Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
When I was in my twenties I made a decision to leave a secure job, buy a boat and go full time into the charter fishing business. At the time, I anticipated the long hours and sometimes grueling work that would be needed to keep a boat booked and running every day, but I never imagined some of the unexpected and just plain "weird" things that would happen in the years ahead.
Fishing For Deer
One beautiful October morning, we were trolling for bluefish about 9-miles offshore when I noticed something floating just barely above the surface. As we trolled past it my mate looked up and asked, "Is that a dead deer?”
"It sure is," I squawked, "get the lines in and we'll stop on it and try to figure this out.' When we pulled up we could see the 6-point buck looked to be in pretty good shape, so when one of our clients asked if they could get a picture with it just for fun, I didn't see a problem with hauling it aboard for a short photo session.
Once on deck we had the chance to inspect the animal more closely in hopes of finding some kind of clue as to how it ended up being where it was. Probing around we found no evidence of broken bones, bullet or arrow holes and when we pushed on the ribs and water came out its mouth we assumed that it must have drowned. Just out of curiosity I cut into a hind quarter and was surprised that the meat didn't stink or have any signs of spoilage at all. I had never used a fillet knife to skin a deer before, but I did that day! The whole time we all expecting to find something or "anything" that would tell us not to bring the meat home with us, but the more we cut the more we concluded that there didn't seem to be a thing wrong with it, so, you guessed it, besides the fish we caught that day, we brought home a cooler full of venison as well! Oh yeah, and in case you're wondering - it tasted just fine and no one got sick from it.
Huge sharks and bluefish
Many years ago in early May we were headed up to Fenwick Shoal to do some bottom fishing. We had only travelled about five miles to the northeast when we spotted the fin of a very large shark cruising at the surface. Of course, my clients wanted to know what kind of shark it was and from a distance the best I could tell them was judging by the distance between the dorsal and the tail the shark looked to be 15 to 20-feet long and this time of the year and this close to shore the only two options would be either a basking shark or a very large white shark. We tried to get closer to figure it out, but each time we approached the shark it would go deep and then pop up somewhere else.
When someone asked if we could try and catch it I explained how if it was a (plankton eating) basking shark there was no way we could, or even would want to try and catch it. After all, we didn't have any plankton in the bait cooler and I was pretty sure we didn't have any hooks small enough for it if we did, so basking sharks were out for the day. I went on to say that if it's a white shark there might be a chance of getting it to take a bait, but since we didn't have any really heavy tackle onboard the only way we might have a shot at getting such a fish to the boat would be if we connected two of our 50-pound rods to one leader so two anglers could fight it at the same time. So that's what we did! Two rods attached to one leader and as many mackerel (I think it was 3) as we could jam on a 14/0 hook. We motored up into the flight path of the shark, shut the engine off, sank the bait down about 15-feet below the boat and waited for the shark. When it was about 20-yards out it sensed the boat and submerged, but kept coming our way. We could just barely make out its silhouette as it passed under us and over the bait. The reels were in free-spool with just the clickers on and I instructed the clients that if they got a bite that they would have to be in sync with the drop back and setting of the hook. I also reminded them that a basking shark would definitely not take the bait, so if we did get a bite, it would almost certainly be a white shark.
I was barely finished talking when the lines tightened and "click-click-click" - we had a bite! Probably more than anyone else onboard I was in total disbelief that we actually got the bite, and as the anglers did their 3-2-1 countdown to set the hook, my mind was spinning around with thoughts like "Oh no! What are we getting ourselves into?!!”
On "NOW" the two reels were thrown into gear, cranked tight, the hook set and a 12-pound "bluefish" jumped out of the water - dashing our dreams of glory and bringing the level of excitement we'd been trying to contain down to a more manageable level. Apparently a school of bluefish was traveling with the "basking" shark and while a couple mackerel on a stick are of no use to such a plankton eater, at least one of the big fellow's escorts considered it as an easy breakfast. Since then we've had a quite a few basking and white shark encounters, but none that have had us so worked up and confused as that one.
Cold Dolphin
We were trolling around the Hot Dog area and hoping for a tuna or anything else that might find our spread attractive when we got a bite on the left rigger. No sooner had the rod bent over before the fish was in the air and we saw that we had a nice size dolphin on the line. After the first couple jumps the dolphin simmered down,. allowing the angler to quickly get it to the boat. As my mate grabbed the leader he made some kind of indiscernible remark that had me confused until he swung the fish over the transom and I saw that it was wearing a down vest!
Yes, that's right, I said a "down vest". Just like you or I would wear on a chilly day, it was wrapped around its body and the dolphin's head was poking out through the collar! Needless to say that at first there was a lot of "What the …?" being repeated by everyone aboard before we came to the conclusion that the vest must have been floating along and after we hooked the dolphin the line was pulled into it and allowed the garment to slide down to and over the fish. The hook impaled on the collar of the vest keeping it right up around the gill area. Mystery solved, dolphin in a vest - go figure!
Best Catch Ever
Some might remember about five years ago when, as a prank, a person (or "persons") pushed a bunch of Bethany Beach lifeguard stands into the water one night. A day or two later we came upon one of the stands that was floating along about 8-miles northeast of Ocean City. Knowing that our good neighbors up in Delaware would probably like to have their chair back, we decided to load it up and bring it in. Of course, being as the large contraption weighed a few hundred pounds, the loading part was easier said than done, but once aboard we were able to stand it up and it fit quite nicely in the cockpit. In fact, it fit so well that on the ride home I had my mate climb up into our new wooden "tuna tower" for a quick photo.
We unloaded the stand at the Ocean City Fishing Center and notified the folks in Delaware. The next day I got a call from a writer from a local paper who said they were doing a story on the stands and asked for some details about the one we found. I gave the fellow some details and offered to send the photo we took of it on the boat. Later I got a call from someone from another paper, then another, then from an online news site, then from someone with a local radio show. I think that before the week was out the story of us bringing in the lifeguard stand was in every local newspaper (our photo made the cover of two), on the radio and all over the internet. In all our years of fishing we've had our share of "moments in the spotlight" when we caught something that got us some good press and free publicity. But I think the simple act of bringing in that lifeguard stand darn-near generated more publicity than the combined total of every fish we've ever caught!
Things happen
There's weird stuff and then there's the stuff that's not so weird as it is just totally unexpected - and probably not in a good way. Every fisherman knows that glitches will routinely occur with their boat, tackle, equipment, weather and crew that will turn a simple day of fishing into anything but routine.
A Threshers Story
It was a hot August afternoon and our lines had only been in the water for fifteen minutes when we were hooked up to something big enough that the 30-pound tackle wasn't slowing it up a bit. So less than ten minutes into the fight we were already off the anchor and chasing the fish to keep from being spooled. A half hour later our suspicions were confirmed when a 300-pound thresher shark broke the surface 200-yards away. Two hours after that we were still dogging the shark when the angler announced that he had a "problem" and held up the "unattached" handle of the reel!
With a big fish on light tackle stretched out a country mile and with no way to crank it in and no extra handle for the reel, we had a problem that needed to be solved really quick! So while I kept the boat moving slowly with the fish, my mate grabbed another rod and stripped off a couple hundred yards of line and cut it. We then moved the boat a little faster towards the fish, purposely putting slack in the line. We quickly cut the line going to the fish and tied it to the line that remained on the other rod and "viola'!" our thresher was now on a fresh new rod and after "two more hours" we had it to the boat for a clean release. Our half day shark trip was indeed unique with one bite, one fish, two rods and hooked up the whole time!
Tuna Trashes Reel
Not unlike our thresher incident, we were once in the middle of fighting a decent sized tuna when suddenly the angler was holding the reel in one hand and the rod in another. The reel seat had broken off the reel leaving no way to reattach the two. To make the best of the situation we formed a three man team. One to hold and pump the rod, one to hold the reel and the other to crank the reel. I can't say that it was a slick and smooth operation, but it did work well enough that we landed the tuna.
Lost Anchor
We had a full day bottom fishing trip and our first stop was one of the shallow wrecks at Fenwick Shoal. After marking the wreck we dropped anchor and allowed the boat to settle back over it. It was a beautiful, calm morning and the fish were biting well so we had hopes of staying for at least a couple of hours before moving on to another structure or two. But after about a half hour I realized that we were drifting. Hustling up to the bow, I checked the anchor line only to find that it had chafed and parted a few feet from the chain! Losing the anchor and sliding away from a good bite was bad enough, but we had a full day to fish and not having a way to set-up properly on a wreck was not going to enhance our chances for success.
We needed an anchor, and knowing that there was a perfectly good one nearby and just 25-feet down I chose the only option, I had my mate take the wheel and maneuver the boat back over the wreck, donning my snorkel gear I swam down with the parted end of our anchor line, found the anchor and tied the two frayed lines back together. After a quick return to the surface for a breath of air, I went down once more and repositioned the anchor on the bottom so that the line was no longer rubbing on the rusted structure. When I left the dock that morning I didn't expect to go for a swim that day, but sometimes you just gotta do what you just gotta do!
Crazy clients
Not every angler pops out of the same mold. Those who choose to plunk down their hard earned money to step aboard a boat for a day of fishing represent a diverse cross section of humanity. Some are just like you and me, and (maybe fortunately) some are very different. The different people I've met over the years have run the gamut from intriguing to taxing and everything in-between.
Dolphin Caught & Wife Lost
We had three guys and a woman aboard the boat one day and the woman caught a big dolphin. At the end of the day the fish was weighed at the marina and while it was hanging, the group posed with it for a photo that appeared in the Coastal Fisherman newspaper. The next year, two of the men returned for another trip. I asked how the woman and the other guy were doing and I was told that they were engaged to be married. Mentioning that I thought they were already married, I was told that last year they were only "dating" and that the guy's "wife" became privy to the affair and filed for divorce when she saw the picture of him, the fish and the woman in the paper. A year later, the two guys were back again, and when I asked about how the "newlyweds" were doing they told me that a few months after the wedding the woman left the guy for someone else. To this day I still feel a little responsible for that fiasco - if only I had steered the boat left instead of right we would never have caught that dolphin and none of it might have happened!
Experts and Egos
Most of the best fishermen I know are very modest about their angling skills, allowing actions and results to do the talking for them. Then there are those who rail on about themselves so much that you'd think they invented the sport. I had one such fellow who, while booking a charter over the phone, painted himself as quite the experienced angler. Prior to the trip, during the trip and even after the trip, all he talked about was how good he was at catching fish. Of course, his credibility began to wain the moment he picked up a spinning reel and tried to use it with the reel on top of the rod. When I gently suggested that type of reel is designed to hang below the rod, he became somewhat indignant saying, "That's the way we do it up north.” Reluctantly, he flipped the reel over and proceeded to crank it backwards until the handle unscrewed and came off in his hand. Then he looked at me and asked, "What kind of goofy reels do you have on this boat anyway?" Experts and egos can make for a revealing day on the water!
Women Rule!
We had a party of two married couples aboard for an offshore shark trip that didn't exactly turn out as planned. All week the fishing had been good and the conditions seemed right, but we fished all day without a bite. On days like that it's not uncommon for clients to start getting antsy and start grumbling a bit wondering if the trip is going to be a bust. Instead, as we went through the day the two men sat quietly at the dinette table and read books while the two women hung out on deck with my mate and excitedly talking, asking questions and helping with the lines - in other words "fishing".
Finally, our time was up and as much as I hated to give in to a "skunking" I announced that it was time to bring in the lines and head home, but just as we were cranking in the last bait a mako came in from behind and ate it! For the next hour the two women were in total amazement of the runs, the jumps and the power of the shark as they took turns fighting the 200 or so pounder to the boat. During the entire time the two men sat quietly at the table and watched from a distance. I was happy to see that at least they put their books down!
After the ladies got the shark to the boat and we were preparing for the ride home, I asked the group, "Well, was it worth the wait?" To which both women agreed that it was one of the greatest adventures they've ever had and the shark was a perfect ending to a great day! As he reopened his book, one of the men quietly squeaked out, "It sure took a long time to get a bite."
I know that this planet is full of women who are excellent anglers and very passionate about fishing - in fact I'm married to one, so I'm not going to suggest that the men should have been the ones who were more excited over the fishing trip than the women. But the way that day unfolded was just kind of weird and when it was all over and we were back at the dock with the boat cleaned up and the clients gone, my mate and I had a few minutes to sit down and recount what just happened. I remember him saying, "That was really bizarre. We'll never see anything as strange as that again!” It was his first year working on a charter boat so I cut him a little slack and just told him, "Don't bet on it. We've got a whole summer ahead and I've got a feeling that you ain't seen nothing yet!"
Capt. Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat, “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center. During the winter months, Capt. Mark runs charters in the Lower Keys.
