Spotlight on Grown up Islanders: Shane Dooley
Shane Dooley was a fisherman before he even became a man. A fifth generation islander and third generation angler, he was born and raised here on Pine Island, where he said his father and grandfather also grew up. Though his grandfather has now passed away, he said his father still fishes here five to six days a week.
“I just grew up out here and never went anywhere,” said Dooley.
He said he was still in diapers when he first started going out on his dad’s boat. Dooley’s never lacking for something to do, as he is a commercial fisherman who also has a charter boat, and is in the stone crab business. His love for fishing, besides the fact that it runs in the family, is likely due to a childhood spent hunting fish on the water after school.
A contented islander, with no plans to want for anything more than what he’s found here, Dooley married his high school sweetheart, Sherry, and they now have two boys, Dalton, 10, and Hunter, 3, who Dooley proudly says are fourth generation fishermen in the making. His desire is to offer his boys the same wonderful memories he had as an island youngster.
“We used to go to high school and in the afternoons we’d go fishing on the commercial fishing boat. We made money and bought school clothes and four-wheelers and when we were old enough we bought pick-up trucks,” said Dooley. “Me and my buddies had a good time as kids here.”
A year or two before beginning middle school, Dooley recalls the decision being made that Pine Island kids would have to continue their education off island. He went to Trafalgar Middle and at 12 years old Dooley said his father built him his first boat so he could begin fishing on his own, which worked out well, since he said it’s in his blood and the only thing he ever wanted to do.
He remembers Pine Island being a great commercial fishing community where he loved growing up. He attributes a great deal of his sea-ward education to the fishermen on the docks, where he was eager to learn anything they would teach him that he didn’t already know.
“They taught me a lot about fishing – the different seasons of fishing, commercial fishing and stone crabbing. I learned quite a bit from the guys at the fish house.”
Dooley recalls being out on the water more than he was at home, saying that he would get off the bus on a Friday afternoon and jump on a fishing boat without heading back home until Sunday. He confesses not wanting to be anywhere else, due to the special and unique lifestyle offered when you grow up on an island.
“It’s a small island where everybody knows everybody, or at least we used to years ago. We’re all close, so if anyone needed help, someone would help them out. It’s all part of being a tight community, I guess,” said Dooley.
He said at one time there were many more fishing families on the island, adding it seemed as though everyone on the island was fishing back then. In the last 15 years, Dooley said his charter fishing business has afforded him the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, which is something he’s really enjoyed.
Something people may not guess about him is that Dooley has never flown in an airplane, although he said he’s planning a trip to Costa Rica toward the end of this year. He has, however, hunted fish from a helicopter, in order to see where they were hiding to allow for better targeting on fishing trips.
His wish for people passing through, or planning to stay out here is that they enjoy nature and take care of the environment.
“It’s a hidden paradise out here,” said Dooley. “It’s just a great place to grow up.”