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“Oh look, Harriett, there’s a dolphin!” Even the most hardened of anglers, with thousands of hours logged in the piscatorial quest, will succumb to the inevitable once they spot even one graceful dolphin cavorting in the river and beyond. It’s as if we humans have a unique kinship with these special creatures.

But over the years of hearing the adulations from customers and then observing the associated actions of the dolphins, I think it’s a mutual deal. They kind of have us figured out — especially the anglers — and bottom line, that may be a tragedy for them.

A bit confusing, I admit, so let’s start at the beginning.

By recollection, it was six or seven years ago that he first showed up here one summer morning in Capri Pass. We were drifting and intending to catch pompano and mackerel but instead we were latching onto large numbers of acrobatic ladyfish. All of which are great sport but to be released, as they were just “funners” and of no food value.

Out of the blue appears this large dolphin with distinctive circular patterns on his skin and begins to turn over and project his head out of the water as if begging to be tossed a ladyfish. We never had a dolphin come that close to boats and never seen them beg in such an irresistible way.

He would show up most every day in the same locale. People would run for cameras and try to get a shot of this dolphin actor. Even with the charter captains warning the customers not to feed the dolphins, you’d occasionally see released ladyfish in the dolphins grasp as he swam away... smiling.

Add the much more liberal approach by both recreational anglers and those with rental boats and you can see why the dolphin was having a field day. Charter captains discussed the dolphins arrival and some surmised that he had to be a trained dolphin — maybe one released from the dolphin shows in the Keys.

Kids on one trip even named him “Shadow”. Appropriate, because, if you moved a couple hundred yards to get away from him he’d inevitably show up before you got the lines back in the water.

There even were rather bizarre events with Shadow.

I had taken a couple on vacation here out onto the nearshore reefs for a morning of fishing. We had to work several spots and use all the tricks in the book to put a nice catch of eight good size mangrove snappers in the cooler.

They asked to finish the trip inshore and maybe land a pompano or two. We arrived in the Capri Pass late morning only to be greeted on our arrival by our friend Shadow.

He put on his show for the couple and the woman went ga-ga over the event. We went through the routine of instructing not to feed the dolphin but that fell on deaf ears — the cooler with the hard earned snapper was in the front of the boat right next to where the woman was positioned.

We never heard anyone say anything until we got back to the dock and I opened the cooler with the intention of cleaning the snapper. No fish in the cooler!

Wife with a guilty smirk confesses with “I couldn’t help myself” written all over her face. Our snapper had been lunch for Shadow.

Now, we all say how can that hurt the dolphin? Let’s go to Chapter Two.

Dolphins have an innate sense of learning and family. With Shadow’s obvious success, other dolphins began the same up close action with anglers and, as time progressed, were not so polite.

Anglers know well now that dolphins have come to the level of aggressiveness that they will not hesitate to stalk and take a fish hooked on a line and in the process of retrieval. Then, they will stay close aboard and swarm to fish that make it back to the boat and are then released.

So what’s so bad, you might ask. The dolphins are hungry and getting food.

Evaluate that position after reading these two recent tales.

Two weeks ago, we fished the pass and were drifting and working tipped jigs for pompano when a squadron of dolphins showed up. We were careful to insure that unwanted caught fish were released away from the dolphins that were all around us.

All of a sudden, one of the kids shouted, “Look at that poor dolphin!” and there was in fact a dolphin with a large fishing plug equipped with multiple treble hooks firmly implanted in the dolphins jaw. The dolphin seemed normal at the moment but what would happen if one of the impaling hooks failed and the hooks and lure was ingested.

I’m told the dolphin’s digestive tract is a lot like ours. How would that plug with multiple treble feel in your gut?

The second example is even more dramatic.

We were fishing for mackerel on the First Reef and the easterly wind picked up dramatically making the event somewhat uncomfortable. We decided to make a run back inshore to calmer waters.

We ran back in closer to the beach to gain more of the lee against the wind and all of a sudden, a large dolphin surfaced some 200 yards inshore and went into a incredible series of vertical leaps and spins — well up out of the water and back in with a crash.

The chartering family thought is really a great dolphin show and even broke out the video camera to record the event. I knew there was something different going on but didn’t know just what.

As fate would have it, my charter later that week were Marco beach anglers and early on told me about an event that occurred two days earlier.

An inexperienced angler was fishing the beach with cut bait and had a terrific strike by a jack or a ladyfish. Within seconds a dolphin went after the hooked fish, ingested it and then felt the hook and ran. The angler did nothing to stop the run and his reel was spooled sending at least 100 yards of line along with the dolphin.

That was the same dolphin we saw nearshore that day, and it wasn’t a dolphin show. It was the dolphin in a death dance trying to dislodge the 100 yards of line entangling him. According to experts, his chances of dislodging the line were nil.

Bottom line — take all efforts not to feed the dolphins anything at anytime and be aware of the potential of their latching onto caught fish and be ready to free them at whatever the cost.

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to knowingly harm these valiant creatures.

Will you help?

Species in the spotlight

Name: Whiting or Gulf Kingfish

In season: Year round. Usually more numerous in colder water.

Florida Regulations: No restrictions on size or number (Put the little guys back)

Habitat: Along sand beaches. In deep holes. Just about in all open water. Barbels under chin. Very good table fare.

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Capt. Bill Walsh owns an established Marco Island charter fishing business and holds a current U.S. Coast Guard license. Send comments or questions to dawnpatrolcharters@compuserve.com