You guys ever met someone you just see as, strange? Not in a bad way, just your occasional community member that always makes you kinda look and wonder;
“Damn, I wonder how his life is”
For me, that was good old Fred the Fisherman, or as we always called him, “Fisherman Freddy”. He was kinda your stereotypical “crusty fisherman” with a bushy unkept beard and a voice that sounds like he found himself on the other end of too many Marlboros back in his day.
However, despite his somewhat ominous appearance, he was always a nice a guy. He especially loved to give tours or fishing experiences on his boat to the locals, sometimes for free. In all honesty, I think he was just lonely.
Another important think about Freddy, is he LOVES sharks. And when I say love, I mean genuinely loves them. Sharks to him are like money to us, can never have too many of them. It’s his lifelong dream to catch and reel in the amazing Great White Shark.
The problem however, is that for some reason, he never got one. He always blames his bait, saying that the “chum isn’t fresh” or that “the damn locals don’t know good bait from their own ass” and all the classic lingo.
This summer however became abnormally active with shark activity, and several local people have been bitten or have had a close encounter with sharks. Of course, Freddy is always on the scene asking questions like he’s Ron Burgundy sometimes. Asking things like, “how old were they?” and “did they wear any special chemicals”, which I assumed to mean sunscreen or tanning oil.
Like everyone else I was kinda put off by this, but as insensitive as it was, he was obsessed with sharks. Granted…I learned how obsessed he was soon enough.
Fred became more and more crazy after the shark attacks, and somehow during his community cruises, someone would receive some sort of injury or fall overboard, and when I say injury, I mean severe injury. Fingers being cut off, skin being peeled, all of which happened when he “taught” his patrons how to filet a fish. Whenever they get back to shore and the EMT asks for something to reattach, it miraculously disappeared.
While all of it was strange, it could’ve been coincidental. But, my stupid self decided to investigate. I booked a tour with Freddy for a Tuesday evening to catch some fish, and it turns out myself and another person were on board, and that was it.
We climbed onto Freddy’s rickety old ship and got our bait set up, but as we were doing so Freddy said;
“Remember to not pay too much attention to your bait, it’s bad luck”.
Myself and the other patron kinda just laughed it off as some sort of old fisherman tale and moved on with our trip. All seemed normal until the guy I was with went below deck to find more bait because he had accidentally spilled his bucket all over the deck. Freddy came rushing upstairs and started yelling frantically;
“The fuck do you think you’re doing? Do you know what I had to go through to get that bait? That there is shark bait”
Visibly shocked, me and the other guy just kinda continued to fish, and I let him borrow some of mine. He went downstairs to use the restroom, and I heard a real loud thud and what I thought was a scream.
I came sprinting downstairs and asked for who was screaming, and Freddy said simply “the damn boards of this ship that’s who, haven’t gotten em fixed right in a long time”.
I shrugged it off and went back upstairs. Freddy followed me about 35 minutes later with some “new bait”, and said that the other guy was seasick and had to be in the bathroom. The guy seemed fine to me but to each his own I suppose.
I reached in to grab some bait, but what was peculiar to me was that it wasn’t only warm, it was thick and had large chunks in it as well. But then I realized what really shook me to my core…there was hair in it too. I sprinted downstairs because I felt immediately nauseated and the guy was still in the bathroom. Freddy said to simply “let it out” over the side, but I kept pounding on the door and eventually it cracked open.
I couldn’t see much, but there was a lot of red in there, a whole lot. That’s when I put it together. The hair and meat I was chumming the waters with, was the guy. I ran upstairs terrified but didn’t want to worry Freddy. I rummaged through the other guy’s bag and he had SPF 30 sunscreen with him, something one of the victims from the onslaught of shark attacks had on when they were bitten.
Like a rush it all came over me that this guy wants a shark so bad, that he is willing to use people to chum the waters. I use what little cell service I had to call the harbor master and they showed up relatively quickly.
They arrested him, and had found the remains of missing persons, people who were injured on his ships and cruises, and even animals he was allegedly “experimenting with”. All I know is…next time you go fishing, make sure you check the bait you’re using because you never know if it could be SOMEONE you’re using.