Reminiscing about hunting and fishing days of old

I always get kind of emotional around Christmas. I tend to reflect back on times gone by, and friends and family no longer around.

Earlier this month, I had occasion to drive up to New Castle County on a very dark and rainy day. The ceiling was down on the deck and as I drove through Kent County, I should have seen lots of geese in the fields. I didn’t see a single one. Not a Canada nor a snow goose to be found.

Back in the 1970s and ’80s, I hunted on Snow Farm just off Bombay Hook and we had excellent shooting. On a day like I described above, we didn’t have to cover up in the blind. We just stood up and shot the geese as they came out of the fog.

At first, we hardly ever saw a snow goose. Then, by the time I left for Virginia Beach in 1989, they were the dominant bird. The only time you got a shot at them was when the weather was bad and the low clouds kept them down. Otherwise, they came off Bombay Hook at 10,000 feet and landed somewhere in Maryland.

Of course, the guys in my pit were a motley crew. I wouldn’t have it any other way. The best shot was Tommy Bonner. We were friends for many years, and he now lives here in the Cape Region. The youngest was Dave Rockland. We had fun with him until he learned not to trust or believe anything we said. Nick Muller and Bill Corrie were great guys who are no longer with us. Larry Weldin moved to Georgia, then Florida and is now in North Carolina. I miss every one of them.

Then there was the great fishing. Most people talk about the trout or weakfish, and I was into that from the beginning.

At first, we caught small fish but lots of them either from boats in Delaware Bay or off Indian River Inlet. Then they began to grow. At the top of the run, we had 7- to 10-pound fish everywhere. When I wrote reports, you didn’t get your name in unless your fish was over 8 pounds.

To combine hunting with fishing, on one bluebird day in late November, I first went to my goose pit, but the birds were flying high, so I decided to go fishing. I drove down to Fenwick Island and got there just as the tide was going slack on the ebb. Caught a nice blue and a trout on frozen bait.

Left and went to Murray’s Bait and Tackle in Ocean View. Leonard Maull was there, and we split three dozen live spot and went back to Fenwick Island. There was no wind and when I made my first cast, the line began to settle, then picked back up and I was into a trout. Leonard had the exact same experience.

By the time we left, we had put 49 trout in the cooler. No one else was on the beach. No birds were working over the trout. We were completely alone. The last few spot we used looked like Swiss cheese, they had so many holes.

Leonard is another good friend I miss.

Trout and geese were not the only game I miss. There were big bluefish at B Buoy on Hoochies. We also caught big blues out of the surf on Hopkins metal lures.

Fishing the Indian River Inlet jetties at night with bucktails and catching rockfish was an exciting pastime. The rock we caught were not big, but in those days, they didn’t have to be.

And then the offshore bug bit me. My brother-in-law, Paul Coffin, bought a 22-foot 1972 Mako with two Johnson 75-HP outboards and we were off to the canyons. The main reason I went with him was he couldn’t find anyone else crazy enough to go 50 miles out in the ocean in a 22-foot boat.

I caught my first white marlin on that boat, but the highlight of our offshore adventures was the day we brought in the first white marlin of the year to South Shore Marina. Paul, Lark Benelli and I caught the fish on the 30-Fathom line after two other boats ran past a lot of signs that fish were there. Paul was the angler of record. He too is gone, a victim of COVID. 

My time in Virginia Beach has many memories. Catching 40-inch rockfish on surface lures at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Running cobia charters and putting clients on their first big fish. The day a man and his wife caught and released 52 bluefish on surface lures near the Chesapeake Light Tower.

I hope you have many good memories, and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.