Fishing Has Changed
By Steven Holmes
Outdoors Editor
Early
morning twilight—a magical time lying somewhere between reality and
fantasy when on the water, I like to refer to as the enchanted hour.
A time of awakening for all God’s creations above and below the sea.
A time to
experience the splendor that only comes from sunrise at sea.
Moments that lifts
an angler from earth to a surreal experience, one in harmony with
nature.
The morning air is crisp and the tranquility of the night has not
yet departed, and the mirrored surface of the water, polished by the
still night’s air, invites birds to dive for their morning meal.
It’s here along the glassy smooth surface that the early morning
silence is broken by the thunderous roar of outboard powered boats
streaking across the sea to find treasure.
For the treasure
today is not the gold and silver of days gone by, but schools of
mahi- mahi that crews just outside the reefs in the upper Keys.
After checking to make sure all gear is secure, I power up
the Mercury and with GPS in hand, I chart my course to follow in the
wake of Hemingway, in searching of the monsters of the deep.
Things have changed
Offshore fishing was once reserved for those who could afford
thousands of dollars worth of navigational equipment or an
experienced captain who knew how to read charts, navigate by
compass, dead-reckoning, and use a sextant.
Therefore, most anglers never made it to the best reefs,
wrecks, and canyons of the deep.
But the future is here, and with today's modern, inexpensive,
handheld navigational equipment, anyone can who can type on a
computer can find exact locations far from
the sight of
land.
The future of navigation is here
I
recently picked up a handheld
DeLorme PN 40 GPS unit with
WAAS-enabled for an
accuracy that is beyond a doubt amazing. Its duel core
processor was able to give me accuracy while underway at 40 miles
per hour to under 10 feet. And when stopped the accuracy reduced to
under 2 feet. When we
have a vacation coming up, the days and weeks before can take
forever. I use my free time, scouting at home prior to my fishing
and diving trip by simply using Topo USA software provided with the
GPS. I click on the Net Link tab
and am able to
download all the NOAA chart and satellite images for the upper Key’s
to my computer. I then located and marked places that I
think might hold
fish, as well as marked shallow reefs, and wrecks for diving. Then I
merely connected the
PN
40 to my computer and within minutes of following the simple
self-guided directions, I have
uploaded all the GPS locations needed for my week’s trip to Key
Largo. Although I have
not been fishing or diving in upper Key’s in over 10 years, from the
provided NOAA charts I am
able to store GPS coordinates for offshore reefs, wrecks, and
shelves, as
well as channels, rocks, and shoals in the backcountry.
On departure day, as I left the pass, all I had to
do was select my first GPS location I wanted to go to, hit the enter
button, select navigate, and the little PN 40 gave me a course to
steer. Along the way it
gave me my course, speed, distance to the wreck, and all the while
showing me my current location on that same NOAA chart I had used on
my computer. Just ten
years ago, a handheld GPS of this
accuracy was not
even available, and the only way to get something this accurate was
to buy a big ten thousand dollars navigational system that used GPS
along with Loran to
determine an exact location.
Tackle and equipment
Not only has
navigational equipment changed, but so has fishing equipment and
terminal tackle. A few short years ago, regardless what size fish
they were after,
anglers
traditionally used heavy reels made of steel and bronze loaded with
hundreds of yards of 80-lbs line,
on heavy short fiberglass
rods. Today’s equipment is considerably
lighter. The reason
for this is we are targeting mahi mahi and other similar size
species, in the 30 pound or less range, not the 450-lb blue marlin
of the deep. While each angler’s idea of the perfect rod and reel
may be different for offshore, I took along proven tackle including
Shimano’s TLD-15 graphite reels loaded with 300 yards of 20-pound
Berkley big game on light 7-foot Shimano graphite rods.
For backcountry
fishing I chose
an 8 weight G-Loomis GLX rod with a Tabor Everglades edition
fly reel, and a couple Shimano spinning reels mounted on 7-Ft
G-Loomis rods.
Even the bait used has changed
The preferred
bait for most of the 20th century was a dead ballyhoo
rigged on 7/0 (O standing for Ocean)
long shank hook with
several fee of heavy wire leader.
And it was not until the last part of the century that
anglers started using live bait hooked on small, light-wired, 4X
strong #2 treble hooks.
Since I was in a small 17 foot skiff without a live well, for
this trip I used 12-inches of triple strain wire hooked to diving
Mann Lures. I selected
two lures, one designed to dive
over 12 feet and
another that would stay near the surface; this way not only
was I trolling the GPS areas I had selected, but with different dept
diving lures, I was able to cover the whole water column.
For inshore, an assortment of Clousers flies and one in
chartreuse mixed with white and silver flake producing the best
results and
for the spinning reels, I used a floating rig called Cajun Thunder
with 24
inches of leader, then a
Saltwater Assassin Sea Shad mounted on a
2/O long shank X-point hook. With both I used lighter colors
when fishing lighter blue green colored water and dark colors
for the stained sweet waters of the deep everglades.
The anglers themselves have changed
Back in
Hemingway’s time
when the sport of big game fishing with rod and reel was in its
infancy, it was considered a man’s sport; and only seasoned,
tough, muscular manly men need participate. This quest for toughness
even went so far as Hemingway’s favorite charter Captain Kip
Farrington use to soak his hands in brine (saltwater) to make
them tough. While a day of fishing may still be physically
demanding, toughness as a requirement to participate is a thing of
the past, because
today’s fastest-growing population of anglers are ladies.
While many
aspects of the angling
have changed, the reason anglers fish has not; and for the most part
I doubt it
ever will for all who venture from land, do so to search for their
love - the sea.
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