This is my post for #freewrite Saturday prompt option, I am not sure if option is the prompt or if it means I have the option of what to write about, I will use it as my prompt.... In 1995 Florida passed a net ban, which forever changed fisherman's lives. We had 2 options one was to quit the only life you have known and get a different job the other was to learn new ways to fish and be good enough at it to make a living. The older fishermen were just screwed, they were not willing to learn and they were to old for anyone to hire them. The owner of the fish house I sell to was in his 70's, he fished every day of his life except Sundays or bad weather. After the net ban he never went back on the river, it was so sad.
Most young fishermen got jobs and some our age got jobs, Two of friends got a job where they still work on the river. Last Thursday they were headed to the boat ramp when they saw a bunch of shit floating in the water, then they realized it was things from a sunk boat, so they followed the debris and saw someone waving a throw cushion and holding onto a sunk boat. They pulled up to a very large man and asked if he was ok and if anyone else was with him, he said his wife was but she floated away, they told him he was safe hanging onto the boat and he was wearing a life jacket, they said they would be back for him but were going to get his wife first. They found her, she also had a lifejacket on, they said she was laying on her back just drifting along. They got her in the boat and went back for the man, they said they had a hard time getting him in the boat, he weighed somewhere between 300 to 400 pounds. After getting him in the boat they got his boat back floating and pulled it to the ramp for the guy. They asked what happened, and the man told them that he just bought the motor and was the first trip out with it, he said he let go of the tiller handle to reach for something, while up running and when he did this, the motor turned and threw him and his wife overboard. Luckily the guy was wearing the safety shut off device, it is a clip you hook to yourself and if you get thrown overboard, it shuts the motor down. It could have been terrible if he was not wearing that device. How the boat sunk was he tried to climb back in it and when he grabbed the corner of the stern to pull himself up, the corner went under and the boat sunk. The man also said a guy in a flats boat drove on by them and did not stop to help, I can not imagine doing something like that. My friends told him what he needed to do to save his motor after getting it home. Many years ago my husband and I were at the fish house and saw an old man get thrown out of his boat, the boat was doing circles around the man getting closer each time, he was wearing waders and could not stand up because the filled with water. My husband jumped in his boat and threw the end of his net overboard then ran his net in front of the boat letting the mans motor get wrapped up in the net and it stalled the engine, made a mess out of our net but saved the old man from getting hit by the prop.