Capt. Fuzzy Davis

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​Capt. Fuzzy Davis from Hilton Head Island.mp3
Intro
[00:00:02] Welcome to the LoCo fly podcast. I'm Mark Nutting. Fly fishing guide outdoor enthusiast environmentalist and father. Come join me as we discuss a wide range of topics from fishing, conservation, travel, and cuisine.

[00:00:13] Fuzzy: One of the guys with us had a high powered rifle.  He shot it full of holes.

[00:00:25] In this episode I sat down with Captain Fuzzy Davis, a charter boat captain in the low country for over 40 years.  He's become a legend around here in our inshore waters.

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[00:00:34] So. Fuzzy Davis, the man, the myth, the legend. Welcome to the podcast.

[00:00:37] Fuzzy: Oh man. Great. Great to be here with you Mark.

[00:00:40] Fuzzy. Let's get  into it. I got a ton of stuff I'd love to know. What was it like growing up?.
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Well I'll tell you what. You know I grew up kind of all over the place.

[00:00:52] My dad was with Kroger foods. So we traveled everywhere. My happiest moment was when we lived in Wisconsin which I used to ice fish. Man I can't believe that. I hate cold weather now.  When my dad came home one day and he said Hey we're gonna move to Nashville Tennessee. Well all the bars magazines I add showed nothing but these huge bars coming out of the TVA lake. So I was doing  backflips for the bass. and kind of grew up in high school fishing those bass lakes.  When my folks moved down to Hilton Head South Carolina.  I was able to cut my teeth down there and some saltwater fishing. Luckily enough I started fishing inshore with my one of my mentors Captain George Cook the guy that gave me the  name the fuzzy.  We started to back water fish and inshore fish and that's really where I found my love for it.

[00:01:51] So how did you make it to the Low country?

[00:01:54] Well through that connection when my folks moved down to to South Carolina to Hilton Head and I started working. Actually my first job was to sweep the steps in the harbor town lighthouse.   I had to figured out you start from the top and work your way down.  Took me a couple of days to figure that out.

[00:02:23] It was a great job, great group of people then. Back in those days, early 70s, everybody knew everybody. It was a small community. A great place to fish in the the estuaries although I hadn't really been able to fish all of them. They were just unbelievable. I mean the middle of Calibouge sound and on a weekday there was nobody, it was an amazing place. It really was well, magical.

[00:02:57] How would you compare the fishery back then?

[00:02:59] That's an interesting question. Of course I wasn't as good at catching fish back then as I am now.  I compare catches to what I saw, you know coming into the docks when I first started guiding and I started guiding.  My first year was actually 40 years ago this year as an official guide with my own boat in 1979  when I started.  Back in those days you didn't see the number of big red fish that you do now. I think that conservation efforts and because of limits size limits bag limits stocking by the Waddell MariCulture Center. It really enhanced our fishery.  I mean it's a lot better than it was back in 79. I can tell you that.

[00:03:51] And what about the trout fishery?

[00:03:51] The trout fishery was was kind of, I'd say the same. You know it was kind of the same and you know the way I view trout too, they're kind of at the whim of the of the cold temperatures in the wintertime. So you'll lose part of a population and then they kind of bounce back. Takes them a couple of years to bounce back. So that's kind of what we saw back then. You know there were a couple of years where we lost a lot of fish like we did two years ago in the freeze of 2018. Yeah but you know. Trout fishing  was still pretty good. You know of course Cobia fishing was unbelievable. 

[00:04:31] The cobia fishing has died off a bit lately.

[00:04:33] Oh yeah. Inshore, it's really slow right now. So hopefully it'll come back. And Waddell Mari Culture Center is doing a lot to enhance that too. So we're grateful for them.

[00:04:43] What would you say about the tarpon fishery compared to back then?

[00:04:44] Well I tell you what, I started fishing for Tarpon,  and really just because some of the local fishermen at Harbor Town were coming in, and they'd say they were trolling for Spanish mackerel out there on the outer bars off of South Beach and they'd hook tarpon. So I said "Well hey man" they gotta be out there. So I really devoted all my time to going out there. Finding and trying to discover where they were. You know, the first couple of years we fished for them I think we only caught maybe three or four fish a year. Then it evolved into catching 30,40 and 50 fish a year. So the whole fisheries evolved. We started off with only one or two spots. Now we have multiple spots in Calibogue  sound,  Port Royal sound,  and in our near shore waters. It's been a phenomenal shot in the arm for our fishing in this area.

[00:05:44] There's a bunch of fuzzy stories going on. Can you tell me some?

[00:05:49] Oh my goodness.

[00:05:50] I tell you you know one thing about  being a fishing guide.  You get pretty intimate with people, you know, you learn a lot about their families and stuff.

[00:06:02] It's been  fun. It's been a fun journey in the same way with all the other skippers. All the charter boat captains.

[00:06:09] I just look back. You know many years ago one of the stories was  when the state wasn't building any artificial reefs back in the late 70s and early 80s. So a group of charter boat guys and myself decided we'd take that on ourselves. Well this was probably deemed as  highly illegal. You can't go out and dump anything in the ocean. One of the classics was an idea, I can't tell you who was in on this thing, they might get in trouble.  We took an old wooden boat that somebody had given us. Filled it full of engine blocks. We took it about three miles offshore. We started filling it with water.  We pulled the plugs out of the boat and it started filling with water. Well the thing wouldn't sink. it wouldn't sink. So one of the guys with us had a high powered rifle. Well he shot it full of holes. And low and behold the boat sank a little bit. Then it turned upside down. It dumped all those engine blocks out and then it came zooming back to the surface. So now we got a 25 foot wooden boat, with bullet holes in it, floating around out there. Well we said "well we're not going to take it back". It'll probably drift out to sea and we'll be OK. Well the next day I was coming by South Beach on my way out for a charter on south beach. I looked up to my left and I saw the boat. It was on the beach.  There was about five sea pines maintenance guys standing around it scratching their heads like what are we going to do with this.

[00:08:03] And full of bullet holes.

[00:08:03]  Full of bullet holes so they called the sheriff's department. Well we forgot to take off the registration from the boat. So the states  Sheriff's Department traced it back to a friend of ours that had given us the boat to make the reef out of.  They showed up at his house and this is back in the day when there was a lot of illicit drug smuggling going on. And in the low country.  They figured this was probably a drug related incident. So they woke our friend up one morning and said We found your boat full of bullet holes.  So he had to talk his way out of that thing and Sea Pines took care of the wood that was on the beach, but that was a saga.

[00:08:57] Another boat we had.  A little 18 foot skiff and we wanted to sink it. It was fiberglass. So we we called the concrete and we said the only way we're gonna be able to get this boat to sink, the engine box didn't work too well. We're gonna have to pour some concrete in the bottom of this boat. So we called up the concrete company and we had a boat sitting there in the water at Palmetto bay. The concrete guy drove up and he said "Hey did somebody order some concrete". We said "Yeah we did". So where do you want it? We said "See that boat right there just back right up to that boat and pour it" maybe poured two yards of concrete in the bottom that he gives it. The concrete guy said "If I pour that concrete in that boat,that boat's going to sink. We said Well that's the idea. Go ahead and port in there. So we did. And that one was a little bit more successful but I have to say that with all of our efforts. We really never did catch too much off of those reefs so better to let the state handle what they do the best and creating a reef.

[00:10:05] I love that.. is there one of you poling your boat cause your motor broke down for the season?

[00:10:23] I've had a couple instances back in the day where the engine has failed. I've done everything that you can do. Well let me let me reverse that a little bit. Every day I fish I find out that I haven't  experienced everything yet so but I did run out of gas one time on the way out from the dock and had to be towed back in. I did fall out of the boat one day and with the engine running and I charter had to come back and get me. And when they came back and I'll never forget it I had my dog keeper who had been fishing with me for 10 or 11 years. He was standing on the boat like go on what are you doing in the water. You know he's looking out off the bow of the boat. Anyhow the charter came back to get me. I climbed in the boat and I expected to like a little bit of sympathy out of the charter you know because  my knees were killing me. They hit the swim platform on the way out of the boat and the guy looked at his son looked at me and he goes "and we made reservations for this". I said oh my that hurt. That hurt. That hurt about as bad as my knees did. And I don't think we caught anything that day either that really hurt. But. Sure. So you never know. I mean you know when you're out there like like you do you see you see new stuff everyday experience new things every day. Got caught in the fog one day and in Port Royal sound and went around in circles for about two hours. It's amazing how lost you can get so quickly. I mean when a when it feels over. I mean you can really end up from one side to another side. Yeah for sure. And yeah I mean this just kind of  before G.P.S. and I had a LARAN but I didn't really set it before I went out it didn't have a chart built into it. That was another time that the people I don't think I ever saw those folks again coming back

[00:12:35] I actually I don't even use a G.P.S. in the boat so it still happens every once in a while. 

[00:12:41] yeah. Fog is the worst.

[00:12:43] Yeah thats tough.

[00:12:44] I love it because you know if it's foggy it's going to be slick calm. Yeah. And you can hear stuff just forever it seems, like when it's foggy. 

[00:12:55] Where do you see the fishing industry going in the future?

[00:12:58] Oh that's interesting. That's an interesting question and I think in the last few years I think we've got, you know a real interesting dilemma between the success of development and building on the coast and the pressure that we're putting on the fishery and the number of boats that we have in the water right now. I know you see it too as you go out.

[00:13:26] It's just the last five 10 years.

[00:13:28]  Yeah in the last five or 10 years like you say you go out and there are of course a lot of guides but there are a lot of a lot of private boats and boat clubs and water sports.

[00:13:44] It's all it's all impacting you know and I'm not saying like the early people on Hilton Head said close the bridge man we don't need anybody else. You know I  was here. Got to enjoy it you know come on you know.

[00:13:59] But but but it does provide you know an extra you know you really have to examine kind of what you're doing where are you going where the most boat traffic is going to be. If it's a weekend or not I remembered a fish and a weekend or Saturday it really didn't make a difference. And now it does. So I think I think boat traffic is a huge one. I think we are going to really have to look at size limits and released limits again because that's going to impact these fishery got more hooks in the water catching more fish. We're going to have to look at that. But these are these are dilemmas that everybody faces. I mean Charleston faced them a few years ago.

[00:14:49] Now we're kind of lucky really.

[00:14:50] Yeah we've been lucky.

[00:14:52] I mean you know we still have some areas that that don't see the pressure that are near to us that don't have the amount of pressure so we're lucky in that respect. But but then again we're just going to have to you know it helps to educate to helps to educate the people that are fishing and boating in the area about what's etiquette and what's not.

[00:15:19] Sure.

[00:15:19] As a busy topic I mean etiquette and how to, you know.

[00:15:23] Yeah yeah for sure.

[00:15:24] What advice would you give to all these younger anglers and new guides that are that are coming in.

[00:15:31] It's it's interesting too because a lot of those new guides are my friends you know because,  actually my son is as is a guide he just graduated from Auburn. He's fishing his own boat right now. There's a lot of young guys that are out there doing the same things.

[00:15:50] He's doing a great job.

[00:15:51] Yeah well thank you. Thanks. There's been a lot of fun fishing with him and fish and fishing together. But I think you know I look at it too as is as a lot of discovery I'm still all ears I listen you know  even though I fish the area for a long time if it's like anything you never you never really learn it you know everything and I'm listening to a lot of these new guides and they're saying well I've fished here at fish there and I'm thinking to myself I never fished there before you know. And they're catching fish you know and they're using different techniques. And I think that's the beauty about what we do is you can't ever learn at all these new creeks to go up to there's no new rivers new areas to discover. But but I'd say.

[00:16:44] I think the moment you think you have it all figured out is the moment you really don't.

[00:16:47] Totally  Yeah. And that to me that that's that's the that's the most true when TARP and fishing. Oh yeah. The second you say man I got going out there this week it ought to be great and where do fish go. There's so humbling around here. It's out there one day now and then I'm bad the next but I think to the New guides I'd say you know just be persistent and and be in the discovery mode. And a lot of these guys like yourself are going skinnier and skinnier and smaller boats so they can get in areas a lot of other people can't. And that's good. And I think you know they're the ones that have to look at policing the limits and you know keep it within what you think a particular area will take a course abide by the state limits. But don't pound that every day and take every fish out of the area.

[00:17:49] I see a lot of guys will just go back to the same spots because they catch fish there. Yeah. And they just keep fishing until when I am where I'm out pretty good.

[00:17:57] Yeah I know it. We had a we had a little seminar the other day. Al Stokes who was responsible for. He was with the water miracle center. Just recently recently retired and and I was talking about the red fish program and and what he's done and basically the Reds don't leave. From the time they're hatched they don't leave that particular area for maybe three to four years. They stay within about a mile to a half mile to a mile where they were born or where they first started off is Fingerling. So and like you say if you go back if you keep going back and you everybody's taken two or three fish a day it may not seem like a lot but over the course of a couple years you know will that will that school replenish itself with other fish? We don't know, but as it's as it's kind of been proven from what you know my experience and your experience that places don't really regain a number of fish that they have in earlier stages.

[00:19:05] Do you notice that they don't they don't eat as well as well like the more pressure they have the less.

[00:19:12] Yeah definitely. Yeah definitely. You know we want as a guide you want goofy fish. You want fish and haven't seen anybody they eat everything you cast behind and they turn around and eat the bait. You know the worst thing you can have a smart fish. The more that you go into one area and you're pressuring them, and it doesn't really pressure them with a boat. I mean with the casting as much is just the presence of the boat when you hear the boat or they see see the people or whatever it gives them the yips, you know. So yeah I think that has a that has a lot to do with it. You can tell when you found a fish that school fish it hasn't hasn't been fish in a while they're just happy floating and it's it's what we fish for right there in it for sure. Right. Definitely well done.

[00:20:10] What are some what are some tips for catching more trout.

[00:20:13] I tell you what   for catching more trout.

[00:20:21] I learned this from a savannah angler years ago and the first time or the first couple of years I was fishing trout. 

[00:20:31] I was using a little single hook and as you know trout known as a weak fish. So a lot of times when you hook the fish it tears a hole and it rips a hole in his mouth.  I was fishing with this gentleman he goes you know what. I appreciate that you're using a single hook, but I trout fish strictly with a small treble. So I started using a number 10 bronze treble hook, and I'll squeeze down the barbs a lot of times so the hook pops out. The 10 is little tiny hook and you can put the shrimp on and the shrimp will stay alive basically for four hours with that hook. It won't kill him like a single look will because most of the single hooks are big wider metal and they'll make a bigger hole in the shrimp and the shrimp will end up dying.  When I started using the trebles I probably quadrupled my trout catch and with a small enough treble. The fish are easy to release so you can basically cut the mortality ratio. Even with using a treble it's kid friendly. The kids catch a lot of them. You know I think it's been fun too. We use a lot of artificials, lots of jigs. The Z man jigs have been really good on the trout. Just incredible. The plastics that the advances in the plastics here are just unbelievable from the time that I started fishing in the Scented baits just the advance into making a like a shrimp lure look exactly like a shrimp. I mean that's like it's incredible what's made now. And I tell you that you know the top water thing has gotten to be a big deal never was before. You know there's a handful of guides that have really gotten into that fish at low light. I know you do the same thing work in top order bass baits for the trout a love life. And it's so much fun fishing that way.

[00:22:52] Yeah it's totally exciting.

[00:22:53] Yeah yeah. But I mean that's the idea for as far as catching more trout that small tiny little treble  with a live shrimp is just it's scary good you know. And about up to about a twenty five pound Fluero carbon leader it's just it's amazing. But I do like the fact that even using that treble hook we can still release a lot of fish unharmed.

[00:23:21] So you wouldn't think so.

[00:23:22] But actually when you when you really do think about it definitely and you bend the barbs down and down and all the top water baits almost all have to treble hooks on them you know. So you know just shows that the fish smoked in the mouth and you can get them in and get them get them back and revive them pretty quick.

[00:23:41] What do you like your other passions.

[00:23:44] Oh man I tell you I've got I've got too many hobbies Mark right now but I love I grew up in Nashville Tennessee and was always a rock and roll drummer so I'm into the music scene but I quit playing drums when I moved down here. They're just too loud they're too cumbersome I started playing hand percussion I play conga drums and and I get to play with John Brackett quartet once a week playing percussion with them. And John's another fishing guide. So it's fun we get in there and play music and then we're talking about where we fish that day you know. So it's it's kind of a it's a lot of fun that way. Then I play with a Latin band a group of a group of guys and one super gal singer from Mexico and we have, we're pretty much traditional Latin music. So that's one that's I love doing that. You know I love playing percussion. I love playing Latin music and jazz.

[00:24:48] One of my other hobbies it's become a lot of work. I don't know if somebody said would you do this again if you knew how much work it was. And I said it probably wouldn't do it again. But I've learned a lot. I have a little blueberry farm. Up in Scotia, South Carolina which is a little bit north of hardeeville and got into that saw the blueberry plants down in South Georgia when I was working down there as a guide and a nice kind of blueberries or blueberries in the south. Founded some research found out they grow real good here. So I've been doing that. But I tell you what I have a lot of respect for farmers after doing that.

[00:25:34] Yeah fishing is a whole lot easier. They are blueberries pretty profitable around here. Well they are when you do it on a big scale you know. And my I have kind of like a hobby farm. So you pick that's nice. So we get a lot of folks up there to pick them in the late spring. And so that's. And we do we do some farmers markets. Did the farmer's market in Bluffton and sea Pines on Hilton Head. So it's interesting. I love meeting the people. It's kind of like the guy business because your people are coming in there to pick blueberries that you would never meet. You know it's everybody from all walks.

[00:26:19] It's been fun. I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot more patience with farming than I had with fish.

[00:26:27] So really.

[00:26:28] Yeah just I'm actually I grew up with the blueberries as well but I was always back to a coffee can put like a string around it and I would just go through and the problem was that I would always pick like a pick a bunch I would eat them and then only one would go and a coffee it's like I've done I going to get you that I have blueberries back.

[00:26:48] Well when we when we we have a similar thing we have a bucket with a string on it and we tell people that we don't charge them for the berries they eat. So they eat probably four to every two buckets they pick. They probably eat a bucket but that's OK with us. If we find your blueberries in the supermarket again we have a will probably be in.

[00:27:09] Luckily we had a Piggly Wiggly David Martin's Piggly Wiggly down at Callignee plaza on the south end and has has been nice enough to keep our berries in there during the season the season is in May. So that's when they'll be there and then we'll probably be over at the  Bluffton market. But we also have  a little Facebook page.

[00:27:35] It's Carrie's berries. So my daughter is Carrie so we named it Carrie's berries.

[00:27:47] Very nice. How she doing?

[00:27:49] Good. She's doing great. She's graduating from Auburn in May so we're excited about that.

[00:27:55] Are you still doing the radio show?

[00:27:58] Still doing the fishing forecast man.

[00:28:01] I'll tell ya, Montejet and I started doing the fishing report on 107.9 it was probably about thirty five years ago when we started doing that report and we still do it every Monday through Friday every morning. Still on 107.9 called rewind one seven point nine so if you go to if you just google rewind 107.9 you can hit the listen live button and hear us and we come on at twenty to eight on Monday through Friday. We always do a trivia question. We have a lot of fun in everything we say is true. Get a couple Pinocchio's I know we have fun then that's the name of the game and you know I've had a lot of fun been very blessed being down here in the low country.

[00:28:56] Yeah I know you have to man it's it's been a great experience.

[00:28:59] It's so beautiful. Still pretty untouched even.

[00:29:02] Yeah it is. It really is 

[00:29:05] It's great having you on man.

[00:29:07] Great to be with you Mark.

[00:29:10] I tell you we I can keep you here all night.

[00:29:14] We share the same passion and I'd say and that's what brought us together. You know fish and inefficient shallow water backwater. You see we see things which we wish we could show everybody. You know the bird  life, all the sea mammals that we see and just being with the general public and being able to share with them what we see as has been a blessing for sure.

[00:29:43] How do we find you?

[00:29:45] Well I tell you what I've got my Web site is fuzzy Davis dot com also silva dollar charters. That's S.I. L V A D O L L A charters. And now people ask me Well why do you name what. What's up with silver dollar? What's the silver dollar what is a silver dollar? Well silver dollar is actually a tarpon scale. It's the nickname for a tarpon scale because it's big and silver and in the south you don't say silver dollar. You say silver dollar you know so. So that's why Silver Dollar charters. So there you go. . They can also use my email address. It's just fuzzy Davis at gmail dot com.

[00:30:34] I love it. Thanks for coming out man.

[00:30:37] Hey Mark. Been a pleasure. Great. Great to be with you.

[00:30:40] And tight lines to you buddy.

[00:30:42] You too. Don't forget to subscribe and I'll see you guys in the next episode.