Cadiz, Kentucky Surf Fishing Club

I’m blessed to have “my own space” at home. My office is located in the walk-out basement of our home. This is a picture of the stairway that goes down from our main hallway to my office. I have made this space my very own “ode to fishing the surf.” There are lots of pictures, rods and reels, and such. The rod that I won in the October tournament at SGi is located to the left. That’s my biggest redfish (don’t worry, it’s a reproduction) on the wall.
My surf fishing Christmas tree is a seasonal addition to this display. The “garland” wrapped around the tree is a 36-inch measuring tape. I decorated whe tree with various jigs, bobbers, and such. The topper is (I guess) a deep sea lure that washed up at my feet when I was beachcombing a couple of years ago. I kept it, not knowing what purpose it might serve. When I came up with this tree idea, I promptly drilled a hole in the thing and made it my topper. I think it’s pretty cool.

The orange tag is the actual price tag from the Penn rod and reel that I won. My kids give me all sorts of grief over that, but I’m pretty doggone proud of winning a prize in my very first tournament. It’s my special little memory, by golly, and that little tag is going to grace my tree until they bury me on the hill out by my pond.

Anyway … I invite you to enjoy my tree. I know that I sure do. Only 119 days until I see my beloved sea again!

Here she is … the BIG MAMA … the fish of my dreams. The magical day was April 4, 2006. We were celebrating Spring Break at our all-time favorite place – St. George Island, Florida. My buddy, Tony Dothsuk (white shirt … keeping his distance), and his family rented a house down the beach.

I had already caught a couple of nice bull sharks that week. This one was the monster, though. It took out almost all of my 200 yards of line. It took me thirty-five minutes to land, thanks to some well-timed help from a guy I met on the beach, Adam Bishop. By the time we got her on dry land, a crowd of about seventy people had gathered to watch the fight. She measured in at 6′ 4″ and a local estimated her at about 170 pounds. I liked the sound of that (don’t know how accurate it was), so we took a straw poll and declared her legal weight at 170! It shoudn’t be too far off. I weigh 220, and I know there’s a lot mor fat on me anda lot mors muscle on this baby.

I never imagined that I would catch a fish like this one from the beach. And, unbelievably, the stainless steel leader and hook miraculously fell out of her mouth as she lay on the beach. She wasn’t even hooked solid through the jaw. I kept the leader for a trophy. It now hangs over the big poster of this photo that now hangs on my study wall.

I will never, ever, ever forget that day … or that week. It was so totally cool. After I caught the first shark, people nearby labeled me as the “shark man.” By the time I landed this third one, the name had stuck. Everyone who walked by me from that moment on simply called me “Shark Man.” Seriously! Every time after that, while I was kicked back in my chair fishing, strangers would come by and say, “What’s up, Shark Man?!” I really liked it. In fact, I still do.

My personal choice for frying up my catch from the sea is Uncle Buck’s cornmeal-based fish batter. There’s nothing quite like it! My favorite is the “Seasoned,” although I enjoy a little “Hot-N-Spicy” every now and then. I get mine at Hancock’s Neighborhood Market (formerly known as Mor-for-Less) in Cadiz, Kentucky (the epicenter of the known universe).

I returned to Perdido Key on spring break in March, 2004. That’s when I met this wonderful little guy … the Pompano! This one barely made the 11-inch to the fork limit, but he made it! Two fillets of the sweetest, tastiest fish that I have ever had the pleasure of wrapping in my spicy Uncke Buck’s and dropping in my deep fryer!

I always look forward to Spring Break and Fall Break because of the possibility of catching a few Pomp. They say that they like to eat the sand fleas the best (and I guess that’s true … it’s all I ever find in their stomachs when I clean them), but I’ve never had a lot of luck with the little crabbies. Instead, I use clean pieces of shrimp and keep them moving. It seems that the Florida Pompano enjoy a moving target!

That first week of surf fishing was magical for me. It was, without a doubt, the best vacation that I ever had. I lived for each new morning. I woke up before sunrise, lugged all of my stuff down to the beach, and watched God wake up the day and illuminate His beautiful sea. It was an awesome week.

Of course, the majority of my catch from the sea that week was a mixed bag of little stuff. Many whiting, stupid old catfish, and several really fun bluefish. But on the last day of my fishing, something incredible happened. I had a larger rod with 20-lb line, a big hook, and a large chunk of Mehnaden (some of you call it Pogey) lying on the bottom. Something big hit it. It took me just a few exciting minutes to pull it in … and there it was … a beautiful 29-inch black-tip shark.

It was incredibly exciting moment in the glow of that Friday sunrise.

Anyway … I thought, “If I ever come back to the beach, I’ll just have to give it a try.”

Little did I know that the next fall, during our annual Fall Break at my daughters’ school, we would be back at the beach. But this time we would be at another location … Perdido Key, Florida.

True to my promise to myself, I decided to give this surf fishing thing a try. I bought a couple of cheap rigs and some supplies at Wal-Mart. I visited the local bait store upon my arrival, bought a 7-day license, and picked the local guy’s brain. He advised me to just go for the little stuff … table fare. He encouraged me to go after a fish they called, “whiting.” So, I bought a tub of shrimp, grabbed my chair, and headed for the surf.

And catch whiting we did! My girls were even catching them two at a time on their double-hook rigs. We did a thorough hack-job on filleting a few, fried them up, and enjoyed our very own dinner from the sea.

Thus began my obsession … on a quiet North Florida beach in 2003.

I have to confess … I never really liked the beach very much. So much sand, so many bugs, and way too much humidity. My family talked me into pulling our pop-up to St. George Island, Florida, back in May 2002. I had a thoroughly miserable time. It was hot. Bugs that I never saw (seriously, I never actually saw a single bug) ate me alive. I had hundreds of tiny red bites. The airconditioner in the camper froze up on us. I had sand in my hair, sand in my food, sand in my bed. I had sand in places that I don’t even care to think about. Just thinking about it gives me flashes of Post-Traumatic Stress. I was so ready to go home!

Then, on the last evening, I went on a walk along the beach with my family … one final stroll. And I met a couple out there. To my surprise, they were fishing. They called it surf fishing. I was dumbfounded. I didn’t know you could do that. I had never heard of surf fishing! I didn’t realize you could drag a cooler of full of Pepsi Colas down to the beach, plop a lawn chair down in the sand, kick back, relax, and actually catch something you could coat with Uncle Buck’s and throw in the fry-daddy! But, sure enough, there they were … with a bucket of flounder and other little fish that I could not identify. They assured me that everything in the bucket was, indeed, quite delicious … and fun to catch.

It was in that moment that God began to work a change of heart within me. It was my epiphany. There’s fish in “them thar” waters! Maybe the beach really wasn’t so bad after all..

This blog is for fun … really. I need a personal outlet for my surf fishing passion.

Just think about it. I am a surf fishing junkie. But I live in Kentucky! I am landlocked in every sense of the word. My only outlets for this passion are the two or three trips a year that I make with my family to the Florida Gulf Coast. Our favorite family destination is St. George Island, Florida.

Over the past couple of years I have been able to introduce some of my Kentucky friends (mostly members of the church where I serve as pastor) to my favorite sport.  So, I figured that I would start us a little “club” … just for fun.

This blog will be filled with stories about my friends, my fishing, my family, and my favorite place in this world … God’s gift to us all … the beach.