The Tar Heel Outdoorsman

 "Hard hard can it be?"  After hours of YouTube videos, I thought I had this whole boat painting thing figured out.   My Jones Brothers skiff was looking a bit faded.  The 20+ year old cream/off-white gel coat was in need of some major cutting and buffing, and there were some cracks and gouges and an errant screw hole for a swim ladder only filled in with silicon sealant.  Just the conditioning and buffing would be a major undertaking.  On top of that my ablative bottom paint, that wears off on its own, that I'd done myself, was starting to look rough.   Then, I'd stumbled across a picture on Facebook, of someone who'd painted the same hull as mine with the Alexseal brand topside paint with their "roll" additive, which smooths out the paint after rolling it onto a surface.  I was mesmerized with the pictures online, drawn to doom scrolling online forums like Hull Truth, and others.  It looked too good to be true.  As anyone who...

          There's the sound of a splash.  Over there.  Off to the right.  Right on the edge of that thin, stick-like, sparse and spread out bit of spartina grass.  25 yards from the skiff and closing, with the boat drifting ever closer as the tide pulls it out of the tidal salt marsh.  Ever closer.  Won't be long until the fish sees the boat and it'll be too late.  There's a wake, like a bow-wave of some miniature coastal Carolina submarine, chasing bait.             Sling a cast just ahead of it.  Bump.  Bump.  The line goes tight, you feel the tension, you set the hook, and the rod bends over.  The fish runs.  Line peels off the spool.  Steer him clear of the oysters.  You work him back.  He runs again.  Work him in, closer and closer.  Closer.  Scoop him in the net.  Doesn't get much prettier.