Thunder Live Bait was a very long, early morning chapter for Pop and my Dad in the Ewer family story book. Fishing from 3 am to sunrise 300+ days a year for over 20 years will surely equip you with some tales to tell.
Origin Story:
The live bait business was born around 1977. Pop sold his excess self-caught baits while running a 40’ Jersey charter boat out of Buccaneer Marina called the “My Christy”. His first customer was the “Ruthie”, a 53’ Hatteras out of North Palm Beach, FL.
The goggle eyes were caught right off the dock and in and around the Palm Beach Inlet and sold for $1 a fish. Oddly enough, they could be caught during the day during specific tides in the shadows of the boats. They bit small led jigs called wolfie jigs.
“Ruthie” became a repeat regular and eventually multiple other customers wanted to buy bait as well. In a short period of time, a business was born.
At 11 years old my father (Tom) began his official career on the water. Fishing for bait was one of the many helping hands he lent Pop to bring in some cash, along with washing/waxing, mating, and running boats.
The quest for more product/quantity eventually led to building and outfitting a bigger, better bait boat - as well as needing a few more helping hands.
Boats and Builders:
Pop and Dad’s first bait boat was an 18’ tri-hull Robalo. They converted the front seat into a livewell and it sloshed so badly they could hardly keep enough water in it. Maxed out it held about two dozen baits. Eventually, Pop engineered a pump system in the splash well in the back of the boat. They plumbed a rule 360 gph bilge pump as a live well pump from the splash well into the forward seat. That worked great… until they had to run a long distance. And back then, a long distance was from the inlet to the Breakers. So they started rigging pumps on the outside of the hull with a speed scoop to feed water into the seat while running.
The more they fished the more they perfected their vessels to hold more storage capacity and keep the bait in better shape. As the boats, larger livewells, and pumps improved they were able to travel farther and catch bigger quantities - eventually spreading their fishing grounds from Stuart to the top of the keys.
In 1984 Pop and Dad commissioned their first custom live bait boat together - a 26’ Goldline with Doug and Bill Gold. Hull #1 was built with multiple in-deck thru-hull livewells as well as plumping for on deck livewells. They named her “Thunder” because she road so rough and loud. You could barely hear yourself think and Pop’s knees have never recovered. But she has stood the test of time and is still on the water today with her second owner - a local commercial fisherman in Riviera Beach.
In 1993 they added a second boat to their fleet, commissioning a 27’ Rambo (Hull #3) with good friend and fellow bait fisherman Lou Rambo. “Lightening” was more efficient - able to push the weight of large livewell capacities with less horsepower, more speed, and less fuel. Not to mention a better ride - hence the yin to “Thunder’s” yang.
After years of good service they sold both “Thunder” and “Lightening” and another new Rambo was commissioned in 2004. To this day, the 27’ Rambo is still our preferred family vessel. My Dad and Lou remain great friends and have built, rigged, and sold over 60+ hulls together.
Schedules and Strategies:
Up at 3:00 am.
Fish until day light.
Sold from 7:00 am - 8:00 am or until they ran out.
Then on to normal captain jobs and family activities.
…and if the bait was chewing, sometimes going back out at dusk. Pop and my Dad put around 2000 hours on engines every year, (regularly blowing power heads) fishing 300+ days and nights. They followed the fish. Sometimes having to come in, unload, and head back out. Tinker mackerel during the day, goggle eyes at night and gum drop blue runners (which no one wanted but sometimes they were all that bit). They threw custom made 16 ft cast nets with 28 lbs of lead when sardines, hadens and threadfin herring were on the beach.
Before marine electronics existed, or were attainable on a commercial fisherman’s budget, they would follow the fish night after night returning to similar spots. Their average depth was around 60ft. Water and weather conditions, along with temperature and clarity, moved the fish around. If they were lucky and conditions stayed the same they could fish in the same area for as long as a week. In colder months they fished more south and in the warmer months, more north.
Their first fish finder was a Si-tex 7in paper machine on the Goldline. It was $380. As technology progressed they advanced to a Loran-C that gave them positioning and marked spots. When the color sounder arrived on the market, it was a game changer. Pictured is them customizing the helm/console build out for “Thunder” in 1984 in Pop’s garage.
Competitors in the Palm Beach area developed as boat design, marine technology, and the sportfishing industry as a whole flourished. There was an overall sense of community but also fierce rivalry. “Bait wars” as they were called. Their biggest issue was other boats intercepting radio calls, posing as “Thunder Live Bait”, and stealing their customers. Accountability and dependability set them apart from their opponents.
Tackle & Equipment:
Hand wrapped quills were the original tackle of choice and Pop and Dad wrapped thousands in their 30+ year span of live baiting. They mainly used 8 ft pick rods with strings of up to 12 quills. Penn or Garcia were the reels of choice. When the bite was on they busted out the big rods. These “string rods” were 12 ft surf blanks built specifically for up to 20 quill strings. Eventually the sabiki rig became available. Game changer.
Holding pens also evolved over the years. Fastened using a pulley system to pilings on the north sea wall at the Buccaneer, they originally used chicken wire framed out with PVC. Eventually they moved on to plastic screen. At 6ft in diameter and about 4ft tall, they used about a 50ft roll of wire and 80ft of 3/4” PVC pipe . As they aged the growth, coral, weeds, and critters weighed them down so they had to be replaced every few years.
Radios were one of their most important pieces of equipment - used to communicate with clients as well as other live bait boats. They had VHFs in their trucks to listen up and take orders whenever needed.
One thing I realized when talking about this segment is how much we take underwater lights for granted. They used an incandescent 50 watt white bulb to attract bait drift fishing in the deep. It was a house light fixture on a piece of PVC mounted to the antenna on the t top of the Goldline. I laughed at the specificity of the bulb and they swore fluorescent lights never worked as well. On the Rambo builds they were able to design the lighting into the hardtops.
Cast nets were another important piece of equipment for supplementing when bait was on the beach. They threw custom made 16 footers with 28lbs of lead. They even filmed a “how to throw a cast net” video for Murray Brothers with Dad on the bow that was sold in local tackle shops.
All in the Numbers:
The hardest part of the livebait game was the dependability of working with nature. They had numerous nights of catching absolutely nothing. There always seemed to be more eager customers than bait available. But they had a few memorably epic evenings that they both recalled with grins when sitting down and talking with me. On the eve of one of the Buccaneer Cups in the 1990s, they caught over 200 dozen baits. The tournament hosted a fleet of 100+ contenders at the time. Tournaments were the peak of their season with some, like the Arthur Smith KDW, bringing as many as 1400 boats to the Palm Beach Inlet (with a shot gun start no less). Other major events were the North vs. South Shootout, the Gold Cup, the Pompano Rodeo and the Lauderdale Billfish tournament.
It’s amazing how much the industry has evolved. Their top record dip net-to-bucket-to-customer ratio was 55 dozen in around 20 minutes one morning. To put it in perspective, back then the “professionals” were only buying 4 or 5 dozen goggle eyes at a time. An average order was usually 1-2 dozen. Today, boats will buy 40+ dozen for a single trip. Then, customers wanted fresh bait that saw little to no pen time. Today, it’s evolved into an art form with many owners and crew preferring to catch and “season” their own product. They hold them, feed them, and oxygenate their holding pens to make the fish as lively as possible.
The Legacy Lives On:
My brother and I have a ton of fun memories waking up in the pitch black of night and loading up to go fishing with Dad. My mom got in on the action too. Us kids mostly found the warmest, driest place to bundle up in our Grundens. We’d fall asleep in various nooks from the leaning post to inside the console. But if we reeled in a few strings we were always rewarded with Entenmann’s donuts and a $20 tip.
The industry has come a long way. The modern-day bait guys have far more amenities - out catching, out running, and keeping baits alive way longer. It wasn’t the easiest job, but it was honest work with good cashflow. Both Pop and my Dad said the biggest career perk was watching the sunrise every morning. Not many can say they’ve enjoyed 300+ ocean sunrises in a lifetime much less in a year.
After 23 years Pop retired in 2000. My Dad followed 10 years later. They were a few of the pioneers in the Palm Beach area and helped lay the ground work for a lot of the practices still used to run an efficient operation today. My Dad learned a ton from Pop over that 30 year span often swallowing his pride and following Pop’s lead. They also took a few greenhorns under their wings, including my brother and others who have successful careers in the sportfishing industry. To Moondog, Scubba, Pinhead, Stickman, Jake, Frickin Ron, and Kettering (#1) - you’ll always be apart of our family!
“Thunder Live Bait” lives on with Captain Steve “Scubba” Gordon at the helm. He still uses the Buccaneer Marina as home base under “Predator Live Bait and Charters”.
We honor and remember Thunder today by using the goldline’s original FL numbers on the tuna boat. Although they may not have quite been the glory days, when recounting their memories together on the water as father and son, Pop and Dad always “come back to Thunder”.
