Dan the Waterman

Every year as the ice receeds a couple of fishnets end up on either end of our point. We've never actually seen anyone put the the nets in, take them out, or maintain them, but they are here every spring without fail. While poking around in the garden just before we left for Aruba, the fishermen showed up. He pulled up and chatted a while after cleaning his nets. He had fish sorted in large bins. There were yellow perch, white perch, channel cats, shad of various kinds, and some sucker fish and a couple of other fish we've never seen before. Turns out we've got a channel cat hot-spot on our point. Anyway, Dan was a great guy and has spent his life on the Chespeake. A vanishing breed. He works 5 rivers and has 25 nets in the early spring and battles at the state capital for fishermen's rights in his free time. He said, "If there's room for gays and lesbians in this world, you'd think there's be room for the fishermen." Guess it's all in the lobbying. While we talked, Dan and his boy Brandon even cleaned and filled 5 white perch while we sat there. I fried them up in butter and flour just like we were having breakfast on Jasmine.