Loading...
January 26, 2006 - Focusing on Florida findsSA • The Suffolk Times • January 26, 2006 Here In Florida some of the snowy egrets (left), which are usually leery of man in our area, have lost that fear, as we see here, where one Is looking for a hand- out from a man cleaning his fish. This sheepshead (above) Is one of the marry kinds of fish people go for when fishing the various piers along Florida's Gulf Coast. A snowman — no — a sandman made with the fine packing sand found along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Suffolk Imes photos by Barbara and Paul Stoutenburph Focusing on Florida finds WE'RE BACK DOWN on the Gulf Coast of Florida and having a ball just doing whatever fits the day. One day it might be a walk along the seven miles of public beach on the Gulf with its dunes and stands of sea oats. Another day it might be photograph- ing the pelicans that drift by with no apparent effort. The sand here is not like ON the sand of our great beach- es that face the mighty Atlantic along the south shore. This is a much finer sand, able to be packed into solid forms. Our grandkids came down a few weeks ago and actually made a snowman — no, a sandman — because of the easy pack- ing ability of the sand. This makes it easy for the budding sculptors who create great castles, 10- foot4ong al- ligators and other wonders out of this excellent sand. Today we took a trolley down to its last stop and then walked a quarter of a mile to a gigantic flea market that's called "Thieves' Market." What a con- glomeration of odds and ends. We had no television here and were going to buy one at the first chance we could, but at the market we found one for $5. Yes $5. "Is it color ?" Yes. "Does it take tapes?' Yes. "Why are you selling it?" "rm getting a whole new elec- tronics system and have no use for it" Could this be true? We said we'd take it — but then how would we get it back to our place? Seems every day the owner of the TV stops in at a particular bar near us at 3 p.m. to have some refresh- ments "You could meet me there at 3 p.m.," he said. Focus "OK." Sure enough, at 3 p.m. there was our man. We got our TV and it works great! We couldn't believe our good luck. It just goes to show you what can un- ravel if you get up and ex- plore the possibilities. Yesterday we tried fish- ing off the pier that sticks out into the bay behind us.Tbere are always some diehard fishermen and fisher - women hanging their poles over the side. We used worms for bait but oth- ers used small crabs and some used live shrimp, which, by the way, looked good enough to take home and eat. They were catching a type of porgy called a sheepshead. They are some- what like our porgies but have five to seven broad, vertical black stripes running the length of their body.Tbe part I felt that closely resembles our porgies was the rigid scales and sharp fins that anyone who has handled por- gies knows all too well. We didn't have any luck fishing but we did fairly well crabbing. I pulled in NATURE by Paul Stoutenburgh !t Van Kemenade Best Paint....... Best Advice: OPEN �. SUNDAYS l Benjamin Moore° - Paints 1604 Main Road, Jamesport 722-3113 Hours: Mon - Fri 7 - 61 Sat S - S; Sun "- 3 three nice blue -claw crabs that were dining on my bait. Barbara hustled them into the bucket for later con - sumption.This was our first attempt at pier fishing. We're told there is no fishing license necessary if you use the piers, but if you fish from a boat or from shore you have to have a license. We did catch one nice blowfish, which reminded me of years ago when blowfish were plentiful in our bays. I know I've mentioned this before, but I wonder how many of you remember that era of the blowfish. At first it was a time of frustration for the fisherman, for the blowfish became experts at stealing your bait. The only good part in those early days about blowfish was that they kept the kids happy playing with them. They'd scratch their bellies and giggle as the blowfish pumped themselves into a ball with air. Then came the revelation:'Ibey were delicious eating and the best part was that they had no pesky fish bones. The only drawback was that you had to know how to skin them. For those who could clean them, it was 1,2,3,4, and the fish was ready for the pan. We never wore gloves when we cleaned a mess of them; the result was that our fingertips were shredded as if we'd sandpapered them, but that never stopped us from cleaning them. Today, if you're lucky, you might run across blowfish in the local fish mar- ket, where they are called "chicken of the sea." But back to the blue -claw crab. The sight of those blue-claw crabs I brought up on my fishing line brought back fond memories of crabbing in our local creeks back home. From my earliest memories, I cherish those carefree days of walking through our shallow -water creeks with a crab net, poking each clump of seaweed in hopes of finding a soft crab or chasing out a hard -shell crab. And then there was the wonder how marina. This was forbidden many of yoU territory according to the remember owner, and he did his best to keep us kids out of this that era of fruitful place for catching the blowflSh. crabs on the pilings. The best and easiest crabs to catch were on those multi- tudes of pilings found in the marina. It was a challenge for us kids to sneak in and scoop the hard crabs off with little effort Occasionally a catch of crabs would be left unattended overnight in the tub. Sometimes one or two would climb out and head down the road or, worse yet, crawl under the porch and die. After a week or so the smell would give them away. Luckily those occasions only happened once in a while. The usual way we ate crabs was out- side on an old, wooden table. News- papers were put down and the pot of cooked crabs would be dumped in the center of the table, where everyone grabbed their choice "pickin's" The big top shell would be taken off. Here my dad always dug in with a spoon to get at the mustard (fat) in each end of the shell. Nutcrackers and hammers would be passed around to crack the claws open. We were taught to get every last bit of meat out of our crab before we went for another.That meant work- ing the legs between our teeth while gradually pulling the leg•. This forced the meat out. They used to say that when our family made a meal of crabs, the yellow jackets would have a hard time fording anything to eat! MATTITUCK SANITATION EAST END ECOLOGY LTD. 800 WICKHAM AVE, MATTITUCK, NY John DiVello & Sons RESIDENTIAL l COMMERCIAL GARBOLOGISTS Container Service 1 yd, t ough TyT Roll-Off Service 15 yd. through 30 yd. 298 -8888 Serving Riverhead & Southold Township J The Suffolk Times • January 26, 2006 0 Focusin on Florida finds a dui � R MLL Here in Florida some of the snowy egrets (left), which are usually leery of man in our area, have lost that fear, as we see here, where one is looking for a hand- out from a man cleaning his fish. This sheepshead (above) is one of the many kinds of fish people go for when fishing the various piers along Florida's Gulf Coast. A snowman — no — a sandman made with the fine packing sand found along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Suffolk Times photos by Barbara and Paul Stoutenburgh WE'RE BACK DOWN on the Gulf Coast of Florida and having a ball just doing whatever fits the day. One day it might be a walk along the seven miles of public beach on the Gulf, with its dunes and stands of sea oats. Another day it might be photograph- ing the pelicans that drift by with no apparent effort. The sand here is not like the sand of our great beach - es that face the mighty Atlantic along the south shore. This is a much finer sand, able to be packed into solid forms. Our grandkids came down a few weeks ago and actually made a snowman — no, a sandman — because of the easy pack- ing ability of the sand. This makes it easy for the budding sculptors who ,create great castles, 10- foot -long al- ligators and other wonders out of this excellent sand. F®CUS ON NATURE by Paul Stoutenburgh 0, dui � R MLL Here in Florida some of the snowy egrets (left), which are usually leery of man in our area, have lost that fear, as we see here, where one is looking for a hand- out from a man cleaning his fish. This sheepshead (above) is one of the many kinds of fish people go for when fishing the various piers along Florida's Gulf Coast. A snowman — no — a sandman made with the fine packing sand found along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Suffolk Times photos by Barbara and Paul Stoutenburgh WE'RE BACK DOWN on the Gulf Coast of Florida and having a ball just doing whatever fits the day. One day it might be a walk along the seven miles of public beach on the Gulf, with its dunes and stands of sea oats. Another day it might be photograph- ing the pelicans that drift by with no apparent effort. The sand here is not like the sand of our great beach - es that face the mighty Atlantic along the south shore. This is a much finer sand, able to be packed into solid forms. Our grandkids came down a few weeks ago and actually made a snowman — no, a sandman — because of the easy pack- ing ability of the sand. This makes it easy for the budding sculptors who ,create great castles, 10- foot -long al- ligators and other wonders out of this excellent sand. F®CUS ON NATURE by Paul Stoutenburgh ioaay we took a trolley down to its last stop and then walked a quarter of a mile to a gigantic flea market that's called "Thieves' Market." What a con- glomeration of odds and ends. We had no television here and were going to buy one at the first chance. we could, but at the market we found one for $5. Yes. $5. "Is it color ?" Yes. "Does it take tapes ?" Yes. "Why are you selling it ?" "I'm getting a whole new elec- tronics system and have no use for it." Could this be true? We said we'd take it — but then how would we get it back to our place? Seems every day the owner of the TV stops in at a particular bar near us at 3 p.m. to have some refresh ments. "You could meet me there at 3 p.m.," he said. "OK." Sure enough, at 3 p.m. there was our man. We got our TV and it works great! We'couldn't believe our good luck. It just goes to show you what can un- ravel if you get up and ex- plore the possibilities. Yesterday we tried fish_ - mg o e pier that sticks out into the bay behind us. There are always some diehard fishermen and fisher - women hanging their poles over the side. We used worms for bait but oth- ers used small crabs and some used live shrimp, which, by the way, looked good enough to take home and eat. They were catching a type of porgy called a sheepshead. They are some- what like our porgies but have five to.seven broad, vertical black stripes running the length of their body. The part I felt that closely resembles our porgies was the rigid scales and sharp fins that anyone who has handled por- gies knows all too well. We didn't have any luck fishing but Iwe did fairly well crabbing. I pulled in I wonder hot many of you remember that era of the blowfish. three nice blue -claw crabs that were dining on my bait. Barbara hustled them into the bucket for later con- sumption. This was our first attempt at pier fishing. We're told there is no fishing license necessary if you use the piers, but if you fish from a boat or from shore you have to have a license. We did catch one nice blowfish, which reminded me of years ago when blowfish were plentiful in our bays. I know I've mentioned this before, but I wonder how many of you remember that era of the blowfish. At first it was a time of frustration for the fisherman, for the blowfish became experts at stealing your bait. The only good part in those early days about blowfish was that they kept the kids happy playing with them. They'd scratch their bellies and giggle as the blowfish pumped themselves into a ball with air. Then came the revelation: ey were delicious eating and the best part was that they had no pesky fish bones. The only drawback was that you had to know how to skin them. For those who could clean them, it was 1,2,3,4, and the fish was ready for the pan. We never wore gloves when we cleaned a mess of them; the result was that our fingertips were shredded as if we'd sandpapered them, but that never stopped us from cleaning them. Today, if you're lucky, you might run across blowfish in the local fish mar- ket, where they are called "chicken of the sea." But back to the blue -claw crab. The sight of those blue -claw crabs I brought up on my fishing line brought back fond memories of crabbing in . our local creeks back home. From my earliest memories, I cherish those carefree days of walking through our shallow -water creeks with a crab net, poking each clump of seaweed in hopes of finding a soft crab or chasing out a hard -shell crab. And then there was the marina. This was forbidden territory according to the owner, and he did his best to keep us kids out of this fruitful place for catching crabs on the pilings. The best and easiest crabs to catch were on those multi- tudes of pilings found in the marina. It was a challenge for us kids to sneak in and scoop the hard crabs off with littl effort. Occasionally a catch of crabs would be left unattended overnight in the tub. Sometimes one or two would climb out and head down the road . or, worse yet, crawl under the porch and die. After a week or so the smell would give them away. Luckily those c)ccasions only happened once in a The usual way we ate crabs was out side on an old, wooden table. News- papers were put down and the pot of cooked crabs would be dumped in the center of the table, where everyone grabbed their choice "pickin's." The big top shell would be taken off. Here my dad always dug in with a spoon to get at the mustard (fat) in each end of the shell. Nutcrackers and hammers would be passed around to crack the laws open. We were taught to get every last bit of meat out of our crab before we went for another. That meant work- ing the legs between our teeth while gradually pulling the leg: This forced the meat out. They used to say that when our family made a.meal of crabs the yellow jackets would have a hard time finding anything to eat!