Article by Capt. Franky Pettolina
It was our second attempt at getting the boat situated on the trailer. Well not really “our” second attempt. I wasn’t helping at all. The boat owner was making his approach and his buddy was standing on the trailer guiding him in. Me? I was standing in the cockpit minding my own business. Well not really. I was watching what was going on in the launching ramp. No, I was not critiquing the trailering efforts. I know how difficult that can be, and this was a bulky thirty two footer and the wind was whipping us around. The captain and his buddy were doing just fine for the circumstances. What was I watching you ask? Whose business was I butting into? The answer may surprise you.
Those of you that have followed my column over the years know that I am mostly a deep water guy. This season alone the majority of my columns have been stories about blue marlin, or sharks, or tournament fishing. Or my cats…. But the happenings at the launching ramp that had piqued my interest were the total opposite of deep water. What had captured this bluewater guy’s attention so much? Three people and hoop net.
No this wasn’t some sort of pick up game, and the best I can tell the Catch 23 has left town and without the G.O.A.T. here I have zero interest in basketball. This was literally three people with a hoop net and some kind of chum. I was enthralled. This trio of fishing folks consisted of an older gentlemen, and a younger man and woman. I have no idea of the relationship among the three other than the younger pair was in charge of the chumming and the cooler. The old salt was master of the net.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with what a hoop net is, basically it is a mesh net with a rigid rim (the one I was watching was probably thirty inches in diameter), a weighted middle and pull lines to pick it up. These are best suited for shallow water, but I have seen them used in twenty feet or more of depth down on the bait patches in the Florida Keys. The idea is to sink the net to the bottom and chum over top of it. Once the unsuspecting fish swim over the net, the fisherman snatches it up and voila! Net full o’ fish!
Now back to the triumvirate of fishing folks at the ramp. I am not quite sure what they were using for chum, but whatever it was it was mixed in a can with water from the ramp. The younger guy and the young lady were mixing the chum and spritzing it around the floating dock. The net master was directing them as to where to lay it down thicker. After a couple of minutes he positioned the net and let it sink. Then some heavier chumming began. I am pretty sure that the chum was thickened with some sort of camouflaging agent. Maybe sand or oats. The heavy barrage lasted for about twenty seconds or so and then the trap was sprung!
I was amazed to see the amount of life that came up in the net when the elder fisherman hauled back his tool. From my vantage point it looked to be several dozen minnows. And by several I mean four or five dozen. Maybe six. Quite a catch. The bounty of bait was quickly deposited into a cooler and the scenario played out again.
In the time it took for the boat to get situated on the trailer and hauled up the ramp the hoop net was hauled up three or four times. Maybe five. Each time the amount of minnows matched the multitude of the first catch I was witness to. I wondered how many were caught before we got there?
I have always been fascinated by the amount of life that can be found around launching ramps and docks. As a kid I would throw my cast net for hours on end just walking around the marina. Other days my friend Blaine and I would take a little boat to the sandbar north of the Kelley Drawbridge and we would cast net and seine whatever we could in the knee deep tidal pools. Later in life my cast net skills would help fill coolers with menhaden to be used for tuna bait, or fill livewells with ballyhoo to chase sailfish. Watching that young lady and those two fellas on the ramp filled me with so many memories of netting fish in shallow water. I hated to have to go back to work. I wanted to go help chum or beg for a turn on the hoop.
When I decided to write this column this week I thought about what must be going on over top of that net as the fish feeding frenzy was taking place in the clouds of chum, right before the net was hauled up. I remembered that my friends Christine and Cesar Campos have a pretty cool video of just that sort of thing. I texted Christine before I started to write the column to see if the video was available for public consumption anywhere. She informed me that it was not, but she has promised me that it will be soon (hopefully before this issue of the Coastal Fisherman hits the streets). So head on over to www.youtube.com and check out Campos Media for the video they filmed off of the pier behind their home. There are also several other cool videos of happenings in Ocean City (just in case Christine doesn’t get the video up right away, there will be stuff there to keep you coming back for more!)
This is the next to last issue of the Coastal Fisherman for the year. The wind is blowing a bit as I write this and it looks like the weekend might be a wash weather wise, at least as it applies to deep water fishing. I may just have to head to the tackle shop and pick me up a hoop net and a few cans of chum… §
