Watermen

Posted byandrewtolhurstPosted inFeatures, Main PageTags:, , ,

The term waterman is used quite a bit.  In the tightly controlled clique that is the surf media it means someone they really like.  In the group of men and women who may be the subject of such lore it means seniority and guts.  In the group of men and woman who are watermen it means nothing.  Just some made-up term so that us folks can have something to write and we can have a model for product companies.  Still, we know it when we see it.  Men and women salted, crows lines at the corners of eyes from squinting against the sun and glare, a range of ability on or in the water, which along the east coast is a necessity as much as a convenience of the west coast.

Chris Tolhurst. Debating.

Let’s face it, there just ain’t all that much surf over here from day-to-day.  Still, there is plenty of ocean and plenty of fish.  Ask the Hobgoods or Malloys or Currens or…  In taking a note from the pages of those in the stories or those we know locally, A few guys I know have been in and on the water while we wait out the flat spells.

Ryan Tolhurst

April and May have been quiet for surf.  Though there has been some decent groundswell and clean winds, there have been far more days of nothing.  When it has been there my youngest brother has been on it, making up for lost time.

Ryan Tolhurst hooks a small one.

When it hasn’t been there he has still been on it-fishing. My other brother has been out in his own boat, drifting the rock walls and steering with his feet or skimming over sandbars and fishing low tide drum holes.  And we’ve gone together, chasing Spanish Mackerel, slaying Bluefish, and recently hoisting a few flatfish.

Ryan and Chris. Off the coast between swells

We put all this water time together and all three brothers and our father entered the Fisherman’s Post Spring Inshore Challenge.  Normally a flounder and trout tournament, this year’s dead period for trout chased out the division and ushered in the Drum division.  While we were in it for the flatties, some of our same spots hold good sized drum.  We ponied up the dough and entered, made things interesting on the boat with a friendly wager among us, and made ready.

Ryan Tolhurst. Sonny Days crew
Fred Tolhurst. Sonny Days crew and balladeer.
Chris Tolhurst. Sonny Days crew

Tournament fishing is tense.  As any captain will tell you, there is always the pressure to put your boat on the fish.  And, as any captain will tell you, there is the very real possibility of getting nothing, which is why the call it fishing, not “catching”.  Add in the limited time frame, 80 some odd boats all hunting the same thing you are, plus the money and you can be certain that words spoken on the boat are few.  This year the dawn greeted the fleet with an east wind, late rising tide, uncooperative bait and a slow bite.  Three years ago The Sonny Days placed third with a 4 lb fish.  The same weight won this year as well with 1st and third being separated by 1/100th of a pound.  At the captains party Dennis Durham, a local waterman and world-class flounder fisherman, barely made the board with a 2.77lb fish.

Weigh-in. Wrightsville Beach Marina
Chris Tolhurst makes for the boat after weigh-in.

This year The Sonny Days came in with a 2.34lb fish which fell for a peanut pogie 50 minutes before the deadline to weigh-in.  While the fish didn’t make the board, we did make the weigh-in and the party.  In fact, Sunday afternoon beer on the beach was courtesy of the boat wager for biggest fish.  Ryan took home the winnings for first fish and Chris took home the prize for most fish (2).  Ryan and Chris are timely, experienced and certain on the boat.  I am lucky to go to sea with them.  My father is as patient a teacher and soul as I could know.  I will always go to sea with him (he also knows a wide array of singing material; 1950’s television ads, folk songs, ballads, rock classics).  Though I couldn’t put them on the fish as well as I would have liked, I can say with certainty that they are all fine watermen.  Next year fellas.

 

 

 

 

Fisherman's Post Spring Inshore Challenge
Family and crew of Sonny Days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, how about some damn surf.  sheesh.

Pleasure Island,NC

Published by andrewtolhurst

After learning to surf at the age of 6, it was all down hill from there. It is a passion that nearly consumes as much of my life as my wife and daughter. Beyond surfing there is really no end to the things that pique my interest. I'm pretty willing to give anything a shot. In addition to my wife and daughter I usually have Sonny (a ten year old black lab and loyal first mate) along on adventures. We find ourselves getting into anything and everything but always returning to our beloved spot at the north end of Carolina Beach. It was a place introduced to us nearly 5 years ago in a unassuming manner and its grip on us has been just as easy and unassuming ever since. A graduate of UNC Wilmington, Sonny and I ventured away from the coast for a while, convinced my high school sweet heart I was much more mature, asked her to marry me and then returned to south east North Carolina along the Cape Fear River near our second home-the north end-where we began our family and can be found today. Our days our filled by the whimsy and imagination of a two year old, our passions and, of course, surf. People have to make a living so in between I can be found teaching high school English and sneaking out the back door for more surf and adventure. I hope you enjoy what you find here, that you find it useful, entertaining and maybe even just a good waste of time.

3 thoughts on “Watermen”

  1. Well said. Whatever makes someone a waterman the one who holds his/her family near will always be a winner. Fair winds and following seas Captain Andy.

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  2. Great post Andy. Drop me a line sometime and give me an update on your middle brother, bastard is off the grid again and I wont stand for it.

    All my love,

    Mac

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  3. I know this is an old post but just had to say that fishing must be in the DNA. My name is also Chris Tolhurst and I drag my old boat out just about every weekend to wet a line. Great read fellow Tolhurst’s.

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