I left my guns in Cal.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Maxprop" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...
While in no way similar to this situation (middle of nowhere), I did have
something vaguely simlar happen while in Belize. We pulled into a very
small cove anchorage. After sitting at anchor for 1/2 day or so, a local
fishing boat sailed in and dropped the hook about 100 yard from us. There
must have been at least a dozen young black men on the boat. Almost
immediately, a few of them got into their skiff, fired up a rather large
outboard and slowly motored over to us. I guess my and other's first
reaction was a bit of paranoia, although we had not heard of any problems
with tourists being assaulted. Having lived in a couple of major US
cities, I don't think our thoughts were that strange. However, we just
waited for them to come over. Not much we could do either way, so we
figured that we'd just be polite and go with the flow so to speak.

So, they finally get over to us.. sure did take their time about it.. we
wave, but they don't wave back and they're not smiling. Anyway, as they
pull up next to the cat, I ask them how they're doing, and one of the
younger ones says fine, but can they ask us a favor. I say sure. They
really want to know if we have any spare books and/or cans of soda. Turns
out one of the women has one of those romance bodice-ripper novels. She
hands it over, and we give them a couple of six packs of soda, since
we're fully into drinking only beer at this point (and can feel the urge
for stronger drink overtaking us).

About an hour after they get back to their boat, we can hear one of them
reading the book aloud to the others.
The next day they came back to say thank you. We gave them some candy,
and they offered to take us to watch them pull their traps out of the
ocean. We spent several hours with them, motoring around from fishing
trap to fishing trap, had a nice picnic on a tiny island in the middle of
nowhere, and then we got a tour of their "camp," which had a wall make up
of hundreds of conch shells.

Shoulda shot the *******s when ya had the chance.

Max

In article . net,
Maxprop wrote:

"Edgar" wrote in message
...
Not even that long ago in UK. I once knew an old guy who used to use one
in
the 1920's and early 1930's. I saw his gun when I was young but cannot
remember the bore but it was at least 2" and carried a heavy charge of
shot. It was mounted more or less horizontally along the foredeck of a
low
lying wooden canoe type boat known as a 'duck punt', always painted grey
to
be less visible at night.. You loaded up and, lying flat in the punt, you
stealthily paddled yourself with your hands up to the mudflats where the
ducks were sleeping on the water. You aimed the punt, not the gun, and
like
you said you only got one chance because there was no way of reloading.
Not
sure of this, but I think you held your fire until they heard you and were
just lifting off.
If you made a noise you might get nothing but if all went according to
plan
50/100 bag would not be unusual. Gun was fixed to the punt and the recoil
sent the whole lot backward. Not very sporting, but mighty effective.

Your assessment is right on. When the gendarmes began to confiscate the big
guns, some of the hunters would rather die than surrender them. They fought
to keep them, and some did go to jail. Oddly enough, no one seemed to care
if fish were netted by the hundreds, but to shoot waterfowl in that quantity
was a crime.

Nobody cared *then*. Dunno how easy/difficult it is to legally fish
with a gill net in the USA without a licence, but it's hard to
impossible here in the populated states. All a matter of dwindling fish
stocks and increased exploitation.

Of course the decline is usually due to habitat destruction but that's
too hard, too much money in filling 'useless' mangroves and wetlands.

PDW