How did this fishing disease begin?!? Well,...when I was about 8 years old I went on a "Speck" fishing trip with my Dad and a friend of his at the jetties one weekend. We caught so many fish, the coolers were full and I didn't have a place to sit down because there were fish everywhere, on the deck, in the bottom of the boat, on TOP of the coolers and even IN MY SEAT! So,... I just started throwing fish out of the boat! My Dad hollered HEY! What are you doing??? I said, I'M CULLING FISH! I had heard them talking earlier about throwing the small ones back to make room for the big ones so, at that point, they just figured I was a natural born fisherman! On the way home I was given my first beer, probably because I wouldn't shut up about all those fish we caught, (those were different times) and the honorary title of "Fishboy"!
I began working with my father Capt. Mickey Nash and my uncle Capt. Mack Nash on the Sunrise II and III for TBoy McCall out of Cameron Louisiana during the summers starting when I was just 12 years old. Both were teachers/coaches now but had worked summers on boats to pay for school. Later, when the oil field began to boom, TBoy built a fleet of Oil field supply boats and my father began working as one of the Captains and my uncle Mack was the Port Captain.
In 1981 I enlisted in the U.S. Army. I was 17 yrs old and shipped off to Fort Bragg N.C. In the meantime, my father bought an old 65ft Breaux Bay Craft "crew boat" made for carrying workers to and from the Oil rigs and converted it into a "head boat" so, when I Discharged (Honerable) I began working on my fathers Charter Boat, the "Big Mama" out of Sabine Pass Texas until we sold it in 1989. The Big Mama is in Jamaica now, working as a pilot boat.
I decided it was time to get my license. First, I went to work as a deck hand on one of TBoy's supply boats and was soon promoted to engineer. I studied for my Captains test every chance I got and took my test in 1990. Back then, you had to take it in the U.S. Coast Guard office and have proof of 480 12hr days or 720 8hr days at sea documented.
Thank God I studied!
I went back to work for TBoy as a Captain and for a year or so I worked as a second Captain until I was promoted to first Captain and given charge of my own boat. In the Oil field, the boats stay offshore sometimes for a month at a time so, you have two crews, working 12 hour shifts 24 hrs. a day.
At that time there was no GPS, just LORAN and it didn't work after the first 50 miles so, if you were traveling out to an oil rig 150 to 200 miles offshore, you better know how to navigate! I mainly worked seismic surveys and commercial diving "liveboating" operations.
I always brought my fishing rods with me and at times, we would have it easy either tied up and hanging off the rig fishing for Red Snapper, Grouper and my favorite, Trigger fish, or we would be waiting at the dock for the weather to break so a dive job could start so, I'd put the aluminum john boat in the water, grab my hand held radio and a rod, and off I'd go! I bet I fished every march area from Rockport Texas to Pascagoula Mississippi for Redfish and "Specks". That's what they call Spotted Sea Trout in south Louisiana and Texas.
We, my wife Melanie and son Cody and I, moved to Florida 10 years ago and after a solid year of finding and following fish I started taking out clients fishing. Now, after 10 years, I now about a 100 miles of this 156 mile long estuary we call the Indian River Lagoon I guide FULL time and have been a U.S.C.G. Licensed Captain (100 ton Master) for 15 years and in this business for 25 years.
