Surgeon and rockfish stories from my Uncle Dewey

[kepone cats]

Sturgeon not surgeon. Sunday I went to my Aunt and Uncles with my cousin to freeload some hamburgers at their mothers day cookout. We were talking to my uncle about hunting and fishing. I started out asking him what the biggest rockfish was he ever saw.

When he was young his uncle, also named Dewey, raised him in Charles City. The would fish nets near windmill point on the James. When he was 12 they caught one 73 pounds in the net. 6" mesh, line as big as a pencil. Fish averaged from 20 - 60 lbs.

He was fishing with a guy that caught one on hook and line that was 63 pounds. He put it in the trunk of his cadillac, hauled it home, cut it into steaks and froze them. (this is another story but my deceased great uncle was fishing with a man under the route 5 bridge before most of us were born and caught one 68 pounds).

About the sturgeon. His uncle Dewey caught one in a net that was the biggest caught on the James during the time (excluding days of early settlers and indians because there are no records of their catches) You know what I mean. It made the news paper and his uncle had the clipping in their house. It weighed 360 pounds and had 40 pounds of caviar in it. The caviar was shipped to NY.

My uncle caught one in a net that was 16 feet long. He was in an 18 foot boat and the fish was 2 feet shorter than the boat. His was a male. His helper, a black man that worked on the farm, helped get it in the boat. They chained it to the seats. The fish rolled up 6 pounds of net.

The fish was cut up into steaks. He said the meat is yellow, they had scales as big as silver dollars. The best eating there is, he said. Nothing like it. Take note... that was when keeping them was legal. -Kepone

[BBCroaker]

Yeah you can hear some good fishing stories from those old timers .
My fathere in law used to tell me when he was a kid they used to go down to Tar Bay at night with lanterns and pitch forks and gig big sturgens back then And yeah he sayd they were good eating too.

[wasabi]

Ahhh, the good ol' days back before the diesel spill! Plenty of poor-man's Sturgeon (gar) still left in Tar Bay though!

[Stickin Em]

Tar Bay? Tar Bay???? You guys must be mistaken. No fish in Tar Bay. I think what you meant was DUTCH GAP.[grin]

[Gottheblues]

Kepone, my grandad is tougher than your grandad

[kepone cats]

Probably so... both of mine are dead.[smile]

[Big Cat]

Easy there wasabi, some people think Tar Bay is a secret

[Gottheblues]

so is mine kepone

[kepone cats]

Since you brought it up.... I asked my dad if he ever caught a sturgeon. He said no. He said my grandad may have caught some in the haul siene back in the day. Grandaddy did have a monster rockfish in his gill net many a year ago. Someone near the mouth of the chick. He said grandaddy estimated to be somewhere between 100 and 125 pounds. It was too heavy to pull in the boat and he was a big man. About 6'4" and 220 pounds or so with hands like an ape (guess thats where I got my paws from). The rock was rolled up in the net and he wanted to knock it out with a hammer. When he was getting the hammer the fish thrashed and busted a hole through the net. Bet that was a sickening feeling. I told my dad that sounds awfully big for a rockfish. I questioned whether grandaddy could field judge the weight of a fish. He is confident in what his dad told him. Grandaddy had grown up around the water fishing, farming, trapping and so on and knew how much 100 lbs of corn weighed. -Kepone

[joe e.]

Great stories, have seen 90lb mounts and guy that had it told me a story about jersy comm. that had one so big it would not fit in any coolers. The four quartered pieces totaled 125lb which they sold for going rate. What the didn't know was the intact mount was worth $10,000.