Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
While coming in the inlet last week I noticed three young anglers on a small boat who were also returning from their own day of offshore fishing. They first peaked my attention by the way they zoomed up in their 22-foot outboard, jumped our wake, shot past us, cut our bow, and went flying up the bay to a destination, I guess, known only to them. I didn’t know where in the heck they were going – didn’t really care either. As far as I was concerned, they were just “another” group of guys in shorts, t-shirts, sunglasses, and a boat heading in from their day on the water. Of course, for them it was a different story as they had just returned from a successful day on the ocean, they had caught fish, and they wanted everyone within eyeshot to know it!
This was obvious by the three yellow flags flying from a fishing rod which indicated they had landed (at least) three dolphin. Seeing their little flags flapping as they passed under the Rt. 50 Bridge, I couldn’t help but wonder why they went through all the trouble of rigging the flags on the rod when, after all, who in the heck cares if those guys caught dolphin or not?
Do they really think that people on other boats or the shoreline are at all interested that three “Goobers” in a center console caught dolphin that day? Or for that matter, does anyone really care about any boat that comes in with “bragging rags” flapping from their riggers? For a while I was a little irked at once again seeing anglers so prominently display their egos, “Ooh look-at-me-look-at-me. I caught a fish!!” and I wondered why fishermen can’t just go out and a have a fun day of fishing without worrying about racing home to alert the rest of the world that they accomplished what they set out to do that day? Imagine if every time someone went shopping they’d fly flags from the antenna of their car indicating what they bought. Yea, like the neighbors really care that you worked your way out to the dairy isle and nabbed a whole gallon of milk, and on the way back trolled down the bread racks and bailed some biscuits and whole wheat! It’s kind of silly when you think about it.
Of course, as I pondered all this, I remembered a day in my own dumb youth when a friend and I ran my 19-foot boat out to the Jack Spot for bluefish and were happily surprised to catch a couple dolphin of our own. This was before flag companies started putting little pictures on their flags so everything was color coded and very simple; white flags for blue marlin, blue flags for white marlin, red flags for billfish release and yellow flags for dolphin. That was it. If you caught anything besides the aforementioned species you simply had to wait until you got back to the dock to alert the rest of the world what a grand fisherman you were because there wasn’t a flag to do it for you.
Anyway, that day on the Jack Spot I was in a bit of a pickle because I caught the fish but didn’t have the flags to prove it, and I just “knew” that everyone in Ocean City would be anxiously waiting at the Inlet that evening to see what we caught and I couldn’t disappoint so many fans by not having any flags to fly. I needed yellow flags! What I did have was a cheap yellow raincoat aboard which I promptly cut two rectangles from the back, taped them to my CB antenna, and thought to myself, “now we can ride home in style.” Talk about being a “Goober!”.
Fish flags obviously have different levels of importance to different anglers. I know one captain who spent all afternoon on the radio trying to locate someone offshore who could lend him a sailfish flag. He then ran about five miles out of his way to rendezvous with the other boat to pick it up just so he would be able to run through the Inlet flying the thing. It was THAT important to him, although I’ve got a feeling most of the folks near the inlet were probably more interested in watching what the skimpy bathing suits weren’t covering than paying attention to the little upside down sailfish printed on the white flag he’d worked so hard to procure, but that’s just my opinion.
The irony of flags is that while many anglers display them for the purpose of signaling to others their success as fishermen, if they fail to follow a certain level of flag etiquette, what they actually end up demonstrating is how much they “don’t” know about fishing. For instance, if flag fliers wish to come through the Inlet with any dignity at all it would probably be best to stick to the traditional billfish, tuna, dolphin, wahoo, and shark flags. If, however, someone really wants to be labeled as a Goober they should go ahead and fly a bluefish, flounder, skunk, Jolly Roger, or cocktail flag.
The number of flags flown can also be an indication of Gooberness. It’s appropriate to fly a flag for every billfish caught and up to six flags for tuna, but besides that, regardless of how many fish were caught, only one flag should be flown. Last year there was a small boat at our marina that every weekend would be flying 10-15 dolphin flags from two riggers. Curious about the fellow’s success, I wandered past his boat during the great “unloading of the catch” one Saturday afternoon and noticed that the dozen or so dolphin he’d brought home that day were all about the same size as the dozen or so flags hanging from his riggers. I had to bite my lip not to suggest that he could have saved money if instead of buying the flags he just flew the dolphin from the riggers. One flag for dolphin PLEASE!
I think that perhaps the best known fish flag rule is that all flags must be taken down before twelve noon the following day. After that they are subject to being literally “nailed” to the dock behind the boat. I used to work at a marina whose personnel absolutely lived for the opportunity to nail someone’s flag to the dock. Anytime a flag was still flying by mid-morning they’d start to hover around the boat like buzzards eyeing up a road-kill possum. At one second after noon they’d pounce, and the flag would be permanently affixed to the dock with a few dozen roofing nails. Then again, the ritual can work both ways. I know a captain who was so proud of the fact that he caught a blue marlin that he purposely left his flag up in hopes that someone would nail it down as permanent testimony to his catch.
Another way to look at it is, “to heck with what anyone else thinks, if you want to fly a flag for every dolphin, bluefish, oyster toad, or sea robin you catch, then go ahead. Some folks might think you’re a Goober, but if it doesn’t hurt anything or anyone - then why not? As for me, I like to keep things simple and work on the premise that my clients and I know what we caught. If anyone else wishes to know - they can ask. That way I don’t have to worry about being called a Goober, or cutting up any more raincoats!
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
