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#91
TSBB General Talk / On the Beach #29
Last post by Riley Smith - Aug 07, 2026, 11:21 AMAll the factors aligned and high tide was just before dawn. The crescent moon would be directly overhead. That meant that as it got lighter, the ebbing tide would be flowing out of the river mouth 1/4 mile to the eest of the Labrot House, and would sweep over the little bay and the bar out front, portioning a bit of the flow along the shore. There would be fish to be had. So I decided to mix entertainment with work and fish before doing the lawn, and arrived around 9pm with the mower. It was awful humid and a hot wind off the water had the old house feeling very stuffy. I turned on the ceiling fans and the a/c, and took a nap until the appointed time at 4:30am. I didn't sleep very well, unused to the flow of the ceiling fan and the strange noises of the shore.
With a strong cup of Columbian in hand, I gathered the rod and gear and headed to the pools of light on the pier. It was STILL very humid but a bit cooler and there were a few clouds out on the Gulf lit up by the lights of the city. A piece of floating grass told me I had nailed the peak tide, as it stayed in one spot for a while. I fished a white VooDoo shrimp for a while and caught a few rat redfish and a couple of small specks. Nothing of any note, although I always see one or two big specks, and a couple made a run at my lure, only to bump it and turn away. They're very wary when they get big.
The eastern sky started to turn light and the menhaden spotter planes began to head out on the Gulf towards the fishing fleet, unseen to the southwest. The rising sun painted the clouds very nice colors and the water was glassy as the tide began to fall out of the river towards the Mississippi Sound. There always seems to be a lull in the fishing during the transformation from darkness to light, and today was no exception. It was VERY humid and I decided this wasn't any fun anymore, and gathered gear and headed toward the A/C at the top of the bluff. Afar off to the west I saw a one of the spotter airplanes landing light way off toward Gulfport as it circled under a cumulus cloud in the dim light. There was already a light sheen of sweat on me to greet the cool of the air conditioning.
After the second cup, I unloaded the mower and began the lawn. I was about 1/2 way done with the rear when the drive belt broke on the tractor. Sigh. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that. So without further ado, I pushed the lawn tractor underneath the carport and shut off all the lights I had turned on, locked the door and headed home, wet from sweat and thankful for the good a/c in the truck. It was about 8am by that time.
You cannot view this attachment.
The river curves to the left to the east of the old house and the railroad bridge is almost visible. I can see the trains as they go across towards Pascagoula. This is the west arm of the Pascagoula River and the Hwy 90 bridge is just another 1/4 mile north of the railroad bridge.
With a strong cup of Columbian in hand, I gathered the rod and gear and headed to the pools of light on the pier. It was STILL very humid but a bit cooler and there were a few clouds out on the Gulf lit up by the lights of the city. A piece of floating grass told me I had nailed the peak tide, as it stayed in one spot for a while. I fished a white VooDoo shrimp for a while and caught a few rat redfish and a couple of small specks. Nothing of any note, although I always see one or two big specks, and a couple made a run at my lure, only to bump it and turn away. They're very wary when they get big.
The eastern sky started to turn light and the menhaden spotter planes began to head out on the Gulf towards the fishing fleet, unseen to the southwest. The rising sun painted the clouds very nice colors and the water was glassy as the tide began to fall out of the river towards the Mississippi Sound. There always seems to be a lull in the fishing during the transformation from darkness to light, and today was no exception. It was VERY humid and I decided this wasn't any fun anymore, and gathered gear and headed toward the A/C at the top of the bluff. Afar off to the west I saw a one of the spotter airplanes landing light way off toward Gulfport as it circled under a cumulus cloud in the dim light. There was already a light sheen of sweat on me to greet the cool of the air conditioning.
After the second cup, I unloaded the mower and began the lawn. I was about 1/2 way done with the rear when the drive belt broke on the tractor. Sigh. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that. So without further ado, I pushed the lawn tractor underneath the carport and shut off all the lights I had turned on, locked the door and headed home, wet from sweat and thankful for the good a/c in the truck. It was about 8am by that time.
You cannot view this attachment.
The river curves to the left to the east of the old house and the railroad bridge is almost visible. I can see the trains as they go across towards Pascagoula. This is the west arm of the Pascagoula River and the Hwy 90 bridge is just another 1/4 mile north of the railroad bridge.
#92
TSBB General Talk / Re: New Boat
Last post by Captain Kidd - Aug 06, 2026, 11:07 PMi've toyed was looking for a 235. The 235, from what I have seen, appears to sit lower on its trailer. Am I seeing that correctly?
if so, that would be attractive to me. I believe it would make it a bit easier to launch and retrieve.
i've also read that the 235 is a bit more tender than the 240, but I don't think that would bother me too much.
if so, that would be attractive to me. I believe it would make it a bit easier to launch and retrieve.
i've also read that the 235 is a bit more tender than the 240, but I don't think that would bother me too much.
#93
Tales and Trip Reports / More Lobster Stories . . . .
Last post by Charles Brennan - Aug 06, 2026, 08:58 PMTimm Rivette sent me a link to a story about an on-the-water lobster altercation, that led to a guy getting charged with attempted 2nd degree murder, when he was accused of shutting off a juvenile lobster diver's oxygen supply.
Yeah, we take lobstering seriously, in south Florida.
And as usual, the media fails to get hardly anything right.
1) The "juvenile lobster diver" was 18 years old.
2) It wasn't oxygen, it was just compressed air.
3) (My favorite part) The accused murderer was a volunteer member of the Miami-Dade County Boater Safety and Bay Education Task Force.
GOOD EXAMPLE, GUY!! PROUD OF YA!!!
Here are some links:
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/man-cut-off-divers-air-supply-after-dispute-over-lobster-fishing-spot-in-miami-report-says/3842234/
https://wsvn.com/news/local/miami-dade/man-accused-of-shutting-off-juvenile-lobster-divers-oxygen-supply-bonds-out-after-judge-reduces-charge/
I was glad Timm sent me the link, instead of telling me; that way, he couldn't see me yawn.
Yeah, all that was Bad, but it used to be WAYYYYY worse!!
Back when the Bahamas became independent, the very first thing they did, was nationalize their fishery and kick all the American lobster fisherman out of Bahamian waters. For years, the Americans had treated the fishery as their personal backyard and making daily trips to catch lobster over there.
This forced them to lay their traps in American waters and soon, there was a line of traps from the Keys to northern Miami-Dade County in a fishery that couldn't support nearly that amount, that the Bahamas had.
Commercial lobster fishing north of the Keys, collapsed within 5 years.
Adding insult to injury, our more rowdy lobster divers/poachers had started raiding the lobster traps, accelerating the decline.
It was easy.
There was a float right at the surface, so just go down, reach in and help yourself.
Or, if you were feeling particularly brazen, simply lift the pot aboard, remove its contents and dump it back over the side.
Legal punishment was severe, if you were caught, but hey, it's a Big Coast.
1) The British never successfully blockaded the coast from the French, in the Revolutionary War.
2) The Union never successfully blockaded the coast from the Confederacy, in the Civil War.
3) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Rum Runners, during Prohibition in the 30's.
4) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Pot Smugglers in the 60's.
5) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Cocaine Smugglers in the 80's.
6) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Illegal Immigrants in the 2000's.
Like I said: A Big Coast.
And porous.
So one weekend I was out in my power boat with my buddies, in south Biscayne Bay and we were looking for lobster holes, which is arduous in that area, because there are only patch reefs, instead of continuous reef lines, like further north.
So we hit on the idea of towing someone (me) behind the boat and whenever I saw a patch reef, I would drop off the line and the boat would swing back around and my buddies would join me in the water.
Then we would move on to the next patch reef.
Just my Bad Luck, the first patch reef I picked was close to a lobster pot, which I hadn't even seen in the water; since I was about 50 feet away from it.
Also in that area, was an aggrieved lobster fisherman mightily incensed
at his lobster pots being raided, all the time.
He (mistakenly) assumed I was another poacher and decided to finally take things into his own hands.
He began firing a carbine at me.
In the water, I heard a strange buzzing, from the bullets skipping through waves on the water and did not associate it with the sound of the gunfire, half a second later.
My buddies (in a rare display of both courage and good tactics) quickly maneuvered the boat's hull broadsides between me and the shooter's boat, to prevent the shooter from having a target to aim for. They even had the presence of mind to call the Coast Guard, on the VHF radio. The Coast Guard in their turn called the FMP (Florida Marine Patrol, back before they were folded into the Florida Wildlife Commission) and also the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.
The lobster fisherman shouting (and still shooting) while my buddies circled the boat in ever tighter circles, to deprive him of his target and also to get close enough to me, to (hopefully!) retrieve me. I had just gotten back aboard and we were leaving post haste when the first M-DSO boat reached us and we relayed to the officer, what had transpired.
Oh, BOY!! They looked HAPPY!!!
They suddenly produced some really nice-looking Stainless Steel Mossberg shotguns
and went tearing after the shooter, lights flashing and sirens whining. (This was back in the days of compressed air-sirens, not those puny two-tone electronic things we have, nowadays.)
They had asked us to hang around in the area to give a statement, so we turned the boat in slow circles and watched all the excitement. (From a safe distance!)
They took the guy into custody and an officer directed us to the ramp where they wanted to take our statement and to also inspect our boat for any lobster. By then, the FMP had arrived and taken the shooter's lobster boat in tow. Since we had just gotten started, we didn't even have any lobsters aboard.
The guy turned out to be an illegal Cuban immigrant, using his Uncle's boat, and with an un-registered firearm and apparently, no inkling of just how many charges he was about to face.
Ya say, somebody closed off the air supply to your Brownie's 3rd lung?
Yeah? Well . . . . have you ever been SHOT AT??!!?? WELL, HAVE YA, DUDE??
Please.
Another Story:
John U Lloyd State Park was originally the site of the Naval Surface Weapons Testing Center, during WWII. They ran numerous submarine cables out from there alongside the Port Everglades jetties, and transmitted low frequency signals through those cables to communicate with subs, off-shore. When they laid the cables, they would dump piles of stones to hold the cable down and allow the cable ship to pay out more cable, dump more stones and continue on.
One year, me and my dive buddy, John, realized that if we went in from shore next to the jetties (and braved the wave action that could slam you against the jetties, if you weren't careful!) you could find a cable and simply follow it to the nearest pile of granite. Lobsters lived inside those piles, like they thought it was an exclusive condominium. Just follow the cable to the next pile and repeat, until you were done.
Made it very easy to limit out from a beach dive, unusual for most divers at that time.
We did that for many years, until that Fateful Day, that Technology caught up and overtook us.
LCD displays and high resolution transducers were revolutionizing the fish finder industry and like all the other cheaper-by-the-million products produced by the Japanese, allowed a fish-finder depth-sounder type sonar, on most every boat, out there.
John and me arrived at the beach that morning, to see a boat perched over every one of our "spots".
We did NOT have a good year, that year.
The Fates got the last laugh,
however.
Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, scattered all the rock piles, putting the shore divers and boat divers on an equal footing, once again.
So I know well, the feeling of having "your lobster spot" taken from you; just never tried to kill anybody, over it.
True story(s),
Charles Brennan
Yeah, we take lobstering seriously, in south Florida.
And as usual, the media fails to get hardly anything right.
1) The "juvenile lobster diver" was 18 years old.
2) It wasn't oxygen, it was just compressed air.
3) (My favorite part) The accused murderer was a volunteer member of the Miami-Dade County Boater Safety and Bay Education Task Force.
GOOD EXAMPLE, GUY!! PROUD OF YA!!! Here are some links:
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/man-cut-off-divers-air-supply-after-dispute-over-lobster-fishing-spot-in-miami-report-says/3842234/
https://wsvn.com/news/local/miami-dade/man-accused-of-shutting-off-juvenile-lobster-divers-oxygen-supply-bonds-out-after-judge-reduces-charge/
I was glad Timm sent me the link, instead of telling me; that way, he couldn't see me yawn.
Yeah, all that was Bad, but it used to be WAYYYYY worse!!
Back when the Bahamas became independent, the very first thing they did, was nationalize their fishery and kick all the American lobster fisherman out of Bahamian waters. For years, the Americans had treated the fishery as their personal backyard and making daily trips to catch lobster over there.
This forced them to lay their traps in American waters and soon, there was a line of traps from the Keys to northern Miami-Dade County in a fishery that couldn't support nearly that amount, that the Bahamas had.
Commercial lobster fishing north of the Keys, collapsed within 5 years.
Adding insult to injury, our more rowdy lobster divers/poachers had started raiding the lobster traps, accelerating the decline.
It was easy.
There was a float right at the surface, so just go down, reach in and help yourself.
Or, if you were feeling particularly brazen, simply lift the pot aboard, remove its contents and dump it back over the side.
Legal punishment was severe, if you were caught, but hey, it's a Big Coast.
1) The British never successfully blockaded the coast from the French, in the Revolutionary War.
2) The Union never successfully blockaded the coast from the Confederacy, in the Civil War.
3) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Rum Runners, during Prohibition in the 30's.
4) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Pot Smugglers in the 60's.
5) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Cocaine Smugglers in the 80's.
6) The Government never successfully blockaded the coast from Illegal Immigrants in the 2000's.
Like I said: A Big Coast.
And porous.
So one weekend I was out in my power boat with my buddies, in south Biscayne Bay and we were looking for lobster holes, which is arduous in that area, because there are only patch reefs, instead of continuous reef lines, like further north.
So we hit on the idea of towing someone (me) behind the boat and whenever I saw a patch reef, I would drop off the line and the boat would swing back around and my buddies would join me in the water.
Then we would move on to the next patch reef.
Just my Bad Luck, the first patch reef I picked was close to a lobster pot, which I hadn't even seen in the water; since I was about 50 feet away from it.
Also in that area, was an aggrieved lobster fisherman mightily incensed
at his lobster pots being raided, all the time.He (mistakenly) assumed I was another poacher and decided to finally take things into his own hands.
He began firing a carbine at me.
In the water, I heard a strange buzzing, from the bullets skipping through waves on the water and did not associate it with the sound of the gunfire, half a second later.
My buddies (in a rare display of both courage and good tactics) quickly maneuvered the boat's hull broadsides between me and the shooter's boat, to prevent the shooter from having a target to aim for. They even had the presence of mind to call the Coast Guard, on the VHF radio. The Coast Guard in their turn called the FMP (Florida Marine Patrol, back before they were folded into the Florida Wildlife Commission) and also the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office.
The lobster fisherman shouting (and still shooting) while my buddies circled the boat in ever tighter circles, to deprive him of his target and also to get close enough to me, to (hopefully!) retrieve me. I had just gotten back aboard and we were leaving post haste
when the first M-DSO boat reached us and we relayed to the officer, what had transpired.Oh, BOY!!
They looked HAPPY!!! They suddenly produced some really nice-looking Stainless Steel Mossberg shotguns
and went tearing after the shooter, lights flashing and sirens whining. (This was back in the days of compressed air-sirens, not those puny two-tone electronic things we have, nowadays.)They had asked us to hang around in the area to give a statement, so we turned the boat in slow circles and watched all the excitement. (From a safe distance!)
They took the guy into custody and an officer directed us to the ramp where they wanted to take our statement and to also inspect our boat for any lobster. By then, the FMP had arrived and taken the shooter's lobster boat in tow. Since we had just gotten started, we didn't even have any lobsters aboard.
The guy turned out to be an illegal Cuban immigrant, using his Uncle's boat, and with an un-registered firearm and apparently, no inkling of just how many charges he was about to face.
Ya say, somebody closed off the air supply to your Brownie's 3rd lung?
Yeah? Well . . . . have you ever been SHOT AT??!!?? WELL, HAVE YA, DUDE??
Please.
Another Story:
John U Lloyd State Park was originally the site of the Naval Surface Weapons Testing Center, during WWII. They ran numerous submarine cables out from there alongside the Port Everglades jetties, and transmitted low frequency signals through those cables to communicate with subs, off-shore. When they laid the cables, they would dump piles of stones to hold the cable down and allow the cable ship to pay out more cable, dump more stones and continue on.
One year, me and my dive buddy, John, realized that if we went in from shore next to the jetties (and braved the wave action that could slam you against the jetties, if you weren't careful!)
you could find a cable and simply follow it to the nearest pile of granite. Lobsters lived inside those piles, like they thought it was an exclusive condominium. Just follow the cable to the next pile and repeat, until you were done. Made it very easy to limit out from a beach dive, unusual for most divers at that time.
We did that for many years, until that Fateful Day, that Technology caught up and overtook us.
LCD displays and high resolution transducers were revolutionizing the fish finder industry and like all the other cheaper-by-the-million products produced by the Japanese, allowed a fish-finder depth-sounder type sonar, on most every boat, out there.
John and me arrived at the beach that morning, to see a boat perched over every one of our "spots".
We did NOT have a good year, that year.
The Fates got the last laugh,
however.Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, scattered all the rock piles, putting the shore divers and boat divers on an equal footing, once again.
So I know well, the feeling of having "your lobster spot" taken from you; just never tried to kill anybody, over it.
True story(s),
Charles Brennan
#94
TSBB General Talk / Re: Washboards vs opening Comp...
Last post by Spot - Aug 06, 2026, 07:27 PMThanks Noemi!
Trying to decide if I should attempt something similar with the companionway.
I would need to source the trim and maybe a couple of hooks to allow the screen to make the bend from the bulkhead to inside the cabin top.
Trying to decide if I should attempt something similar with the companionway.
I would need to source the trim and maybe a couple of hooks to allow the screen to make the bend from the bulkhead to inside the cabin top.
#95
TSBB General Talk / Re: Washboards vs opening Comp...
Last post by Noemi - Ensenada 20 - Aug 06, 2026, 05:02 PMThat looks great!
#96
TSBB General Talk / Re: New Boat
Last post by Ed - Aug 06, 2026, 07:54 AM This kind of light hearted ribbing reminds me of the Chief's Mess. No matter how good or bad things were you could always depend on the Mess to kick you a little, in a kind way, just to keep you straight. I do miss those days, thanks for reminding me, ya'll. 
#97
TSBB General Talk / Re: New Boat
Last post by Doug SC - Aug 05, 2026, 09:24 PMWax on Wax off. Not exactly waxing poetic are we.
#98
TSBB General Talk / Re: New Boat
Last post by Noemi - Ensenada 20 - Aug 05, 2026, 08:47 PMWoody Wax is the EXACT opposite of Brazilian wax....
#100
TSBB General Talk / Re: A Trailer Sailor on the Gr...
Last post by Bob K - Aug 05, 2026, 12:34 PMDinghy nameed "Judy B"??