Evening Fishing at the North Pier

by Tom Johnson on Jul 7, 2007
categories: family • creativity

I went fishing last night with a couple of friends down at the North Pier by the Sunshine Skyway. We didn't catch a single thing (except a tiny slender sucker fish). It was nice to spend the evening on the pier. It's so picturesque. The appeal of fishing is to be near the water. Dolphins swim around constantly in the water; pelicans fly by and crash into the water or soar like planes in the sky.

I was so tired from having stayed up late the night before. One of my friends had a lawn chair and he let me use it. I almost fell asleep -- the quiet of the ocean is really calming. At one point a dolphin grabbed the fish on my line and tugged it down. I feared he was stuck on my hook, but he easily pulled the fish off and swam around beside my line, as if to say hello and thanks.

As night fell and it grew dark, a new crowd began to replace the fisherman -- crabbers. Using twenty foot poles with little nets on them, the crabbers concentrated at the water and looked for floating crabs to catch with their nets. Almost all of the crabbers were Asian, lined up on along the same side of the pier. One had a spotlight she was shining into the water.