When I was in high school, I was always looking for ways to make a few extra dollars. During the summer of 1961 cold Labrador currents were inshore and the party boats were having problems catching bottom fish. They started using live bait to catch amberjacks. The manager at Inlet Harbor told me he would buy all of the sailor’s choice I could supply for a dime apiece. I was working at Dave’s Dock in Port Orange full time, so I concocted a scheme with a buddy of mine to catch the bait. I would furnish the boat, motor, bait, etc and my buddy would go out and catch the sailor’s choice. We rigged up about ten cane poles in holders on the old river shrimper, which had large live wells. My buddy would anchor over an oyster bed and could catch about 200 sailors choice in two hours. The shrimper was too slow to take the bait down to Inlet Harbor, so I got the bright idea to load two #3 washtubs into the trunk of my ‘49 Plymouth and drive down the beach to Inlet Harbor and sell the bait when I got off work. Of course this was long before the beach toll. Driving down the beach, we could stop frequently and add more water to the tubs to replenish what had sloshed out. The first two trips went well. We lost a few bait but still made a nice payday. On the third trip we had stopped several times when a deputy pulled me over for speeding on the beach. I knew if he held us long the bait would die. He couldn’t believe what we were trying to do and let us go with an ass-chewing to drive slower. Unfortunately, all of the bait died and that ended our money-making scheme.
BTW: If you’re not old enough to remember, Aunt Catfish’s restaurant used to be Dave’s Dock, one of the old fashioned fish camps.
