Posted: May 12th, 2003, 1:34 pm
Tom, I learned to fish the Gulf from my grandfather. He lived to the age of 72 and had never had a payroll check in his life. He had always made his living on the Gulf. When I first started fishing with him out of the Aucilla River, (1956-1957) he guided for trout out of a wooden boat that he built, an 18 horse evinrude and fished with cane poles. He would slap the pole on the water a few times when fishing got slow to attract the trout with the noise. All the guides used that type of gear. In the 60's he moved up to a Zebco 808, but continued to guide out of those wooded boats he built on the Aucilla River. When the State took the Aucilla Fish Camp from him in the mid 1970's, he moved to town for the first time in his life, and died 7 months later.