Fishermen 

 explain what 

 lures them 

 to travel 



By Nancy Davis 



The black lettering on the 

 stern of Punk Daniels' fishing 

 boat proclaims Wanchese as 

 its home port. 



But the words are deceiv- 

 ing. The 70-foot "Venus" is 

 just as likely to dock in ports in 

 Maine and Canada as in 

 North Carolina. 



The days of the provincial 

 commercial fisherman are 

 gone. To bring in money year- 

 round, Tar Heel fishermen say 

 they must look beyond the 

 waters their grandfathers 

 fished. 



The result is a breed of 

 fisherman that is mobile, ag- 

 gressive, smart, industrious 

 and business-like. 



For months at a time, 

 Daniels and fellow Tar Heel 

 fishermen leave home and 

 family hundreds of miles 

 behind. And back in towns 

 like Wanchese, Marshallberg 

 and Supply, wives and 

 children wait for a weekly 

 phone call, a monthly visit and 

 a paycheck in the mail. 



And whether they're 

 scalloping off the coast of 

 Maine or shrimping the waters 

 around Key West, Fla., they 

 command respect, and some- 

 times resentment, from their 

 counterparts in other states. 



"Fishing hasn't been real 

 good here in North Carolina, 

 so a lot of these people are 

 having to go far and wide to 

 make it in the business," says 

 UNC Sea Grant Director B.J. 

 Copeland. "Some people are 

 going to be amazed at the 

 distances these guys go for 

 fish." 



Some North Carolina fisher- 

 men migrate to neighboring 

 states when the pickings are 

 slim here. Others travel as far 

 north as Canada and south to 

 the Florida Keys. 



Wanchese fishermen are 

 likely to go north to fish for 

 flounder and scallops. 

 Fishermen from the state's 

 central and southern coast 

 often travel south to shrimp. 



Marshallberg fisherman 

 Jerry Kellum says he would 

 fish in Core Sound all year if 

 he could make a profit on his 

 catches of shrimp, oysters and 

 clams. 



"If there's something here, 

 I'll stay here," he says. "But I 

 just move around so I can 

 catch more and make more." 



For the past few years, 

 Kellum has taken his 30-foot 

 trawler to South Carolina 

 waters where shrimp have 

 been more plentiful. 



Daniels starts fishing on the 

 "Venus" in January around 

 Cape Hatteras for flounder. He 

 works his way north along the 

 coast until he ends up on 

 Georges Banks off the coast 

 of Maine and Canada in April. 



If the price of flounder 

 drops, Daniels rigs his boat 

 for catching porgy and 

 sea bass. 



Hobucken fisherman Forest 

 Williams owns three boats, 

 ranging from 73 feet to 

 87 feet. 



His crews fish for flounder in 

 New Jersey waters in the fall. 

 They follow the fish south until 

 they're in Virginia Beach by 

 the first of November. Then 

 they work along the Carolina 

 beaches until the fish move 

 back north to deeper waters. 

 When summer approaches, 

 Williams' crews will shrimp off 

 of North and South Carolina 

 or scallop off Cape May, N.J. 



Tar Heel fishermen cash in 

 on this bountiful harvest 

 from the Florida coast 



North Carolina's traveling 

 fishermen approach their pro- 

 fession for the business it is. 

 They know that a successful 

 fishing season has little to do 

 with luck. It depends on old- 

 fashioned hard work, they say. 



And sometimes their suc- 

 cess riles the fishermen in 

 other states. 



"I reckon sometimes they 

 feel like they'd get along better 

 if out-of-state boats would stay 

 at home," says Red Brooks of 

 Harkers Island. 



Daniels, who says some 

 Northern fishermen resent the 

 North Carolina presence in 

 their territory, has a comeback 

 ready for them. 



"We just tell them the war's 

 over," he says. "We have to 

 work hard. We don't care 

 whose waters we're in." 



Williams says any resent- 

 ment is unfounded. He likens 

 it to a deer hunt. 



"If I was going deer hunting 

 in my own back yard, I'd know 

 where to look and where to kill 



