Reeling in a tuna claims iconic Cape fisherman

[LuckyLady]

PROVINCETOWN — The town pier in Provincetown lost a native son Thursday, when commercial fisherman John "Woodsy" Woods, 55, died of a heart attack as he reeled in a tuna on his boat the Dixie II.

The Eastham resident fished for the big ones for a living, but people also knew him for his unfailing knowledge of boats and water, his helping hand, his white tuna boots and his wit.

Woods family benefit
What: Benefit for the family of Provincetown native and Eastham fisherman John Woods

When: Noon Saturday

Where: Townsend Lobster & Seafood, 85-87 Shank Painter Road, Provincetown
Medics at Falmouth Hospital pronounced Woods dead after Coast Guard rescuers lifted him from his boat at around 3:40 p.m. about 14 miles off Point Allerton in Hull, the Coast Guard said. Just before, a friend in the 31-foot boat had hooked a tuna with Woods at the helm, said his wife, Melanie Woods, and friend Mike Winkler of Truro. When the two traded positions, though, with Woods hauling in the tuna, the effort proved too much.

"He just died instantly," Melanie Woods said Monday.

John Woods' father ran one of the first charter boats for tuna in the area, and John Woods himself spent many hours on the Provincetown waterfront, his wife said. He graduated from Provincetown High School and married Melanie in 1999. Two adult daughters, Rachel, 25, and Joselyn, 18, survive Woods, and he leaves behind his black lab, Pamet, as well.

A benefit for Woods' family will be held at noon Saturday at Townsend Lobster & Seafood in Provincetown.

On MacMillan Pier, even in the heat of summer, he dressed in his signature black jeans and black T-shirt, with cigarettes in the shirt pocket, and the boots, his wife said. But his presence more than his appearance really made the difference, friends said Monday.

Boat captain Henry Souza turned to Woods for help in the late 1990s with a new fishing net that helped reopen the whiting fishery in the region.

"He worked with me for two years on that," said Souza, now a Northampton resident, who owned the Charlotte G dragger in Provincetown from 1987 to 1999.

Souza said he had known Woods for 25 years. "The waterfront is not going to be the same without him," he said. "He was so full of knowledge. He could help people through a lot of problems."

Likewise, Winkler, a crane operator who lifts sunken boats and the like at the pier, half-joked Monday that he relied on his buddy's advice for any job where "there was more than half an inch of water." But, for Winkler, any fishing trip with Woods was only partly about fish, and more about laughs and learning.

"He'd show us the whales," Winkler said. "He'd tell us what was what. He had a lot of knowledge of the sea, of all the creatures."

[idigitu88]

I pray that I may live to fish.......
Until my dying day.
And when it comes to my last cast,
I then most humbly pray:
When in the Lord's great landing net
And peacefully asleep
That in His mercy I be judged
Big enough to keep.
RIP Woody