About Rusty

In the early 1970s I was one of those kids who hitchhiked out of the rust belt to explore the country and find a life worth settling into. When I finally reached the actual end of the road, the Southernmost point in Key West, Florida, I realized that my great adventure was only beginning. Without a vehicle, or a roof, I walked onto the commercial fishing docks hungry for a job. The locals who dominated the business of harvesting seafood were openly hostile to outsiders like me. They believed that anyone who was from north of Marathon Key was a damn Yankee and had no business in their exclusive world. But I was hardened enough from living on the road to force my way past the resistance and volunteered to repair lobster traps and cut up the dank raw cowhide bait for no pay other than a meal and enough beer to keep me hydrated for the hard work under the hot tropical sun. My homeless days didn’t last for long. I didn’t like being hungry and sleeping on an old, abandoned boat. My persistence earned me a place on a crew with a chance for a paycheck. Hell, I had never been on the ocean before, but in a few short years I became a licensed Captain and one of the top producers of spiny lobster in the region. 

It was a rich life filled with adventure but from time to time an ill wind of treachery and violence would blow through the maze of waterways and especially the commercial fishing docks. The drug cartels in Columbia used the busy working areas as cover to smuggle in massive loads of weed and cocaine. For the most part the fishermen ignored what they saw and spoke no words about it. But the dark money brought bloodless men who kill easily to keep it.

 It wasn’t unusual for me to duck under the yellow crime scene tape to get to my boat. All too often a loud, close rip of automatic gun fire would make me bury my neck and look for cover.

Although Pancho Took the Fish is a fictional story, I was there. I lived that life. These characters, from the very best to the absolute worst that humanity has to offer, and these wild, desperate events are based on my real-life experiences. I wrote it so my grandchildren would be able to tell their grandchildren. This is a story worth remembering.

- The Author, Rusty Jaquays