By Metalman
December 26, 2000
This is a story about digger fishing it is not exactly what it sounds like. As far as I know there is no such thing as a digger fish but my friend Rick might try to tell you otherwise. It was a Friday afternoon and my boy and I were itching for a outing. So I loaded up the truck with poles and tackle and headed to the school house to get the boy when he got out I had already decided to take up a offer I had gotten. So I picked up my boy and asked him if he would like to go digger fishing down in FtMeyers in the gulf of Mexico which would be our first ocean fishing trip. Heck yea he says. We arrived down there from Orlando, FL about 3 1/2 hours later and the boy was primed and so was I. All we had to do was find an old friend of mine that had went to Ft Meyers on a fishing trip and never came back. But he assured me on the phone that he was established there now and on very good terms with the bait n wait store man what ever that was suppose to mean, which I would come to find out later though. I was not for sure who was going to get the most enjoyment out of this fishing trip. All I can say is my friend Rick couldn’t get the grin off his face after seeing us. All he can say is load up in the fishing mobile, which is really a Jeep station wagon that usually has a cat or two hanging around it. As we headed out he tells of a place that is on the way to San Carlos Bay, something to stick to our ribs he says because we will be out all night fishing. So we ended up at a little place called the split rail which by the way gets a A in my book for good home cooking. So we had our meal and ordered a side order of biscuits and gravy to go. Just down the street was the bait n wait tackle so off we went with Rick toting the biscuits and gravy and a gleam in his eye knowing he had achieved his bakers dozen with the bait n wait man John. But someone should have named this man Paul Bunion if you ask me. I think Rick said he was a bouncer in Detroit MI before he came to FL. But old Rick had already figured out how to get on the good side of this fellow from Michigan, which by the way is loads of information if you have the time to take notes. He was extremely happy with his biscuits and gravy and decided to let me add my own bill up for our 3 dozen of shrimp, 4 steel liters and some 15lb tess line for me and my boy that was a mistake, if he hands you a calculator beware. It is better to have him figure your bills you will get a better deal. After we got some fishing information from Paul Bunion we headed for San Carlos Bridge have you got $3 my friend says for the toll but it is really worth it just to see the sights if nothing else, after we unloaded with our poles my friend Digger spit on our poles assuring my boy and I this was good luck for the type of fishing we were about to do so we took it in good faith while he explained how to put one of them shrimps on our hook within 10 minutes I had caught my first ocean trout and was pretty happy about that. During this time he had caught a whole mess of greenies (bait fish) with a cast net purchased from bait n wait he tells me it saves him a whole mess of money. At this point we have all the bait we will need for the nights fishing but we want to relocate under the bridge so therefore he tells me to release my trout because it was bad luck to tote only one fish around. Didn’t much like that but I put my best foot forward and gave it back to the ocean and off to the other side of the bridge we went where I caught more different fish on one night then I ever did before trout, perch, snapper, lady fish, sting ray, cat fish, and some I don’t remember the names of. My friend told me the manatee was a one man submarine that was really funny ha ha ha. Well we spent another grueling day and finally wore out our small reels catching fish guess I will be going back with the wife and daughter soon I am sure I will get another good story about that.
