BigBendFishing.Net

Well, The Father in-law and I left out after stuffing our faces. launched the boat about 2:30pm at the fort. We ended up with five trout 16 to 18 inches all caught in the the river. Did see one Manatee.

The fishing was not the highlight of the day. The highlight was spending time with the Father-in-law. We talked and laugh about a lot of things and told some stories. He told some and I told some.

The best ones were some of his childhhood. He was born in Newport Florida. Yes, the one at Hwy 98 and the St. Marks River. He was born in 1943 and as a kid he was around when the shipyard was in full swing. He said a lot of the boats then were built for WWII and later in the 70s they began building some big shrimp boats. He said Newport was the place to be then. He also said it used to have a big concrete swimming pool a bowling ally and a big dance hall. All this was where all the servicemen hung out. He told stories about staying out all night while anchoring at the lighthouse and waiting for the sun to come up so they could make it back in up the river.

The Turkey was good, But the time together was real cool.

Cool

It don't get no better
I get ta take my 9yo grandson out on the river by ourselves for the first time tomorrow

Nice post ,Ty

Just think we'll be the paw-in-laws one day telling all those good stories, some of us are already. enjoy your family it's really all we've got.

Nice post, I love hearing stories about old Florida espeacially first hand.

Nothing beats hearing stories and making more!

Interestingly, I read somewhere recently that at one point Newport
had the third largest population of any area in Florida.

on the trip. I have always wondered the history behind that old ship yard.

Man that is a great story. I've walked down into the old shipyard, and there is still a huge concrete form they used to build hulls.

The big form which is still there is one from the Shrimp Boats. He said those were some big boats and would be sent all over the Gulf coast and the Atlantic. He also said they used to build the PT boats there.

He even made mention of old man Ozuts, I think he had a store or something. I will have to ask him again about some more facts.