E: What did they do with the fish that they caught?
RC: They gave them to the guides so that they could sell them.
You could catch mackerel all through the winter. We would
go up there off of Oyster Shoals.
E: And troll for mackerel?
RC: Yes. I came over here, and my first year guiding in Boca
Grande was 1941. I got me some new little corks and put
some lead on them, and I would go over here by Patricia
Shoals. There were not many boats out. I would go over
there and get in my boat and troll around. I would throw
one of those corks overboard--two of them tied together--and
leave them there. The next day I would go right back there,
and the mackerel would be right around there. I would go
there day after day. I had a couple of old ladies that
would go over there. They never would go out to a bar out
here or around the oyster shoals.
E: Do mackerel come around those shoals anymore?
RC: No. Never catch a one there.
E: How about kingfish? Have you ever fished for them?
RC: Yes.
E: Did they come in the pass close to here?
RC: Yes. Kingfish never come in here until about the fifteenth
of March.
E: Did you hook and line for them or troll for them?
RC: Yes.
E: Did you ever do it commercially, sell them for money?
RC: Yes, in the fall of the year when there is nobody gill
netting.
E: Do the kingfish still come by here?
RC: Not like they did. There used to be a big bunch of boats--
about fifty boats--that would come in here tolling for them.
They would get in here about the tenth of October. When we
quit mullet fishing we would troll for those damn kings out
there. We did pretty good. I made two blocks of wood on
the side. I did not have this boat here; I had the
Faithful. I screwed them on the side there, and I put posts
out here. Then I tied it here and put an outrigger on this
side and another on that side. I had two lines on each--
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