I remembered both Carl and Freddy from the days I first learned about the art of saltwater fishing on an old broken-down dock just outside of the Carolina Beach basin. It was there that I would watch the Carolina Beach charter boats heading out for another day of fishing. The boats would make their departure in a long line, putting off a sizable wake and the smell of diesel. Two offshore fishing boats in particular, seemed to always catch my attention. As the boats motored by heading out, I couldn't help but notice the captains on the flybridge of a couple of those boats. One seemed to always look like a statue, keeping his eyes dead ahead. "Fish Which” driven by Captain Carl Snow. I had heard about Captain Snow and his terrifying experience of a boat fire and having been rescued from the cold Atlantic waters in 1991. It's a story that continues to be told by anglers today. But it's nothing like hearing it from Carl Snow himself. The other boat was named “Music Man”. You nearly always hear the laughter coming from this boat that was captained by Freddy Holland. Both boats were heading out the inlet on their way to the Gulf Stream.
Captain Freddy Holland’s “Music Man”
I asked both Carl and Freddy about their early years of fishing. Freddy started by telling me he had yet to have a driver's license when he bought his first Red Seahorse boat. Carl's first boat was a Simons, with two 18-horsepower outboard engines. The Simmons cost only $800 and took him eight weeks of fishing to pay off his debt to the original owner. His next boat was a 48' Harker's Island with two 671 horsepower engines. Carl brought a chuckle to the table when he told us that the Harker's Island would run up to 10-knots "downhill". It was this boat that enabled him to head to the Gulfstream for countless 24-hour trips. A tactic that is now a thing of the past. In those early days, Captain Carl would often hook a tow line to Freddy's smaller boat and tow him to the Gulf Stream so that Freddy could preserve his fuel for the return trip home. It was during that time fishing spots started to have "names". Places like "The Break" and the "Same Old". These places and names as well as countless others were found and named by men who discovered and fished them in a day when offshore fishing on the Carolina Coast was far more challenging than it is today.
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