Remembering Rose Bay aka Bell Island Fishing Pier

I found an old black and white photograph of my grandfather in his boat at his favorite fishing place, Rose Bay near Swan Quarter, North Carolina. I decide to use it as a subject for a watercolor painting. As I worked on the small painting it brought back many memories of fishing trips to Rose Bay when I was a child.

Mama and I fished from the pier at the Swan Quarter Wildlife Refuge. Today it is called Bell Island Fishing pier. Back when the photograph was taken, probably late 1940s or early 1950s, Papa Tom kept his boat in a boat house there. He and Daddy went out on the boat to fish while Mama and I stayed on the pier. I fished with a drop line through a hole in the pier. The pier has been damaged, and sometimes destroyed, by hurricanes over the decades. It has been rebuilt many times and recently was restored after Hurricane Isabel took it out a few years ago. It remains a popular fishing spot for many anglers.

You can read my article about the Bell Island Fishing Pier at Carolina County magazine’s website http://www.carolinacountry.com/index.php/carolina-stories/item/the-bell-island-fishing-pier

To find more about the refuge at http://www.fws.gov/refuges/profiles/recEdMore.cfm?ID=42532