Oil in the bayou? Coast Guard says substance isn't from Deepwater Horizon (PHOTOS)

Freeport's Jimmy Horn is worried his favorite pastime of fishing in the canal by his house may be in jeopardy.

Horn has been watching what appear to be oily globs flow in and out on the tide for weeks, but Tuesday when he went out to catch some bait for the afternoon fishing he had planned with Mike Meyerholz and his granddaughter, he was shocked.

“The puddles were as big as this porch,” Horn said, motioning to his large patio. “The best time to see it at its heaviest is one hour before and one hour after high tide.”

See pictures of the stuff found in the bayou »

The Horn property is located on Hwy. 331 south, running parallel to one of the last fingers at the dead end of Mallet’s Bayou.

When Meyerholz saw the substance, he told Horn he needed to call the Walton County Sheriff’s Office right away.

“A [Walton County Sheriff’s] deputy showed up within seven minutes, got on the phone and confirmed it was oil,” Horn said. “Three other cars showed up 10 minutes later and within minutes each one of them were on their phones telling whoever they were talking to it was oil.”

Horn dabbed the end of a fishing pole in the material, which appeared like a mirror on the water, and said, “this is what they seemed most worried about, not the sheen.”

After picking up what appeared to be a glob of oil for a picture, Horn lit a cigarette and quickly spat and wiped his mouth.

“My tongue was burning and I realized I had made a mistake,” Horn said.

The Sun caught up with Walton County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Parsons near the Clyde B. Wells Bridge as he was responding to a report of dead catfish near the area.

After making a phone call, he said the Sheriff’s Office couldn’t confirm the presence of oil in the bayou. He said a sheriff’ office boat was en route to Horn’s property, but the “Coast Guard cut him off and took control.”

“But the Coast Guard said it was not the same consistency that was coming out of Deepwater Horizon,” he said, adding that the incident was being ruled “an illegal dumping.”

The county Environmental Crimes Deputy, Donna Shank, told the Sun she had not “heard anything about it.”

But after pulling up and reading something on her computer, she said “they didn’t feel it needed any follow up.”

There are many naturally accruing processes that mimic how oil looks in the water, she said.

“Some algaes have an oily system, but we can’t tell without it actually being tested,” Shank said. “DEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) would have to send it off to a lab.”

The substance could have come from a number of sources like “someone purging a bilge,” Shank said.

“If it comes back as something toxic we will have to hunt it down,” Shank said. “It’s a wide-open area; it’s just a process of elimination.”

When The Sun went to press, the U.S. Coast Guard had not responded to repeated calls.

Randy Seward, BP liaison for Walton County, said he was “not aware that it had been reported.”

For now, Horn is just hoping the waterway adjacent to his house is not fouled.

“I’m disabled and my favorite pastime is sitting on the dock fishing then have people over to eat — that’s pretty much over now,” Horn said.