While
Ben does not have a current column - we feature this past column
first featured in June 2003 - from the "Best Of Ben"
"We just love it out here …
it’s so peaceful in the early morning when nobody is flying
up and down in boats and jet skis."
That’s the way Johnny Baldree describes the time he and
his brother, B.T., share on the water as dawn breaks out with
quiet tides.
Johnny
(left) and B.T. head out fishin...
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Johnny
a retired aircraft mechanic., was trained by the Air Force to
work on B-52 bombers. After his stint in the military, he parlayed
that experience in a second career as a mechanic at Cherry Point.
B.T., Johnny’s senior by 15 years, left the army after
World War II and became a restaurateur in Chicago, a long way
from Pamlico County. B.T. ended his 55 year absence from his
Arapahoe homeland in 1998 following the death of his wife.
Johnny, 65, and B.T., 80, probably spend more time together
as brothers now than they did growing up. Johnny calls B.T.
the engineer on their 18 foot outboard. "That way I get
to blame him for everything that goes wrong," Johnny quips.
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B.T.
Baldree
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Not
long after I boarded their vessel for an educational cruise
about net fishing, Johnny turned to me as he edged the boat
just slightly above idle speed. "We like to take it kind
of slow," he said. "But that’s just because
we’re old," added B.T.
Soon after dispensing 400 yards of small mesh net designed to
catch spots, Johnny gave the order to B.T. to lay out the chain
they drag which sort of rustles fish toward the net. When B.
T. failed to respond right away, Johnny called out the command
once again. B. T. looked at me with a grin and said, "He
puts me in charge of too many things at the same time."
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Johnny
Baldree
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The
gentle camaraderie between these two gentle souls was as exciting
to watch as it was to anticipate what the catch would be as
the net was pulled out of the water, occasionally bringing forth
a spot, a menhaden or a croaker. The gentleness of their nature
was also extended to the huge turtle trapped in one of their
nets. Johnny disentangled the fierce looking reptile, allowed
him to catch his breath in the boat and then released him back
to the water.
As each net was hauled out of the water, Johnny and B.T. tried
to predict from the character of the floats, how they were drifting
in the water, if a fish would soon be forthcoming. Their anticipation
was not unlike what I experience every time I put a piece of
exposed photographic paper in the developer. I try to predict
how the print will come up and appear, just as they anticipated
what or if a fish would come up with the net.
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Pulling
in the nets in the early morning light
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The
flounder nets produced the greatest catch of the day, but the
less than one dozen fish caught that were of legal size did
not merit a trip to the market that buys their catch.
Was there profound disappointment in a morning’s work
that yielded no financial return for the investment of fuel
alone? Not one bit. Johnny said, "We have come out here
and gone home with not even a fish for supper. This rain is
bound to have some effect on the fishing now. But we keep at
it. We’ll go crabbing tomorrow."
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I
had been wanting to go fishing with Johnny for some time. I
have always been intrigued by the work of the commercial fisherman.
I have always had romantic notions about what it would be like
to earn a living being on the water. Since so many of us turn
to the water for recreation, we probably don’t appreciate
what it is like to work on the water.
I learned from Johnny and B. T. that working on the water can
indeed be a form of recreation, if not a renewal of spirit and
faith. It is faith and faith alone that can drive a man to put
out a net with it being a totally unknown as to whether or not
a fish will stop by.
I thought I would write a story about the techniques of setting
nets by local fishermen doing this as another career after earlier
careers. I was more fascinated with the genuine brotherhood
I experienced than with the same techniques of fishermen that
have gone on for thousands of years.
Johnny and B.T. Baldree are the kind of men who give commercial
fishing a good name, a very good name. I witnessed two men with
a love for the water and the harvest from it, and a respect
for the care of the water and the creatures within it.
And a final note. Johnny and my late brother, Mitchell, were
class mates. They fished these local creeks by walking through
the woods to favorite honey holes with poles. They had no boat.
I got another glimpse of my brother by being with Johnny.
Without question, it was a morning of brotherhood.
Ben
Casey is a photographer, author and columnist. His new book
"All In One River" chronicles the beauty of the Neuse River
from its headwaters in Wake County to the Pamlico Sound.
Read more about "All In One River" at www.bencaseypub.com
Ben and Emmy Casey live on the shores of the real life
Dawson's Creek. You can email Ben at ben@towndock.net
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