An oldie, but a goody!
R8 Naval Towers
Depth 143
3138.00 7955.52
Back in the good
old days when I fished the blue waters of the stream a minimum of 100 days a
year I had a fish catching blast. I am
not going to say, “Every day brought large catches, but I can say it was very
interesting for sure!” While at my
inshore school this past weekend, (offshore school is Saturday February 11, 2012) I had a fisherman give me a current blue water
report. He told me that he had caught
some nice black fin tuna last week while trolling around the R8 Naval Tower,
which brought back some big memories for me.
For some reason
blue water fish always seemed to be drawn to this naval tower. I always could count on this area to offer
some sort of bite. When we were actually
catching yellow fin tuna the biggest one I ever caught was while making a pass
by the R 8 Naval. It weighted in at
about 75 pounds. It took about an hour
to land this big fish. I caught it while
pulling a #3 planer, which had 30 feet leader.
The fish hit a ballyhoo that was rigged on a three hook rig. Every time we got the yellow fin to the boat
and we tried to work the leader the fish made another powerful run. All fishermen hearts were on over drive that
day!! Believe me I remember this fish
day that like it was only yesterday!!
This tower always
held the interest of all kinds of fish, which means all of fish, came here to feel safe while others
came to feed! I remember one time that
the horn got stuck on the wide open mode, which meant it really did hurt our
ears. However, even though the horn was
stuck for days once we got there and started catching fish the noise just
seemed to disappear. Proving once again
fishermen only hear what they want to!!
Please always check predicted weather conditions before
heading out!
Providing
Daddy and I are sitting on a bench in the yard. This was taken right after the fire and the
house had been totally repaired. This
picture was taken on my father’s Birthday on July 22, 1970.
Our house was fire and of course
it was my fought!!
As a young adult I almost burned
our house completely down. I was in the
process of making French fries one evening and I kind of got side tracked. I guess I need to start from the
beginning. Our kitchen was basically one
big room. We didn’t have hardly any cabinets as you think most kitchens
have. Our kitchen sink was what I called
a console type. The double sink came
complete with its own cabinet. That was actually the only cabinet in the
kitchen. Our dishes were stacked in a
corner shelf arrangement. In other words
someone had cut wooden triangles so that fit into the corners, which ended up
making some pretty nice shelving. Our tons of can goods were stored in the walk
in pantry, which was very cool. I bet we
were the only family on the island that had a build in grocery store. The kitchen was basically open with lots of
room for stuff that didn’t belong there.
Now I will start the house on fire
story. I was just about to fry up some
home made French fries when it happened.
I got side tracked, the oil got too hot, and starting that popping
thing. The hot balls of oil ignited
becoming flying grease balls, which started soaring across the kitchen landing
in all direction. In the middle of the
room was a pile of almost brand new large adult life jackets. Now back in the old day’s life jacket were
made of 100% cotton or should I say, “Some very flammable material!” When the grease balls landed on the outer
cloth of the life jacket big flames immediately got started.
Right before I heated up the
grease to put the fries on I had put something else into to the oven. On a prior occasion I had been out on the
town to a fancy restaurant and my date had offered me a taste of one of his
escargot. I reluctantly gave them a
try. The escargot, which is nothing more
than snails cooked in a shell, tasted good.
I went home and told my father about them. We decided to make some. So I went to the grocery store and believe it
or not I purchased the snails in a can with their shells attached to the
top.
On this particular evening Daddy
and I were going to make some escargot in the oven. After preparing the buttery garlic sauce I
dropped the snails in the sauce pan getting them really for the “stuffing in
the shells!” While stuffing them in
their shells I decided that French fries would be a good idea. So that’s were the cooking of the fries
came into play. My father was already
on his second brown liquor drink and he wasn’t feeling a whole lot of
pain. I could hear him talking with our
next door neighbor, Mr. Bridges. They
were talking about fishing while he stood on our dock and Mr. Bridges was on
his. Come to think about it, we still talk
from dock to dock now. In fact, I just
talked to Mr. Bridges yesterday as he was walking down his dock and I was
coming up from mine. I guess you could
say, “It’s a neighborhood tradition!”
With the snails, oops I mean
escargot in the oven, I started peeling potatoes. After that job was done I made ready the big
black frying pan. I dipped enough Crisco
into it so that once melted it would be at least half full. And then it happened, Daddy yelled, come out
here I got to tell you something!! At
that moment to which I remember to this day I turned and ran out of the kitchen
never looking back until it was much too late.
As I talked to daddy out in the yard I heard popping noises in the
background, but I paid no attention.
Daddy was telling me about Mr. Bridges catching a boat load of spotted
sea trout. He was suggesting that we go
tomorrow and catch us a few. I was all
ears to what he was saying. After our 20
minute conversation was over I turned to see the kitchen in total flames and
smoke screaming out of the back door. At
that moment I remembered the grease on the stove and the peeled potatoes
soaking in the sink.
My father screamed, “Run to Mr.
Bridges’s house and get them to call the fire department. As soon as the fire engine roared down our
driveway, firemen, which we all knew, started doing what they do best, “putting
out the fire!” It didn’t take them, but
a few minutes to stop the flames. My
father motioned for one of the firemen to come over, as I looked up I saw that
it was Chuck Fischer, a long time friend of the family. Daddy said, “Chuck please find my bottle it
was on the kitchen table!” After talking
with Chuck later, he told me that he though that daddy wanted him to look for
something valuable in the house. I said,
“At the time the bottle was valuable to him, he wanted a drink and the island liquor
store was closed.” We both laughed. As soon as daddy got his drink fixed, he
pulled up a chair, sat, and began watching more thoroughly as the firemen
completed pulling out the rest of the fire.
As Chuck made way by daddy he
pulled on his coat and asked if he didn’t mine bringing him the escargot that
was still in the oven. It was his
thoughts that they were most likely
done at this point! While daddy
and I sat in chairs outside he drank his brown liquor drink and we both ate
escargot!!
As you might have already guessed,
the fire was put out quickly, and the house at one end had to be completely
gutted. The other end where my bedroom
was had so much water and smoke damage that it needed lots of fixing too!
I did learn a lot from this
fire. The first is never leave oil
melting on the stove. Second, never
leave to go outside to start talking about fishing. And I would like to say, “Oven cooked snail
that happen to be cooking while the house was burning can turn out pretty darn
good.” And it has been said by many that
“Eating by a fire always is a good thing!” And
I have to agree with them!!
PS: When you are chewing the snails and not the
shells they came in there is a definite crunching noise made. I later learned that this is the noise made
from breaking up the snail’s many rows of teeth. Now I can definitely say, “No more escargot
and their cracked teeth for me!”
Thanks for reading! Captain Judy
Captain Judy Helmey
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