Fishing For Pier Rats?
So you wanna know....what is a Pier Rat? Well, that's easy. I got the nickname years
back when the old Juno Beach fishing pier was still standing. I'm talking back in
the early 1970's. My Mom would take me up to the pier and drop me off for practically
the entire weekend, that was as long as my homework was done.
Well, by the time night fell on the Juno Pier, most of the fisherman had all gone
home. Except for all the die hards and of course little ole' me. Yep, just me and
the huge "Pier" rats that crawled out from under the old wooden structure late at
night to hunt for their dinner. I'm talking huge, hairy, black and scary rats! Scurrying
about, feeding on small dead fish and old dried up bait that was left behind on
the wooden planks of the pier by some ill mannered fishermen. Just me and those
little pesty "Pier Rats" hunh? Yep.....
Hence forth; this is how I became known as the Pier Rat.
That was thirty years ago now, and the nickname has stayed with me to this day.
Now I fish the newly built Juno Beach Pier and I hang out with all new Pier Rats.
Oh and of course, all new rodents as well. (LOL)
{Definition} PierRat \'rat\ n : A scaly-tailed destructive
Rodent larger than the mouse; also is known as a"psychotic rodent", who is obsessed
with fishing on the Pier.
I hope you enjoy my web site. I know you'll enjoy the fishing stories as well as
the fish pictures. These stories are all true to life and are from occurrences that
I have witnessed with my own eyes. It's all true I promise you that! I couldn't
make up stories like these, they all really happened. Like I said before. Only the
names have been changed to protect the innocent. Enjoy…….
Dust In The Wind
It was a cool crisp afternoon in mid March of 1999, just another great day on the
Juno Beach Fishing Pier. The whole crew was there with me, all except for the Jersery
Boyz. We were fishing for spinner sharks and passing the time by telling fishin’
stories, and just sitting around waiten’ for the bite.
At about 3 pm two nice looking, very well dressed middle age ladies walked out to
the tee of the pier. They were both wearing dresses and I figured that they were
just out for an afternoon walk. We were sitting off to the side as they approached
us the one lady was staring at me extremely hard. As I looked at her she turned
away and then both the ladies walked to the southeast corner of the tee.
The one lady was still turning her head around looking at me over her shoulder acting
very suspicious like. I tried not to stare but this raised my curiosity level and
I couldn’t help wondering what the heck these two woman were up to. By this time
she's got my full attention now. I watched her as she digged around in her purse
for something, and she constantly kept peering over to see if I was watching her.
I continued to pretend not to watch her, but I had to. It was a moral imperative
now. I had to know just what these two well dressed ladies were doing out on the
pier. And why were they being so secretive. And what was she trying to keep hidden
in her purse? I had all these and many more questions floating around in my mind.
Well, I was about to find out.
What happened next I’ll never forget till the day I die. The wind was blowing a
constant 15 mph out of the southeast on that particular day and we were standing
down wind at the time of the incident. All of a sudden the lady who had been acting
so secretively pulled out a clear plastic baggy from her purse and dumped the contents
from the bag over the pier railing. The air was immediately filled with a
HUGE white cloud. It blew along with the wind right into all of our faces.
The ladies now, both embarrassed, quickly left the pier without saying a thing.
As the air cleared and my friends and I began to sneeze, my thoughts drifted to
this woman’s dead husband who just had been snorted by the whole Pier Rat crew.
Yes she was attempting to toss her dead husbands ashes into the ocean but she never
checked the wind.
Editors Note: Ladies always check the windage before trying
to discard your husbands ashes over the pier railing and into the sea! If you must,
please try and always dump ashes on the Leeward side of the pier!
Ashes to ashes....dust to dust....
We all snorted ole’ Herman blown by a wind gust!
Scorpion Dogs Anyone?
It has become a Pier Rat tradition to always treat ourselves to a nice healthy breakfast
out on the pier. You know how fishing can make you hungry and just about anything
tastes good when your hungry. Since the only "hot" food around is pier dogs, (aka
Hot Dogs) they seem to suffice nicely. Well, until that one day:
We had just pulled the all nighter and the sun had just came up on the Juno Beach
Pier. Our stomachs were growling, so I sent Big Kev up to the shack to pick up some
hot dogs. When he returned he had this really big grin on his face and was carrying
a cardboard soda box with our hot dogs and drinks in it. I said to him, "What's
the grin for?" He looked at me, tilted the box towards me and asked me how I wanted
my "Scorpion Dogs."
I looked into the box and there wrapped neatly up in a napkin was a cooked scorpion.
You heard right a scorpion! And it was dead and cooked. It had apparently crawled
into the hot dog cooker with our dogs and hadn't managed to live to see the other
side. Too funny. Now I always have my "Scorpion dogs" extra crispy with mustard
and relish. How do you like your scorpion dogs?
Let me know....I'm taking orders! (LOL)
Beware Of RR Crossing!
It was a chilly windy night, and the spinner sharks were solid on the pier. I had
hooked probably twenty or so spinners, but only landed a few due to tail cutoffs
and jump offs. I was fishing my Accuplated 4/0 wide, which just happened to be on
my "Shark Stomper" 10 foot, yellow and black, very stout bridge rod. Did I fail
to mention that the bluefish were solid as well? Well they were. And thus being
the main reason that the spinner sharks were so thick. I had just cut a fresh bloody
bluefish head and baited it on my shark hook. Then I walked over to the south corner
of the tee preparing for another cast. I watched as a guy on the right side of me,
with plenty of room of course, tussling with a bluefish on a Shimano Calcutta 700
reel, on a very light but sweet and expensive, G-Loomis Rod. Like I said, plenty
of room to cast, or so I thought.
(But just when you would think it was safe to make a cast,
the inevitable always seems to occur.) Yup, you guessed it! Ole' Junior Barnes (not
his real name of course) decided it was time to "high stick" his 5 lb bluefish,
why I'll never know.
Now, just prior to this guy sticking his rod straight up in the air,
I leaned back with my big rod, yelled "Going Out", and let her rip. A heave that
would make any pier fisherman proud. Well, all except for the guy who stuck his
very expensive G-Loomis rod right in front of my yellow and black, RR crossing looking
bridge rod; big mistake. My rod cut his little Loomis right in half, coming down
on it like a samurai sword! Sorry buddy, but I did yell "going out," which is much
better then "Duck or bleed."
Note to readers: Never high stick when a train is coming!
Didn't Catch Jack
Back in December of 1999 I was night fishing for Permit at the pier with a few of
the locals. It was a Friday night and the pier was packed. For as cool as it was,
I couldn't believe how many tourists were their wetting a line, just hoping for
anything to bite.
Well, this guy kept crossing Brent's line and getting tangled in his fishing line.
The third time Brent reeled in the guys line I could take no more. It was tangled
badly so I cut the guys line and cleared the "bowl of spaghetti." The guy didn't
even know that his line was tangled or even out of the water. He just stood there
leaning on the rail just down from us, holding onto his rod and thinking his bait
was still somewhere out in the ocean. He just wanted to catch a fish.
Seeing this gave me an idea. He wants a fish, then a fish he shall get. I grabbed
an old dead Jack Crevelle that had been laying on the pier for hours. It was stiff
as a board and had a big filet cut out of it's side. I quickly tied the guys line
around the jack's tail and tossed it over the railing into the sea. The guy never
saw a thing. When the guy reeled in to check his bait he got a surprise. The dead
tail hook Jack gave him a great fight! Best thing he caught all night.
Come to think of it. It was the only thing that he caught that night! And the best
part of the whole story is that he kept it to take it home and eat it. (LOL)
Fishing With Cowbells?
ere's a dandy of a story. Yes, another pier rat original fishing tale, hard to believe
but all true. I was out fishing the pier one morning back in 1999. I had my baits
out and I was just "people watching" as usual. Trying to pick up a few more
stories for my newsletters. Little did I know that I would soon have another great
one to write about.
An old man had just caught a nice size catfish and thinking he was just going to
throw it back, I watched him unhook it and he let it lay on the deck. He then pulled
out a heavy white clothes-line looking cord from his tackle box. He unwrapped the
cord and tied on a wire leader and a big shark hook. This was getting good. I couldn't
wait to see this one!
I continued to watch the man as he baited the freshly caught catfish on the huge
shark hook. He then tied the one end of the cord to the top railing of the pier.
Then he tossed the hooked and bloody catfish over the side of the pier and into
the ocean. This was too much! I was intrigued now. What next?
He then pulls out a friggin' "Cowbell" from his little tackle box full of tricks
and ties it on to the cord up near the top of the pier railing. He never did get
a bite, but I wanted so bad to go ring that guys cowbell just for the heck of it.
The things that I have seen!
Rods Are Definitely Saltwater!
This fishing tale took place probably ten years ago. I was fishing with my step
father Howie and my Uncle Joe on Howie's open fisherman. We were offshore several
miles right outside the Palm Beach Inlet drifting over the inshore reefs trying
to nail some snapper and grouper. Uncle Joe was fishing his brand new Penn Senator
4/0 rod and reel combo that his wife had bought him for his birthday.
*Editors note:
Poles are freshwater and rod's are saltwater! Right Uncle Joe?
Anyway, like I was saying, Uncle Joe had this brand new fishing outfit that he was
bragging about, and that he was ready to break it in with a "BIG" fish. Well after
a few hours of fishing, Uncle Joe finally got the chance.
Joe had just dropped down a fresh sardine when he set his new rod and reel down
on the center console seat to light up a cigarette. Just then the inevitable happened.
Joe had gotten his wish, a big fish grabbed his bait in that instance when he was
busy lighting up a smoke. You see, Uncle Joe had forgotten to set his reel on clicker
and not leave the reel in gear so that was all she wrote. So, Uncle Joe's brand
new birthday present was ripped over the side of the boat and pulled down into the
deep briny blue never to be seen again! Uncle Joe's face was priceless when he was
peering over the gunnel watching his outfit disappear. I looked at him as his cigarette
was hanging out of the corner of his mouth and said to him,......
"Well Uncle Joe.....
I guess your rod is definitely SALTWATER now!"
Waterskiing During A Tournament?
Well, if you haven't already figured it out the Pier Rat has some pretty funny and
crazy Uncles in his family. Here's another story about one of those "over the brink"
Uncle's of mine, his name is Uncle Dick. Now my Uncle Dick has always been a character,
and the life of the party at that. But, this little stunt he pulled was way out
of line!
Several years ago my Dad and I had been fishing a tournament aboard his boat, the
Cocunut Rum. Uncle Dick came along to spectate and all out heckle me for just about
the entire day. The tournament had several good hours left to fish, but that didn't
seem to concern Uncle Dick. All Uncle Dick wanted to do was to waterski. That's
all I heard the entire day, "I wish I could waterski out here." Well, his wish finally
came true.
My younger brother David, who is not a fisherman at all, took a cruise out to meet
up with us several miles out. David had this "go-fast" boat and was responding out
to make Uncle Dick a very happy man. Well, the Pier Rat was livid to say the least!
Who in his right mind would waterski in the ocean, miles out, and during a fishing
tournament?
UNCLE DICK!
And so my fishing tournament was pretty much over, as I watched uncle Dick jump
off our boat and into the "shark infested" ocean. As he put on his water-skis and
paddled over to the tow rope behind my brothers speed boat, he had a giant glow
about him. Uncle Dick was a boy again, and I could see that this made him happy.
Dick grabbed the end of the tow rope and yelled "GO", and off they went! My entire
crew was laughing as Uncle Dick made passes around our slow trolled baits. I have
to say I wasn't happy with this, but on the other hand, I've never seen anything
like it during any other fishing tournament, have you? And my Uncle Dick was reliving
his childhood! What more could you ask for?
Thanks Uncle Dick for all the laughs, your the best!
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