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Jack Wollitz: Florida anglers wary of becoming gator bait
Two friends from Youngstown met for lunch at a spot south of Fort Myers, Fla., earlier this week and soon enough the conversation drifted to fishing.
The waiter took their order and left for the kitchen, leaving the friends to catch up on what had been happening since they last spoke face to face months ago back home in Youngstown.
One of them mentioned he golfs twice a week and fishes two other days a week during his extended stay in southwest Florida. The other said his schedule is pretty similar.
“You know, it’s different here than around Youngstown,” said one. “Here we need to look out for things like alligators.”
Indeed. Phil Dennison is right about that.
Best known around Youngstown as one of the bosses at Packer Thomas and for his involvement in numerous civic activities, Phil also is an avid angler.
His fishing passion has taken him to Alaskan streams to cast for salmon, to Evans and Pine lakes pitching for bass in the Muransky Companies Bass Classic fundraiser for the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, and lately to ponds near his winter residence in Florida.
Our lunchtime conversation ebbed and flowed around business, real estate values, healthy eating, the fun and frustrations of golf, and eventually fishing. Not the existential kind of fishing talk — why we fish and what it all means — but rather the simple pragmatics.
“A fellow who lives nearby saw me fishing in one of our community’s ponds. He said, ‘You better be careful. Watch out for alligators,’” Phil said. “Turns out the guy once was unhooking a bass while holding it in the water right at his feet and whoosh! An alligator grabbed the fish while it was still hooked.”
We both laughed. In Florida, you can catch more than you bargained for.
On the water, we never know when trouble may strike. Years ago, Phil joined me for a day on the Ohio River with our mutual friend Rich Pisani of Poland. Phil hooked and landed a spunky river bass that thrashed while he was trying to unhook it.
Unfortunately, one of the treble hooks on the lure dug into his thumb. It looked pretty nasty and I turned to fetch pliers and an alcohol swab. Before I returned, however, he’d jerked the hook out by himself and was ready to resume fishing.
I suppose a hook in the hand is less of a problem than some of the pickles he had to cure in his long career as a CPA and business advisor. These days, his work is such that he’s able to retreat to warm weather while Youngstown shivers under snow and ice.
As it does for many, fishing helps Phil keep things in perspective. He enjoys casting to largemouth bass, but also gets a special kick out of catching the cichlids in the shallows of ponds near his house.
“I love bass fishing with lures, but there’s something intriguing about watching the bobber bounce as panfish bite. I can do that all day and it’s still fun,” Phil said.
His rig is simple: A tiny hook baited with a bit of hot dog hanging under a small float. It reminded me of days long ago when I could pass an entire afternoon catching chubs in Yellow Creek with a bit of worm on a tiny hook hanging under a small float.
The fun thing about fishing is it doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s whatever we want it to be wherever we are in life. But remember to watch out for the gators.