69), Floyd Steele (67), Tim Sweeney (66), Bob Boettinger (58), and one “youngster,” Eric Groves (41). Tim’s from the Philadelphia area and the rest of the guys are from Maryland. We had actually postponed the trip for a day because the prediction for the 13th had been for 25 mph east winds, with gusts to 30, against a strong east-bound current that had been prevailing out in the blue water, and waves from 6 to 10 feet in height. The 14th was predicted to be better, and it was, but they were still calling for southeast winds of around 20 mph and waves around 5 to 7 feet, decreasing slightly in the afternoon. Definitely not a day for the faint of heart. What really concerned me about the group, however, wasn’t merely their ages but what I personally saw as they boarded. Terry and his crew had fished with us multiple times in the past, but not having seen them in about a year made their aging that much more noticeable to me. I won’t name names, but the first one to board had obviously had a “hard night” on Duval and I also knew from past experience that he had a chronic bad lower back problem. Two of the others had extreme difficulty just stepping down from the dock to board and were obviously pretty restricted in their maneuverability. So, I had to have a hard heart to heart talk with them to make sure they knew what they were facing and I was almost hoping that at least a couple of them would choose not to go. Obviously, that could have cost me a trip but that would be better than no one (including me or the mate) having a good time or, even worse, someone getting hurt. Additionally, from a more selfish point of view, there’s always a chance of breaking something on the boat when someone grabs something or falls against it in rough seas, and there goes your profit for the day anyway! Despite my dire warnings, they all insisted that they wanted to try it, so we did. I reserved the right, however, to call the trip off if conditions warranted once we turned the corner outside the harbor and felt the real brunt of the wind or once we got to blue water and saw how rough it really was. Fortunately, conditions on the ride out were much better than expected. The southeast wind was much lighter than feared – maybe around 15 – and the tide was coming in, so the the wind and sea were in harmony, not opposition, making for a smooth ride. Even after we got past the reef and hit the deeper water, conditions remained very “doable”
As we passed through 380’ of depth going south, our mate saw a small group of birds working the water to the west. Small groups of small birds or a single frigate bird, if they are working the water in one small defined area and not just cruising, can often lead you to dolphin or other nice fish. We turned, put the lines in the water, and had 4 dolphin on almost instantly – 3 “keeper” schoolies and a “throwback.” That really took the pressure off us. Not only did it show that there were fish around but we also had fish “in the box” for dinner for the guys if we had to go home early. Any charter captain will tell you that is a great feeling at the start of a trip. Luckily, the best was yet to come.
In about 780’ of water, a bite out of the blue yielded a nice big “gaffer-sized” schoolie. Then, about 18 miles out and just past “Wood’s Wall,” we spotted another group of birds working the water, this time to our east. We had to speed up and chase about a mile to catch them but it was well worth it. Those birds were over a large group of good-sized “schoolie” to small “teen-age” dolphin and for the next hour and a half or so we were constantly putting fish in the box, usually hooking one before the mate could even get a second line out.
“Youngster” Eric did a great job of keeping his keen eyes on the birds while I guided us through the waves or watched lines as we turned and the mate concentrated on getting baits out, freeing us of that additional duty. That played a huge role in our success. The best part was that, even at that depth – 1400 feet – conditions were still tolerable and no one got sick or felt endangered.
By the time we stopped getting bites, the wind had started to increase rather than decrease as predicted, but by then it was time to turn north for home, putting that southeast wind at our backs and making the ride home fairly pleasant. Even better, we caught our “fish of the day” during that trek homeward – a 20+ pound bull dolphin on a marlin lure off our starboard outrigger, “out of the blue” in about 800’ of water. Then, in about 500 feet of water, we chased down a frigate bird and found a pallet that gave us 5 more nice “schoolies.” Finally, we also had one last “out of the blue” hit – a small “teen-age” dolphin as we were bringing in the lines in about 350 feet.
So, what started out as I trip that gave me a nervous feeling and that I thought about aborting turned into what was probably our catch of the year so far – 35 dolphin brought back to the dock and 5 more small ones thrown back. I guess sometimes the fishing gods like to do that just to make you more reluctant to cancel trips prematurely based on predictions rather than actuality. Some days I guess it’s best to just give it a shot and realize that you may have to turn around if things get ugly. More basically, while I’ll probably still err on the side of caution given individual circumstances in such situations, maybe I’ll have to start giving the “old folks” on my boat more credit for “staying power” than I did in the past.
We had fun, we caught a ton of nice fish, no one got sick, no one got hurt and we only lost one or two fish. I think that was due in large part to the wisdom that comes with age. They all helped one another and even the mate, too, to try to make the trip work while heeding the instructions we gave them, e.g., the physically restricted ones let us know when they needed to go downstairs to the head so we could turn the boat “down sea” to make it easier and safer for them.
There’s a good lesson here. Listen to your captain and mate when it comes to safety. That great catch we had would have meant nothing if even one person got hurt. Thanks in large part to the guys we had on board, we had a great trip that will probably make me a little more confident next time we take a bunch of “old geezers” out. (Oh, and Eric, that term obviously doesn’t include a “kid” like you!) For an “old geezer” like me, that’s a a good thing.
Maybe there’s a good general life lesson here as well. In sports, they always talk of the wily veteran who makes up for losing a step by using the knowledge he/she has gained from playing to keep his/her game at the highest level. In retrospect, that’s what these “wily veterans” did to make this trip a success and it was a pleasure to have them on the boat as a result. I can’t wait now for them to bring their A game again next time. Maybe I’ll “get lucky” once more! At my age, one can only hope!
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