"Pelican Man" - Rod Brown
In Rod’s words:
After taking a day off to recover from my exhausting trip down from Parish, NY (to get out of the lousy, wet and cold weather) I arose to a beautiful sunny morning….It didn’t take much to convince myself that I should check the fishing at the Ft. DeSoto piers. The fishing reports had been very favorable in regards to both quantity and variety of species. I grabbed my ultra light rod and reel with 6 Lb. Test line, my little drag along grocery cart, into which I loaded the camera, bait bucket and my fanny pack tackle kit. Thus prepared I jumped into my little Mazda and headed down I 275 for Pinnellas Byway and Ft. DeSoto.
Arriving in a timely manner (10 AM) I stopped at the shorter Bay pier, unloaded my gear and strolled out onto the pier to the bait shop. After visiting with the clerk for a few minutes I bought three dozen live shrimp and picked a spot at the rail that wasn’t too crowded. As I said it was a lovely day, not a cloud in the sky, about 75 degrees with just a slight sea breeze to keep it quite comfortable. The only problem was the fish were not cooperating. I did catch one miserable blow fish that tried to scare me by inflating himself to about three times his normal size….(reminds me of some people and their egos).
Nothing to do but pick up my stuff and drive around the curve in the road to the “Gulf” pier. This is a 1,000 ft concrete pier that sticks right out into the Gulf of Mexico. I Located myself about half way out, where the water is about 8/10 ft. deep. The tide had started coming in an hour earlier, so the current was moving toward me at a gentle rate of flow….just right for free lining with a medium split shot, a #1 salt water hook and a frisky live shrimp to entice whatever might be lurking in the briny deep.
The object of free lining is to cast against the flow of water and let the weight of the split shot take the shrimp close to the bottom where it will bounce along with the flow. This has always been quite a productive technique that I use.
Needless to say on my second cast, I set the hook on a nice strike and proceeded to play with a small “blue Runner”. The distance from the water to the railing is about 8 ft. No Problem. After reeling in the fish I turned to a young Asian lad next to me and offered the fish to him. Smiling pleasantly he graciously accepted my offer and put the fish in his ice bucket along with several others that he and his partners had caught.
Speaking of his partners, one, was another Asian American lad about the same age and the other was a most strikingly beautiful, Asian American girl…I mean she was drop dead gorgeous…. (another advantage of fishing in Florida).
I stray from my subject…..The fish “blue runners” were striking my shrimp with mean attacks that allowed me to contribute 9/10 fish to the ice bucket beside my new friends.
Every now and then I would have a particularly hard strike but was unable to land whatever it was that was hitting my shrimp. I suspected that I was horsing the fish too hard and pulling the hook out…
In the meantime, everyone around that section of the pier was laughing at two big pelicans that were fighting over the small pinfish my friends were catching and throwing back in. the small pinfish would no more than hit the water and both huge birds would immediately try to dive and catch it…sometimes they succeeded.
After adjusting my reel so that the drag was a little looser, I put on a particularly large, lively shrimp and cast again. I could feel the split shot hit bottom and bounce twice and Something hit that shrimp like a moving freight train….. Good thing I had adjusted my drag or I would have lost it right then. Whatever I had on was a very strong fighter and very fast.
Of course both pelicans were watching this epic battle as though they anticipated supper on the table. After properly wearing the fish down I was able to coax it into sight. A very nice 16 inch “Spanish Mackerel. My first legal sized mackerel!
As soon as the fish came to the surface it splashed and wham, bang one of the pelicans had MY fish head first in his beak (four inches was sticking out and he was trying his damndest to gulp down that fish). I was just as determined that I was not going to let him. Glancing over to my young Asian buddy I inquired as to, “What the hell do I do now?”
He was apparently familiar with this problem and quickly grabbed a piece of stout cord that was in his tackle kit. With deft fingers he fashioned a noose that he lowered in an attempt to get it around the birds neck. Old boss pelican is in no hurry to go anyplace as he wants his dinner !!! Old fogey Rod is keeping a tight line so that he can’t swallow the fish and my friend is trying to flip the noose around the birds head. Once, he almost made it and I heard kind of a cheer behind me. Looking around I found an audience of about forty people watching for the grand finale of this fiasco. It wasn’t long in coming, a quick flip of the noose and it settled over the head and beak of the bird. “Slack your line” he said, which I quickly did while he tightened the noose…..Out came the fish and up came the pelican. I had to laugh and shout, “I got the fish and you got the bird”
Quickly and carefully he loosened the cord and released the bird. It flew but a short distance and sat on the water (I think it was cussing me out) glaring at us…The fish was none the worse for the wear and tear. It has been filleted and is in the freezer waiting for Heather and Bryan to come down for a fish dinner (without pelicans).
Quite a day….Ol’ Fogey Rod
Wednesday, April 21, 1999
Ft. DeSoto Gulf Pier
