Bill's Stories About Growing Up
in Pistol Ridge, Mississippi
Written and Compiled by Bill Bounds
Fishing Stories
BRIAN, ERIC AND THE REMORAS
(~1998)
By Bill Bounds
After trolling for Mackerel, Ben, Brian, Eric and I anchored over a sunken Liberty ship about 12 miles offshore from Orange Beach, Alabama. Brian and Eric spotted some fish about 20 inches long swimming around the boat.
Eric said, “Uncle Bill, I think I can gaff those. Can Brian and I try to catch them with the gaff hook?”
I looked over the gunwales of the boat and identified the fish as Remoras (Pilot Fish). These nuisance fish rob the bait from hooks while snapper fishing.
I told them to catch all they could. They took turns gaffing the fish and flipping them into the boat. I was tying on snapper rigs, while they were having fun gaffing fish out of the water and into the boat.
Plop! I heard a fish hit the back of the boat. I looked at it and identified it as an under-legal limit size Ling (also called Cobia or Lemon fish).
They had gaffed about a dozen fish and almost half of them were the undersize Ling. I almost panicked and told them to immediately throw those overboard because the fine for undersize Ling on the boat at that time was $200.00 per fish!
We continued fishing and caught snapper and beeliners even as the remaining Remoras continued to rob the snapper bait as we lowered the snapper rigs into the water.
"Hey, Grandaddy! When will it be my turn?"
Fishing buddies - Bill Bounds and Ryan Owens at Grandmother Ida's pond.
ALL YOU CAN EAT???
(~1980)
By Bill Bounds
Hurricane Frederick in 1979 heavily damaged our cottage at Bear Point, AL. I hired Porter and Wesley Rawls to come for a week and paid them to work for six days. All three of us worked as hard as we could from daylight til dark. We wanted to try to complete the repair and expand the size of the cottage that week. I was the “gopher”. We had been surviving on sandwiches and canned goods all week. The “gopher” is the worker who keeps the skilled workers supplied with nails, lumber, saw blades, food, etc, needed on the job site.
One work day as I passed a local restaurant I noticed a sign that said “All the Seafood You can Eat $7.95 Open at 5 pm.” Man, did that sound great after a few days of dry cereal, sardines, potted meat, bologna, crackers and vienna sausage.
After I got the needed building supplies to Porter and Wesley, I told them about the restaurant sign. We agreed to work long and hard until it got dark. Then we would get cleaned up, go to the restaurant and eat all the seafood we wanted that night. I had never before seen two men work as hard as Porter and Wesley did. We worked until it was too dark to see how to work.
We took cold showers, put on clean clothes and headed for the restaurant. We got there about 8:30 p.m. and ordered all the seafood we could eat.
It was about 8:50 when the waitress brought the first platter of fried shrimp, oysters, fish, crab claws, etc. to our table. Porter told the waitress, “We’ll have all this eaten in a few minutes, please fix us another batch of this fried seafood.”
In a few minutes the waitress came back with the additional platter of seafood. She looked a bit annoyed. As she took the emptied platters away, Wesley said to her, “Bring some more platters of seafood out here. We’ll finish these up shortly.”
The waitress was getting a very frustrated look on her face. She said, “We usually close at 9:00 p.m.” Wesley said, “Ma’am, your sign says all you can eat.” She went away frowning but came back in about fifteen minutes with the additional platters of seafood.
I asked Porter and Wesley if that was enough seafood. They both said, “No, tell her to bring some more.” I got the waitress’s attention and told her we would need additional platters of seafood. She got a stony look on her face and said, “I don’t know how anybody can eat as much as you guys do!”
After a while, she brought out the 4th batch of fried seafood. With the fourth refill, we had about all we could eat.
The only ones smiling as we left the restaurant were Porter, Wesley and myself. I think the restaurant people were glad to see us go. I don’t think they made any money that evening.
UNCOMMON WAYS TO GET FISH
INTO THE FRYING PAN
(~1945-1950)
By Bill Bounds
I. Stove piping for fish
A 30-inch section of old fashioned six-inch diameter metal stovepipe, a carbide headlight, a croaker sack, a small clear water creek, and no fear of water moccasins was all that was needed to catch fish from the creek for the frying pan.
We would wade upstream through the shallow areas of the creek, looking for small fish laying up for the night in shallow water.
We sighted the fish through the pipe and jabbed the pipe down around him. The fish would be trapped in the pipe. We then reached into the pipe, manhandled him out of the pipe into the croaker sack.
We continued until we had caught enough fish for the frying pan.
2. Stunning fish
Firing a 22 cal. rifle near the fish would stun it. We would use the carbide light to hunt the fish at night as described above.
We would ease the end of the rifle barrel into the water near the fish and fire the rifle. The fish would be stunned, float to the top to be caught by hand and placed in the croaker sack. We would hunt and shoot until we had enough fish for the frying pan.
3. Gigging fish
We would find the fish as described above. Before finding the fish for gigging, we homemade a gig by straightening 3 fish hooks, and attaching the straightened hooks to the end of a straight pole, usually a discarded broomstick. When a fish was found, the gig was plunged into the fish. The barbs on the straightened hooks kept the fish from getting away. This was a messy way to obtain fish, because the fish now had 3 holes stuck through him, and the barbs tore the fish when removed from the gig to the croaker sack. We would hunt and gig until we had enough for the frying pan.
Some of these methods for obtaining fish are probably illegal now. Find out if they are legal before using them. Watch out for the water moccasins.
These were usually very small fish, when fried crisply, and we ate the bones which were easy to chew and swallow.
This reminds me of another DV`s saying; “ If a fish has one eye and three scales on each side of its body, the fish is big enough for the frying pan.”
Another DV saying, when he was ready to load his family into family vehicle for a trip; ALL ABOARD! ALL ABOARD! If you can`t get a board, get a plank!!
FAMILY FUNNIES -
MAYBE NOT SO FUNNY
(~1976)
By Bill Bounds
Mark and I were fishing for Red Snapper, Beeliners, Spadefish and Amberjack about twelve miles off shore from Orange Beach, Alabama. The water was about 90 feet deep. We anchored our boat over a sunken Liberty Ship. The sunken ship attracted many types of fish.
The fishing was slow. There was a local shark fishing tournament in progress. Several of the shark fishing boats anchored near us and were chumming (baiting) for shark. The chumming had caused several large sharks to come near the boats.
In the meantime, a large school of spadefish was circling around our boat. Mark rigged up a small Zebco fishing rod and reel to catch some spadefish. The school of fish would come and go from the front, and sides to the back of our boat. Mark was constantly moving from place to place in the boat catching the spadefish.
While Mark fished, I was squatting down on the floor of the boat rigging some heavy fishing tackle to try to catch a shark. Mark was walking the gunwale of the boat following the spadefish.
I suddenly heard a big splash alongside the boat. I looked over the gunwale (side wall of the boat) and all I could see was a giant mass of bubbles coming up. I thought, “Where’s Mark?” I didn’t see him in the boat. I looked over the gunwale of the boat again and saw two big eyes coming up through the bubbles.
It was Mark and it didn’t take much effort to lift him over the side of the boat to safety. He stood there with his rod and reel looking over the side to see if any sharks had followed him up.
Mark said, “Look, I didn’t even lose my fishing rod while swimming with the sharks.”
Bull shark swimming near our boat
http://www.beaufortsportfishing.com/shark-fishing-charters-in-beaufort-sc
Still fishing buddies- Bill Bounds and Ryan Owens
VERNON FALLS OFF THE BOAT
HA!! HA!! HA!!
(~1986)
By Bill Bounds
Vernon and I had launched my 20-foot boat into Billy Goat Hole at Dauphin Island. There were several teenage boys from a camping site nearby watching us.
I started the motor and put it in reverse to back away from the launching ramp pier. Vernon was squatting on the bow of the boat coiling up the boat’s bowline.
I gave the motor a bit too much gas, causing Vernon to flip backwards over the low safety rail and into the water.
I immediately shut the motor off, picked up a floatation device and looked for Vernon. He came up swimming. I tossed him the flotation device and he climbed from the water back into the boat.
All was quiet, except for the group of young teenagers on shore watching us. They were laughing, hooting and hollering. One yelled loudly, “Do it again, that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen!”
Vernon and I have had several good laughs about it too.
CATCHING SHARKS—NOT ME!!
(~1970)
By Bill Bounds
DV, Henry and I went by boat to the channel between Horn and Petit Bois islands to catch fish. Several shrimp boats had anchored in the quiet calm water to rest their crews and get some sleep before pulling their nets all night long the next night.
The shrimpers had dumped tons of dead trash fish back into the sea. The dead fish had attracted many sharks to the area. Several of the sharks seemed about as long as my boat. I stopped the boat, hastily attached a heavy leader and line to a large hook and baited it with a large croaker fish. I dropped the baited hook into the water.
I was looking forward to seeing Henry or DV trying to reel in a six to ten foot shark. DV and Henry were both sitting on the highest place in my boat, the windshield, with their feet up on the back of the boat seats and gripping the metal windshield frame with their hands.
I offered the fishing rod to DV, but he wouldn’t take it. I offered the fishing rod to Henry. He wouldn’t take it either.
About that time a large shark took the bait and took off through the sea. After setting the hook, I again offered the rod to Henry or DV. Neither of them would take it as they were trying to get higher and higher up in the boat. The big shark broke the line.
I decided that it was time to find another fishing place where no large sharks were visible. I got the message loud and clear that DV nor Henry wanted any part of shark fishing.
RIDING THE SWELLS FOR FISH
(~1982)
By Bill Bounds
Vernon and I were fishing along with other boats for Bluefish and Spanish Mackerel by trolling spoons and dusters over the sandbar located just southwest of Perdido Pass, near Orange Beach, AL.
Large swells of water started coming in from the southeast. We were catching lots of fish by riding and trolling the front of these swells over the sandbar. We and the other boats, after riding these swells across the bar, would circle around and again ride the front of the large swells across the sandbar.
We had made several passes over the bar without any difficulty. These swells of water looked like large moving hills and valleys.
We had lots of fish, but decided to make one more pass over the bar. I circled the boat around and got in front of a large swell and began to troll across the bar.
Vernon hollered, “Uncle Bill, look behind you.” I turned and looked and there was a rogue wave of breaking water about 30 feet high coming straight towards us. I reached for the throttle to try to outrun the wave, but before I found it, the wave picked up the back of the boat to about a 45 degree angle.
I fell into the windshield of the boat. Vernon fell to the floor of the boat. Our boat was riding in front of the wave like a surfboard. The boat then turned sideways and was leaning at about a 45 degree angle, still riding in front of the wave.
After getting across the sandbar, the wave smoothed out and the boat righted itself. Almost no water had gotten into the boat.
I was laying flat on the floor with my hand on the steering wheel. Vernon was laying on the floor between the motor cover and the gunwale. He was grinning at me and said, “Uncle Bill, I think it’s time to head home.”
I didn’t argue with him.
I planed off the boat and headed to Perdido Pass for calm water. Dusters and spoons were bouncing behind the boat like crazy. We didn't bother to reel them in until we were safely in calm water.
I don't know what happened to the other boats except that they were coming through the pass to calm water with their dusters and spoons wildly bouncing behind them on the water surface too. I could see no boats riding the swells after the rogue wave. Everyone had returned to calm waters.
