Marsh Mud and Mummichogs by Sherr Evelyn B.;

Author:Sherr, Evelyn B.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2015-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Fish

On July 30, 1985, two men from Macon, Georgia, and a local guide were trying their luck with rod and reel in a small outboard in Doboy Sound near Sapelo Island. They got the surprise of their lives. One of the men hooked a medium-size sea trout. At that very moment a huge tarpon, which had been chasing the same fish, seized the trout. The fisherman instinctively hauled back on the line, which, with the forward momentum of the lunging tarpon, carried the monster right into the little boat. The men took refuge as best they could on the motor while the six-foot-long tarpon flailed about, wreaking havoc on the boat’s seats and gear for a good half hour. The fish was finally subdued; it was verified as weighing over 142 pounds, a record tarpon for Georgia. This is one of the more spectacular fish stories of the coast, but everyone has a favorite. Mine is of the two-day visitor to Sapelo Island who decided to spend a couple of hours surf casting on the beach. He came back with a twenty-five-pound red drum caught on a six-pound test line with a metal lure.

Fish are abundant along the Georgia coast. They range in size from tiny anchovies to large sharks. Commercially caught fish include shad, whiting, red snapper, and grouper. Sport fishing is an even bigger industry than its commercial counterpart. Besides tarpon, fish sought by local anglers include sea trout, black sea bass, red and black drum, flounder, and sheepshead. Mullet, sea catfish, and croaker are also caught in large numbers in these waters. Estuaries and salt marsh creeks are vital nurseries for the young fish of most of these species as well as for some of the offshore sports fish.

When we lived on Sapelo, our border collie, Yofi, loved going to the beach. When you said, “Go beach?” she cocked her head and perked up her ears. Most particularly, she loved herding the schools of tiny fishes that congregated in the shallow sloughs on the beach at low tide. People on the beach who saw Yofi running and jumping around the sloughs would ask whether the dog was a bit crazy. We would explain that she was expressing her champion sheep dog bloodline as best she could. She also herded sand flies and ghost crabs.

One day our family went to the beach with a small seine to catch some of the slough fish. After a couple of minutes of dragging the seine through the few inches of water left in one of the sloughs, we pulled up about a dozen four-inch-long baby mullet. Our two little boys went wild over the haul and mangled several of the fish before we were able to persuade them to gently return the catch to the water. Several more passes netted us a small school of juvenile silver perch, shiny fish with yellow fins, and silversides, nearly translucent little fish with a broad silver band from head to tail. We also caught a couple of striped killifish, gray with distinctive black stripes down the sides.

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