Old Man And The Sea

It is a classic cartoon: little fish about to be eaten by big fish about to be engulfed by even bigger fish. Clinton's Captain Tony Barone saw it happen for real while fishing off Key West, Florida.

"I caught a yellowtail snapper and was bringing it in," he says. "A cobia, about 15 pounds, grabbed the snapper. I reeled in the cobia and, right on top of the water, a bull shark took the cobia."

Anyone who has fished the Keys knows that what might sound like a fish story is perfectly plausible. Many a Keys angler has set the hook only to reel in a mangled head, losing the rest of dinner to a shark or other hungry predator.  

But twice on the same retrieve?

Exciting as it may seem, Barone tells the story matter-of-factly, albeit with a slight grin, indicating without saying so it was just another day on the briny.

By anyone's definition, Barone is an old salt. He was been on the sea most of his 76 years, starting as a boy working on his uncle's bait barge in Brooklyn, N.Y.

He has worked the ocean as a civilian and a sailor in the United States Navy, active and reserve, from which he retired as a senior chief boatswain's mate.

He has had his captain's license since the 1950s and today, from May to November, still charters a sports fishing vessel out of Clinton's .

During the winter, he fishes commercially, with rod and reel, out of Key West. Given that he is a septuagenarian, and has no thoughts of becoming a landlubber, it is tempting to consider him a real-life Old Man and the Sea.

Not that there is anything geriatric about him except, perhaps for his white moustache. He is obviously in good shape and he operates his 32-foot charter boat, the Early Bird, without the help of a mate.

The vessel is a reflection of the man who captains it. Not a sleek sportfisherman, the Early Bird us a Maine-built lobster boat, with a four-foot draft, and a hollow keel ballasted with water. The head is in a cuddy cabin at the fore of the cockpit, where Barone pilots the boat.

"I don't have to leave the cockpit to anchor," he says. Barone has reworked the cockpit so it opens up on the starboard where the anchor is played out and retrieved with an modified lobster trap hauler.

The utilitarian design of Barone's boat, which is outfitted with fighting chairs near the stern makes it easy to fish six people, with room to spare. That number is the maximum for a charter, which can run a full or half day.

Barone does not range far and wide to find fish.

"I don't have to go far," he says. "If you know when the fish are likely to be hungry, the fishing around here is the best. My business depends on knowing which fish bite when in an area I'm going to fish, I look for fish supermarkets."

Barone says he seldom goes farther west than Faulkner's Island and regularly fishes SouthWest and Six Mile reefs.

"The record bass was caught right here," he says, citing the potential world record striper recently boated by Greg Myerson of Branford near Southwest Reef.

During the winter, he fishes reefs on the Gulf of Mexico side of Key West on a 25-foot Luhrs that he is allowed, as a Navy retiree, to keep at the U.S. Naval Air Station there.

Barone, who generally fishes three days a week, says he is careful never to overfish a good spot.

"I leave a reef alone for 30 days after fishing it" he says. His winter home is on rural Big Coppitt Key, near Key West.

Barone's boyhood contact with fish and the fishing industry was truly up close and intensely personal. Raised in an Italian-American enclave in Brooklyn's Redhook neighborhood, Barone as a teenager worked on his uncle's bait barge, anchored in Grave's End.

He cut and supplied bait for lobster boats and fishing vessels. A task few would envy brought him into the reeking holds of the large vessels that harvested menhaden -- the "bunker" that are prized for bluefish and striper baits. Down he would go, standing deep in the odoriferous bait fish, shoveling loads of them up and out for his uncle's barge.

Bait from Brooklyn still has a place in Barone's life. "I go to Sheepshead's Bay for bait," he says. "The clams are salted and hard, not mushy," he explains. "I salt mine again to keep them firm."

Leaving Brooklyn in 1973, Barone bought a marina in Madison, on the Hammonasset River near the Post Road, now The Boat Center. He also chartered with a vessel out of Branford.

He eventually sold the marina to concentrate on chartering. Many of his customers are regulars who come from Connecticut and out of state as well.

Some groups return about the same time every year for an outing on the Sound with Barone, who provides the gear, bait and the rest of the wherewithal.

Like any charter boat captain, he has to deal with customer personality quirks. The toughest customers, he says, are men with some fishing experience who think they do not need his instructions.

"I have to explain how to fish on my boat, with my gear and at my spots," he explains. "I told one guy to go easy letting out line, since we were in water only 30 feet deep. He let out 400 feet. Kept saying he had a big fish. He had a lobster pot and lost his rig."

Novices, especially women and children, are usually good listeners and take his advice. "They usually catch fish, too," he says.

Barone fishes for most of the species found locally -- bluefish, blackfish, fluke, porgies, sometimes false albacore and bonito at this time of year.

For most people, however, the big fish is the striped bass. "Everybody wants stripers," says Barone. "Especially since that guy caught the big one."

To make a reservation to fish aboard the Early Bird, Tony Barone can be reached at 860-664-4540 or 203-927-1052.