St. Petersburg fisherman spent last moments doing what he loved

ST. PETERSBURG — Phillip E. Johnson was every bit the outdoorsman. He loved to fish and hunt. He made little houses for birds and possums. And he made his living crabbing in Tampa Bay.

That's how he spent his last moments Friday morning, authorities said, when his boat crashed into the Fourth Street bridge.

The crash took place about 10:40 a.m. After witnesses called 911, paramedics found Johnson inside the boat. He was taken to Bayfront Medical Center in critical condition. He died later that day, but the cause of his death is not yet known.

Johnson was 60.

"He had a love for sports and fishing and hunting," said Cindy Johnson, 57, his wife of three decades. "He was a pioneer. We still hang our clothes on the clothesline. No washer. No dryer.

"We do everything plain. We do everything ourselves."

The cause of the crash and Johnson's death are still under investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. An autopsy is scheduled for today. It will take weeks for investigators to determine what happened.

But family and friends believe Johnson suffered a medical problem and that led to the crash. Or it was a mechanical failure, they said. They don't believe it could have been pilot error.

"He has more hours as captain of a boat than you have breathing," longtime friend and fellow fisherman Floyd DeForest, 58, told a St. Petersburg Times reporter.

Johnson was a commercial crabber who lived in St. Petersburg. But he worked all across the bay, friends said, from Tampa to the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport. Wildlife commission officials said they found the crabber's vehicle and boat trailer parked in Tampa.

His boat was headed west, leaving Tampa Bay and entering the Big Island Gap, according to the commission, when his boat struck the bridge that connects Fourth Street N and Interstate 275.

The white 20-footer's bow was damaged and the windshield smashed in the crash. Johnson's boat — friends said he named it Lackey — ricocheted into some mangroves.

Johnson spent every other day out on the water, and friends said he was likely checking on his traps when the crash occurred.

Wildlife officers said they found crab traps and live crabs on the boat. The crabs were released.

Johnson graduated from Florida Southern College in Lakeland with a degree in finance, friends said. But he decided to make his living outdoors.

He was a net fisherman until the 1995 net ban. Then Johnson switched to traps. He also hunted deer and hogs in Georgia.

"He was the best friend you could have," DeForest said.

"Phil did what he wanted to do. He was the last of a generation of guys who did what they wanted to do."

Times staff writer Andy Boyle and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Jamal Thalji can be reached at thalji@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8472.