Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

Outdoors

[Times photos: Scott Keeler] Terry Tomalin, left, of the Times and Capt. David Gause fish for trout in shallow water near exposed oyster beds in the Intracoastal Waterway.

By TERRY TOMALIN, Times Outdoors Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 6, 2002

Local builders have combined old-fashioned quality with 21st-century materials to create a boat that can cruise shallow, deep and everywhere in between.

"There is not much water," said David Gause, gauging the abnormally low tide. "But I still think we should be able to make it out of here and get on some fish."

To be honest, I didn't have much faith. Fishing the flats on a winter morning is difficult, at best. All of us were too busy that day to to wait until the afternoon sun warmed the water. But Gause insisted we still should give it a try.

"We'll hit the spoil islands," Gause said. "You will be surprised at how shallow this boat can run."

The 23-footer, which can run in 10 inches of water, was designed and built by Gause and his father in Tarpon Springs, where five generations of Gauses have lived and worked. In 1865, the Gause family moved to Pinellas County from Seaside, N.C., where it had engaged in the shipping business. The family has a long nautical tradition that is evident in the classic lines of their Old Florida fishing skiff built with 21st-century materials and technology.

Jeff Bush works on an aluminum tower at Gause Built Custom Boats in Tarpon Springs.

"Being a fishing guide, I knew what I wanted in a boat," said the 33-year-old Gause as we motored out to his honey hole. "I need to be able to get back up the flats to chase redfish and snook."

As a father of two, Gause also needed a boat with comfortable bow seating and shade so that his children could get out of the sun.

"Comfort is a big selling point," he said. "Guys bring their wives to the boat shows, take one look, then say go ahead and buy it."

Serious anglers, however, are willing to sacrifice a little comfort for "fishability." The standard 18-foot flats boat will run through skinny water, but in a light chop, you will be soaked by the time you get there.

Fishermen these days are looking for "compromise" boats. The ideal fishing machine can target redfish and snook in the morning, then head offshore to chase king mackerel or permit in the afternoon.

Gause got the idea for a high-quality, multipurpose boat when friends and customers began asking his father and him for help restoring classic-model fishing boats.

"People would spend $15,000 to $20,000 refurbishing an old 22-foot Aquasport or 24-foot Prolines," Gause said. "And that was just for the fiberglass and paint. We though that was crazy."

Gause and his father also converted several old mullet skiffs, suddenly made obsolete by the 1994 net ban, into fishing boats for his family's guide businesses.

Before releasing it unharmed, Gause holds up a gator trout caught near a spoil island in the Intracoastal Waterway.

"If it hadn't been for the net ban, I probably wouldn't be in the boat-building business today," he said. "We found that those boats were very functional for fishing shallow water."

The ideal boat, however, also would have to have a wide-enough gunwhale to support a tower.

"You need a tower to spot tarpon, cobia and pods of redfish," he said. "My father built one of the first towers in this area out of galvanized pipe back in the early '60s. We have been using them for a long time."

But with all the boat choices on the market today, an educated angler wouldn't put top dollar into a converted mullet skiff or boat based on a design that was 30 years old.

"So we started from the ground up," he said. "We knew what we wanted and built it using the best material and components commercially available."

The hulls of both Gause Built models, the 23- and the 26-footer, are 100-percent hand-laid 1808 biaxial construction using a three-laminate process, overlapping along the keel, which gives the backbone of the hull six layers of structural strength. The sides of the boat are cored with Klegecell, a foam coring, to give the hull added rigidity. The transom also has three layers of laminate for strength, durability and no chance of rot.

The stringer system is a grid pattern, hand laid, with PVC rigging tubes encapsulated within more biaxial. This is glassed into the hull and injected with foam, which gives the boat uniform strength and increased positive buoyancy.

But it is the finishing touches such as pop-up stainless steel cleats and bow lights, hinges and hull fittings that hook many boat buyers.

"Just take a look under the console," Gause said when we stopped at our fishing spot. "Everything is neat and orderly. I'm a perfectionist. But so are most of my customers."

All this doesn't come cheap. The fully rigged Gause Built 23 we fished on, complete with electronics and amenities, costs about $65,000.

"We find that our customer base is the professional in the 25- to 45-year-old age group," Gause said. "They might put their money into a quality boat instead of a luxury car."

But back to the fishability.

Gause spotted a dozen trout baking in the sun in the sheltered lee of a spoil island.

"Hand me that rod," he said from the tower. "I'll just see if they are away."

Gause dropped his jig right in the middle of them, then instructed me to throw from the bow, a little to their right.

"Don't be afraid to work that jig slow," he said. "The water is cold, so the slower the better."

I slowed my retrieve until I thought the artificial bait was barely moving. I felt a bump and tried to set the hook. Too late. I had missed it.

Gause climbed down, tossed his lure back to the same spot and worked the bait slowly toward the boat. About 10 feet from the transom, the fish hit.

Gause stood on the gunwhale and fought the fish to the back of the boat. He posed for a photo, then gently released the spotted sea trout.

"I told you this was a fishing machine," he said.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright