Dania Pier fishing in the early 1960s

[robalo3]

I don't remember the exact date or year the Dania Pier first opened. in the early 1960's (I would have been 10) we would have family fish fries at the pavilion at the south side of the parking lot and after we ate we would go out and fish on the pier under construction. There were no side rails and we would sit with our feet over the side and talk about when it would be finished and how much it would cost
When it opened (I think it cost 60 cents) I was allowed to go alone on Saturday mornings and stay till noon alone and fish. That was the beginning of me becoming a pier bum. I quickly progressed to fishing all night. Basically what I want to say here is that the crowd of that early 1960's was the same as today. The men with old cut off khakis and old shopping carts with all of their gear and attitudes, Kids with nice rods and reels fishing for sharks and sails all night, high, fried and wound up tight (that would be the young version of me). Young guys that always say something like "you should have hooked the google eye in the lip and not in the back, or why are you using that mono, if you were serious you would use brade". You will never get anything with that leader......
The other thing I wanted to say is "The fishing is much better now". "Conservation has paid off". You have a higher quality of fishery now by far. My generation and a little before me wasted the Snook and Snapper. Oh ya the weather and Mother Nature had a lot to do with it but enjoy. I live 700 miles away now, but work and save a few bucks to go back and take my rods and reels out and do a little pier fishin. They say you can't go back home, but when you go back to the pier today the people are the same with different names and compared to the 1960s to 1970s its better now.

[BEOWULF]

Welcome aboard and interesting post. I've heard that snook was considered a trash fish until someone decided to cook one without the skin? Unbelievable!

[Peter.miami]

Cool story, thanks man.

[shos260288]

Wow, interesting story. Was the parking free back in those days?

[Kingofthesea]

[SaltyDog]

The parking is a joke. The pier used to give you a pass with admission and you could park back in the lot by whiskey creek for free. I remember back in the 80s if you got a keeper size snook it was a pretty big deal the numbers were nowhere they are today. Anybody remember the swing rope at the icw by Dania bch blvd where the jet ski rental is now? Does Hollywood or Dania enforce the parking there now?

[robalo3]

In 1959 You could keep snook over 18". The first snook I ever caught was 18" at the Mercadies (sp) Bridge on 17th Street I was about 10. I had a spinning rod my father made me for that Christmas. It was a long Calcutta rod(a type of bamboo) . He had wrapped the guides on it himself and had used a cotton crab line to make a handle (sealed them with fingernail polish) and put a "Cadillic Reel" on it. It was the greatest Christmas present I ever got. By far the best present anyone ever gave me. I still have it and will try to upload a photo. The rod was really for fishing in the surf because that was what we mostly did. You were correct about the Snook with the skins on them. Old timers at that time called them "Soapfish" because that was what they tasted like with the skin on them. In fact an old timer (A Cracker) I guess, I am a cracker, came walking up to watch us fish after I caught my first Snook and reminded me that there was a size limit on soapfish.
On Dania Beach several few years before I got the rod we were Pompano fishing about where the pier is today (I was watching with my little dog "Spunk") My uncle caught a 5'-6' black tip and it was floundering on the beach. Spunk was running up and barking at it. The Black Tip flipped and caught Spunk in the hind quarter. That was Spunks last moment. "All she wrote" as the crackers said back then.

[Kingofthesea]

Keep talking bud....even if it's all bs (Spunk part was priceless) I'm lovin' your thread. And please do pist pics of the rod your Dad built. I would like to see the handle in as much detail as possible. And the guides. What year was that Xmas?

[robalo3]

I have the photo saved however I can't get the correct (Img button?) button to load the Image to work. You know the learning curve is different for different individuals. Got hints?
Dania beach was a big part of my young life. Somewhere around age 14 (1964+/-) my parents started allowing us to go camping on the beach. I have a story about the first time. It was personalities, hormones and fishing. Later we made some small boats and took them up Whisky Creek camping and fishing.
But I know on these boards you read and read and then someone drops a hint about a good place to fish with bait and time.
Around 1959-1960 was when we (my dad, my brother and I) got into Snook. For me it happened at two spots Bocca at a turnstile bridge on the intercostial and then one night in May at a little bridge 2 blocks south of 17th St we called little Mercadies we stopped there to fish for Sheepshead of all things. My dad caught two nice ones on a conventional rod and penn reel he had. The only outfit he had. He put out a piece of cut mullet on the bottom. The biggest snook I have ever seen picked it up and I almost peed my pants watching what happened next. He kept it out of the pillings and finally whipped it and walked over to a neighborhood home. He kept the head out of the water just below him. He finally got it out of the water and fell on it until he could control it with his hands. The neighbor came out and congratulated him and told him anytime he caught another monster like that to feel free to bring it over and land it on his lawn. That Snook along with a snook at Bocca a week before Hooked me for life. That little bridge became our goto bridge at night, incoming tide from 1hr before high to about 1/2 hour on the out going. Maybe one other thing. Take a kid fishing. Remember someday you are going to need one of those kids grown up to take you fishing.

[tears143]

Welcome aboard and interesting post. I've heard that snook was considered a trash fish until someone decided to cook one without the skin? Unbelievable!

Heard the same thing about Ladyfish... If you only know how to cook them.

I do and they taste great! :-p

[robalo3]

I think it was 1964 the Dania 4th of July were set up on the pier out on the "T". One of those situations came up where the folks lighting off the fireworks let the first ones get away from them. The whole inventory of fireworks for the night caught on fire and a pretty spectacular 4th of July fireworks display went up in 30 seconds. To my knowledge no one got hirt.

[robalo3]

One June night in the middle 1950's my father took me fishing to an old fixed steel bridge close to the intercostal waterway in Boca Raton Florida. We dropped a Coleman lantern down on a rope to create a light and a shadow on the water. My father said we were fishing for Snook (they called them snuke) with Calcutta poles and live mullet (we caught the mullet with a cast net and kept them in a croker sack to keep them alive. There was a strong current. My father said it was the tide coming in, but it would slow down and change to run in the opposite direction. One man had a large black plug on his Calcutta pole. He talked to the big fish in the shadows (somethin like "come on hoss you know you want it") and smoked a cigar as he whipped the plug through the shadow out into the light and back into the shadow in a figure eight motion for a long time. He kept the long rod in his right hand and the long rod butt stuck way out under his right arm to give him leverage and make the action with little effort in his right hand and wrist. On the outside of the figure eight the plug would skip on top of the water, then at the crossroads the plug would dive and run about a foot deep. It was mesmerizing to watch. The tide did slow down. I was watching when a large object in the shadow swirled out and hit the plug hard (one of those snapshots that stay in your mind forever) a tented silver flash with a black line running through it. Next all hell broke loose. Words don't do justice to describe the kayos that followed. Just like the Snook on the end of that Calcutta pole, I was hooked on Snuke fishing for life.