Dickie Hudgins of Mathews Courthouse is one of just a few watermen still around who hangs gillnets for recreational and commercial gillnetters.
It is a coastal craft that he learned right out of high school. Soon after graduating from Mathews High School in 1958, Hudgins, 82, went to work on a menhaden steamer with his father and brother, Captain Maxwell and Captain Gene Hudgins.
“When I was a young man, I followed the water because my father did and in 1958 90% of the boys graduating with me went to working the water,” said Hudgins.
“When I was a mate aboard the (menhaden) steamer I learned to mend purse nets with a net needle and that transferred into learning how to hang and string gillnets,” said Hudgins.
The Hudginses fished for menhaden in the Atlantic Ocean, Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico for Otis Smith out of Lewes, Del. During the off season, the father and sons worked the water in a wooden 40-foot deadrise workboat built by Alton Armstrong.
Over the years as the menhaden season allowed, Hudgins worked in the winter oyster fishery, spring and summer blue crab fishery and in the fall gillnet fishery. “I started hanging nets with my father and brother when we were working gillnets,” he said.
The craft has given Hudgins, in retirement, a continued connection with bay watermen and the fisheries. He also makes crab pots and recently started making a Florida-style shrimp pot for recreational shrimpers.
Virginia Marine Resources Commission recently opened a limited commercial shrimp fishery in the ocean and created a seasonal recreational license inside the bay. Shrimp in local waters is associated with warmer water temperatures in the Chesapeake Bay.
Types of nets
“When I first started hanging nets most of the old people wanted 50-fathom (300-feet) nets,” said Hudgins. “Now I make commercial nets as long as 600 feet, but most commercial fishermen want 400-foot nets and they get me to hang four so they can be fished all tied together.”
Hudgins’ main concern is that some watermen have not been able to get the mesh portion of nets, perhaps, because of transportation issues related to COVID-19, he thinks.
Hudgins is one of just a few net hangers who marks each spot for each cork on the corkline. The lead line at the bottom of the net that weighs down the net to the bottom of the water comes pre-made. Hudgins has to make the corkline. “I’m very particular about my nets,” he said, “and I take my time and mark every cork mark so it all looks professional.”
During net season, Hudgins’ yard has nets stretched out from front to back to side. While hanging nets, he uses a cleat attached to a pecan tree to hold one end. He also has hanging stations (metal poles) throughout his yard to hold up the other ends for different length nets.
Hudgins hangs nets for Ocean Products in Diggs for both recreational and commercial gillnetters.
Net-hanging is a part of a coastal culture where its very existence is tied to generations of working watermen.
When Hudgins was asked, “Who else around here hangs nets?”
There was a long silence.
“I honestly can’t think of anybody else. It used to be I could have sent you to a dozen or more boys doing this in Mathews County.”
