City Limits: Shrimping with Bob Worthington

Many of you know him as former Vice Mayor, 27-year member of the, Director of Gulfport CERT and recipient of the Spirit of Gulfport Award in January 2011.

But, on Sunday, June 5, 2011, I called him “Captain Bob” as we cruised out along the intercostals waters of Boca Ciega Bay. Worthington invited my husband Robert and I out to go “shrimping”. We met at the boat ramp of Fort De Soto Park around 7:30 p.m. Worthington pulled up with his hurricane deck boat and we introduced ourselves to the other “shrimpers”; CERT member Sean McLean and Bob’s friend Ben Leonard.

Once in the water, he explained how to catch a shrimp “by hand”. We saddled up with headlights, floating buckets and Don Kelly’s Original Ozello Shrimper!

I knew I was in the presence of an expert. Worthington said he’d been shrimping for about 30 years, often with his close friend Don Kelly. Over the years Kelly perfected the Ozello Shrimper: a trap that is operated by hand.

“The original trap is made out of a hard cloth wire and the new one is made from aluminum.”

Worthington says his dear friend passed away last year.

“He was quite an inventor and a wonderful friend, we had a lot of fun together.”

Worthington said on a good night, he would come home with hundreds of shrimp. His wife helps clean them and they freeze them for meals to come.

“The prime time to go is in late April, May and June. You have to go on a low tide at night time In those three months you might have maybe 20 days or 25 nights that you can actually go shrimping because of the tide cycles and all.”

After hearing the stories and invention of the Ozello Shrimper, we packed on our equipment. By then the sun had set and slowly I spotted headlights in the distance. Worthington and McLean said those were other shrimpers out: walking out from the shore. The guys had anchored Worthington’s boat in about knee-deep water.

Worthington explained the plan of action! We were to walk around, slowly, through sea grass. He said the shrimp like to perch on top of sea grass and usually sit still as long as we were quiet. The headlights allowed us to spot them, plus their eyes glow red when you shine light on them. It was all about being graceful when catching the shrimp. Worthington said I should bring the trap over top of the shrimp and close the trap door. He said naturally the shrimp will try to jump up to get away, but because of the box container, they would jump right into the trap. In order to store the shrimp before heading back to the boat, Worthington had us tie a bucket that floated on styrofoam behind us.

Bob Worthington hopped off the boat first, then Ben Leonard, Robert Willis, Sean McLean and myself. I believe Sean spotted one first and told me to scoot over and grab him. But, I was too slow and missed my first opportunity. Seconds later, Bob said he spotted one, a medium to large size shrimp sitting on some sea grass! I walked over slowly, placed the Ozella Shrimper over top and pulled the string, closing the trap door. “I got him,” I squirmed.

Robert yelled out “Good job,” from wherever he was. And Worthington also acknowledged that I did it!

For the next three hours, we broke away from the boat, wondered around, came back for breaks and of course, caught some shrimp!

I may have been the most talkative of the group, occasionally yelling out, “How you doing over there” to my husband. I did scream, twice, because something nibbled on my toe. Worthington said it was probably pinfish.

When everyone gathered back in the boat around 11:30ish, we peaked into each other’s buckets. Of course, mine had the least amount of shrimp: maybe two dozen?

Worthington said I did pretty well for my first time. His bucket was at least 1/3 full, so I know he and Fran had plenty to go around.

We headed back to shore around midnight, Worthington brought the boat in and pulled it over to wash and to clean the shrimp.

I must say this was perhaps the worst part of the night. Sean McLean and Ben Leonard showed me how to behead the shrimp. Worthington poured ice in each bucket to numb the shrimp on our way to shore, so a lot of the shrimp in my bucket weren’t moving. McLean ripped off a couple heads and explained how to get the vein out and how to avoid piercing my finger on the “horn”. But, of course, when I went to grab a shrimp out of my bucket, it jumped on me! I screamed, I jumped, I yelled out words that didn’t make sense! I said it jumped on me, and Worthington laughed and said something about fighting back if I knew someone was going to rip my head off. 

I ended up killing about 5 shrimp and then retired to “flashlight holder” for the guys. Once everyone’s shrimp were taken care of, Worthington put our shrimp in a bag and invited us to come again. I believe we got home around 1 a.m.

Later, I asked Worthington about his shrimping adventures, favorite recipes, and why he’s so open to teaching new people.

“The biggest joy, is teaching so many people how to catch their own meal. Rather than giving someone a bucket, you teach them.”

Even though he’s been at it for about 30 years, he still enjoys the time on the bay.

“I like the fact that, it’s a peaceful, quiet place. I like it because I’m by myself. You can almost here yourself think.”

And of course, he loves the shrimp! Take a look at his favorite simple recipe.

“I sauté them in olive oil and a little bit of butter, I caramelize some onions first and then I’ll throw some mushrooms into it, and then throw the shrimp in there. The shrimp only take 3 minutes to cook. Then you can put that over pasta, put it over potatoes, you can put it over an empty plate, it all tastes wonderful.”