The name came from nothing spectacular, but people ask. A number of years ago I took two employees fishing with me. The "senior" employee, Dylan, had fished with me a number of times. He was quite competitive, a pretty good angler, and caught fish on occasion, just like the rest of us. The new guy, David, came from southern California -a different culture- and was new to north Florida salt water fishing. The two worked together during the week and bantered back and forth constantly during their work day, trying to one-up each other on every task or subject. We had just launched at the Bait House on Eagans Creek and were trolling towards the river, tossing live shrimp under a float up into the grass when the new guy, David, hooked up with a trout. I was happy to see him catch a fish and was amused when the bantering between the two began. David boated another trout and then another and then another while Dylan watched almost helplessly. The dagger was finally driven home when David proclaimed to Dylan, "I've got the Mark of an Angler...and you don't!" I thought it was funny at the time to see the more experienced angler humbled somewhat, but upon reflection, it was just what I was looking for. To some, the fishing experience is not just about catching fish, but getting out on the water, seeing a manatee's snout blow out of the water, kicking back on your leather chair with an adult beverage while you rig up the rods for the following day, making your sandwiches the night before, tossing a good tight loop on the flyrod, catching a fish on a fly you tied, teaching a young one how to cast, even feeling the crispness of your fishing shirt as you put it on in the morning, leaving early to have bacon, eggs and grits at the Huddle House, having a fish fry with your friends, cutting across the water as the sun rises and last but not least, feeling the heavy tug on your line as a Redfish chomps down on your bait. To me, fishing is more than catching fish. I don't think I was born with the "Mark" but I've sure grown into it!
y docks and we crossed the river to one of my first go-to spots for tailing Reds. The tide wasn't quite high enough for Reds in the grass, but we did see two Horseshoe Crab cruising along. We eased through the cut from Bell River to Tiger Basin, cruised Tiger Island and saw some birdlife, then crossed over to Cumberland Island and up into Beach Creek. I thought I saw a tail flap up ahead and sure enough, we found a family of three manatee munching on the grass. We slowly lowered an anchor and watched the family for 30 minutes as they had their lunch. I get as excited as my guests at seeing the manatee and I realized that I was hogging the prime picture taking position on the bow so I relinquished the spot to Buddy and Shannon! After a while we cruised further up the creek and saw a racoon cutting through the marsh grass; we all thought it was unusual to see a raccoon out in the middle of the afternoon. As we left Cumberland we eased along the south shore and found a herd of horses grazing in the marsh, then we crossed to see historic Fort Clinch to wrap up the trip. After I dropped Buddy and Shannon off, I went back to Cumberland to get the manatee back in their cages!
