20th Century reports of the MahiMingo

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On a sleepy Sunday in celebration of their 45th wedding anniversary, Don S and his wife Marjory decided to take their new 1957 Chris Craft Continental 21 out for a cruise to do some fishing, beach dock and “just celebrate their wonderful life together”. After cruising in the back canals and out on the bay they decided to head up to Keewaydin Island Beach and see if they could beach dock on the gulf side, test their luck fishing and watch the start of what they hoped would be a beautiful September sunset. As the day wore on, they retreated from the beach and reboarded their boat to head under the Landau top, get out of the sun and enjoy some homemade margaritas that Marj had packed. Despite having got a little sunburn on their shoulders and no activity on the fishing rods, Don and Marj couldn’t have asked for a better day. 

     Marj recalls the seas becoming absolutely flat as glass and the air standing still when they suddenly heard a strange scratching sound coming from the bow of the boat. They looked out through the windscreen and saw 2 pairs of what looked like flamingo legs standing on the deck. Don and Marjory slid back and stood up to look over the top and both almost fell over when they saw, perched now on the Landau roof, were 2 of the strangest but most beautiful creatures they had ever seen. There, standing about 4 feet tall with stunning pink heads, necks, wings and legs of Flamingos but with amazingly vibrant blue green yellow bodies and tails of the most colorful mahimahi the couple had ever seen. 

     Don and Marj fell back in their seats completely dumbfounded with what was now standing on the roof of their boat. The MahiMingos hopped down off the top and landed on the engine compartment at the rear of the boat and looked around as if they were surveying the interior of the Continental. They seemed to be very appreciative of what they saw until they laid eyes on the half full pitcher of margaritas. The larger of the MahiMingos fluffed out his chest and let out a laugh, then looked at Marj and tilted his head in a questioning type movement. Marj, not really sure why, hesitantly stood up and poured 2 healthy margaritas and placed them at the feet of these strange creatures. Both Mahimingos bent down and placed their beaks in the glasses and proceeded to down the margaritas in 1 long gulp. When done, they both tilted their heads back and let out a loud, contagious laughing call that quickly put large smiles on the anniversary couple’s faces. The larger of the MahiMingos then looked Don in the eye for a moment, winked and then nodded his head towards the remaining rod that was still in the water. Just as Don looked over to the rod, a monster fish hit and began spooling line. Without hesitation Don jumped and grabbed the rod and the fight was on. Marj, seeing the fight ensue quickly jumped up and grabbed the gaff to help when needed. After what was about 40 minutes, Don pulled what he believes was  a 150+ pound trophy Yellowfin tuna. After landing the fish and hugging each other, the couple quickly turned to look at the Mahimingos but both were gone leaving only a large, perfect pink feather in their place. 

     Don and Marjory kept the story about the MahiMingos to themselves for years, only sharing with their children and grandchildren much later in life, but they did have an amazing meal of the best fresh tuna ever with family and close friends on that anniversary night. And from that day forward, if you went into their house, you would find a perfect pink feather framed and hanging prominently above their fireplace….and good luck seemed to follow the happy couple for rest of their days.

Cory L, 27, was down on his luck and ending his 3rd miserable year as a full-time blue claw crab fisherman. He had grown up as his grandfather Bert’s shadow in MatLacha FL, and thought he had learned everything he needed to know about crabbing in South West Florida and figured this would be an easy way for him to get back on his feet. He remembered spending every weekend and free day as child on Grandpa Bert’s boat, Miss Bonnie, setting and then hauling in crab pots full of blue claws. Most other fishermen sought the plentiful mullet using gill nets but something happened to Bert that changed him and his thoughts on the gill nets and the amount other creatures that would get tangled up and killed under this practice. Cory recalls his grandfather saying that you should only take what you need from the sea, no more and respect all creatures that lived in the oceans. He promised that one day he would share the experience that change his life and how he ended up with the dusty pink feather that he treasured more than anything else. He kept the feather in a prominent place above helm and would always raise a toast of his favorite drink of brandy after a successful day's catch. Cory, to this day, could still taste the sweet liquor that his grandfather would allow him to share a sip of as long as he promised to not tell his mother.

      Cory was only 22 when his grandfather passed and it was devastating to him. He was amazed at the amount of people that showed up the funeral. Each person he met shared stories of how Grandpa Bert had helped them out, from suppling their fish store with crabs that he knew they couldn’t pay for, to helping a friend start up a waterfront candy store and then restaurant, or paying for dinner to out of luck fishermen. Cory couldn’t understand why Grandpa Bert never shared these storied with him and couldn’t take being in the area and the memories it brought back and decided he needed to move away from the island. He bounced around from town to town, and ended up falling on bad times himself. Finally, his girlfriend of 2 years, Michelle, convinced him to head back home to MatLacha and see about cleaning up the Miss Bonnie and getting back to what he knew and try his hand at crabbing. Once back on MatLacha, Cory tried to live his life like his Grandpa, always helping those in need and keeping a healthy respect for the sea, but the last 3 years, with the entire crabbing industry having horrible seasons, had put a tremendous strain on he and Michelle’s relationship with the couple falling behind on their rent, food and fuel bills. The locals did the best they could to help out the couple but both Cory and Michelle realized that they could no longer continue and would need to sell the Miss Bonnie, which was probably the only thing left keeping the couple together, to pay off their debts. 

      Finally, on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the couple woke up, barely speaking to each other at breakfast and headed to the boat for what they both knew would be their last trip out prior to putting the boat and all of their crabbing contents up for sale. Like he and his grandfather used to do, Cory stopped by the local bait shop and grabbed some shrimp and pin fish knowing he’d have some time to fish while eating the lunch that Michelle had packed. They boarded the boat and headed south towards St James City on Pine Island then wrapped around the point and head north where they would gather up the crab pots they set up 2 days ago. There was a beautiful sunrise but neither even mentioned a word to each other. Cory did think back to the good times that they had had together leading to feelings of sadness and depression realizing  that he couldn’t recall the last time he shared a smile with Michelle, who was the best thing to happen to him in the last 2 years. 

     With the first crab pot in site, the 2 began to prepare to pull along side when the notice a strange disturbance in the water. Cory swore he saw flashes of bright pink, blue and green around the buoy and looked quizzically at Michelle. She must have seen the same thing as she was squinting her eye for a better look. But when they pull up to the buoy, there was nothing to be seen. They looked at each other, shrugged, grabbed the buoy, hooked up to their winch and pulled up the pot up and then yanked it up and over the side rail and onto the deck. Neither could believe what was in the pot, there sitting almost like duck inside the pot was a small creature with the pink head, chest and wings of a flamingo but with a blue and green body and tail of the Mahi Mahi. The creature looked up wide eyed at the couple but barely moved. Cory, not sure what to do looked first at Michelle then reach down and opened up the crab pot and gently lifted the small MahiMingo out of the trap and placed it on the deck. Michelle looked and James and said “it looks like the poor thing is starving, I think I read somewhere that Flamingos like shrimp, maybe try to feed it one?”. Cory shrugged in agreement, reached into the bait bucket and pulled a couple shrimp and tossed them towards the creature. It immediately snatched them up and gulped them down like it hadn’t eaten days and quickly looked back at Cory for more. Cory, completely shocked, grabbed the rest of the shrimp and fed them to young Mahimingo and it gulped them down too. He then reached in and pulled out the pin fish, thinking Mahi Mahi would probably eat them, and dropped them on the deck. The MahiMingo slowly stood up, caught and gobbled them down as well. Cory turned and looked at Michelle, smiled and said “so much for fishing??”. Michelle, for the first time in a long time smiled back and Cory and sat down on the deck and watched as the juvenile MahiMingo began to preen its feathers and regain its strength. 

     Cory sat down next her, touched her hand and said “not sure how this will turn out but this has been an amazing trip so far and I’m glad you’re here to see this with me”. With that, the young Mahimingo look at both of them and let out a soft, low, beautiful, laughing song that shocked and surprised the two of them. But what shocked them even more was a much louder, deeper laughing song that came from somewhere behind them. They both slowly turned around and looked up to see a pair of Mahimingos, one large bull brightly color pink, blue and green standing close to 5 feet tall and slightly smaller, similarly colored female standing next to him both on the cabin roof apparently watching as the events unfolded.  The adult Mahimingo then flew down and landed next to the young one, with the female leaning down and nuzzling the youngster. Cory and Michelle, both utterly speechless, slowly slid back and away from the trio, not sure what would happen next. The bull again let his loud laughing call, then looked at Cory and then to the next crab pot, which the Miss Bonnie had somehow perfectly drifted up on. Cory looked and Michelle and then the couple got up and reached over to pull up the pot but it barely budged. Cory quickly hooked up to the winch and it slowly, under strain, pulled the pot the surface. Cory and Michelle, using all of their strength plus that of the winch pulled the pot on board to find it absolutely stuffed with humongous blue claws, more then Cory had ever seen. They slide the pot over and began unloading the tremendous haul when a bunch of shrimp fell out of the pot. The young Mahimingo jumped to his feet and chased them down, gobbling them up as they jump around the deck. The last couple shrimp had flipped themselves into the cabin with the MahiMingo in hot pursuit, knocking pots pans all around the deck. It finally came out with a small pot on its head, shook it off and let its own laughing call. Michelle and Cory couldn’t contain themselves and joined in laughing at this unbelievable scene with Michelle turning to Cory and saying…”that has got to be the funkiest fish in the sea!!’

    The Ms. Bonnie continued to drift upon pot after pot with Cory and Michelle finding each one stuffed with crabs. As they closed in on the last pot, Cory looked back and the bull and it immediately locked eyes with Cory and winked. It then tilted his head and stared into the cabin. Here, with all of the commotion of the shrimp chasing escapade, a cabinet door had opened and there sat Granpa Bert’s dust covered favorite bottle of brandy. Cory couldn’t believe it was still on the boat and looked back and forth between the brandy and the Bull, with the bull tilting his head and raising and eyebrow. Cory, almost in a daze, walked in to the cabin, grabbed the bottle and same shot glasses his grandfather would use and poured out 4 shots and brought them out and onto the deck. He placed 2 on the floor in front of the adult MahiMingos, handed one to Michelle, then raised his glass skyward in a toast. The Mahimingos bent down and picked up the shot glass in their beaks and tossed back the liquid. Cory and Michelle did the same followed by a kiss that seemed forever in the making, They looked at the Mahimingos who were now both looking forward of the ship at the final buoy which the boat had just come upon. Cory and Michelle again jumped into action with the winch and muscled the final pot on the deck and began to unloaded it which had by far, the largest haul of crabs for the day. They couldn’t believe their eyes and turned to again connect with the MahiMingos but the 3 were gone, leaving only one large perfect pink feather. Cory walked over and picked it, turned and looked into the cabin, his eyes finding a similar feather that his grandfather had cherished. Cory was overcome with emotion, walked over to Michelle, told her how much he lover her for staying with him through these trying times, hugged her and broke down with tear of joy at the gravity of events.

     Once arriving at port, it turned out that catch aboard the Miss Bonnie was largest haul of blue crabs ever brought into port. Cory and Michelle would go on to bring the Miss Bonnie back to her earlier pristine condition and have many successful crab seasons; teaching the secrets of the craft and sharing their encounter with MahiMingo family only with their 2 children who would continue on in the family business; always having a pink feather and bottle of brandy on board to toast the MahiMingos and their continued success.