Shrimping with Bob Worthington Again

It's that time of year again! It's time to go shrimping according to Bob Worthington! As I've explained it to my friends and family, it time to create the perfect shrimp Alfredo from the very first step, catching my shrimp one at time. That's right, one by one, filling my bucket with small, medium and large shrimp. Trust me, it isn't easy!

Last year lifelong Gulfport resident Bob Worthington invited my husband and me out to go "shrimping" near Fort DeSoto Park in Boca Ciega Bay. We went and we had fun. Of course, I caught the least amount of shrimp, but Bob and my husband praised me for trying. This year, when Bob invited us again!

Worthington provided the boat ride, equipment and full demonstration on how to catch shrimp with the Ozello Shrimper. I describe it as a square trap that you put over the shrimp, pull the cord and trap the shrimp inside.

This year, we met Richard Martin, Bob's friend and CEO of Ozello Shrimper. Martin has been shrimping with Bob for 20 years! He and Bob shared fun stories and explained the evolution of the Ozello Shrimper. It all started with a friendly invitation to Richard's father Dr. William "Bill" Martin. Bill worked as a scientist at Honeywell and was invited out to go shrimping one night with Bob and his close friend Don Kelly. Eventually Richard, then 14, was invited to join them!

Bob Worthington explained to me in the past that Don Kelly first thought of creating something to catch the shrimp. Kelly invited the Ozello Shrimper and over the years, Worthington and his crew contributed to it's design and improvement. I've since asked Richard Martin about this invention.

Richard Martin writes, "Bob invited a lot of the team at Honeywell out with him and many of them were engineers or scientists. During the day, they worked on Honeywell's projects, at night, they turned their minds toward improving upon Don's original design for the Ozello Shrimper. We all eventually had some sort of input into the invention. The latest design is my contribution to the longtime trend, a major revision."

I truly enjoyed hearing about the history and trial and error behind the idea.

In all, my husband Robert, Bob Worthington, Richard Martin and I spent about 3 hours on the water. While the men walked away from the boat and in deeper water, I stayed near the boat and stuck to about calf deep water. Yes, a few of my shrimp got away. But I caught enough to feel confident about my night. After heading back to the dock, Bob filled our to go bags and said I caught at least two dozen.

In the end, Robert and I enjoyed a great night on the water, great conversation and catching enough shrimp for our Alfredo!