THE CITIZEN (Key West, Florida) 07 October 07 Leaping lizards: Invasive reptiles removed - Iguana-fishing dad, son team say it's more fun than work (Steve Gibbs)
Two Upper Keys outdoorsmen have found a new way to hunt that's much closer to home.
Capt. Greg Brown, 54, and his son, Capt. Danny Brown, 30, are licensed flats fishing and airboat guides, who enjoy gigging frogs, catching fish and just being in South Florida's natural environment.
Now, with the mortgage on his home paid and a new lease on life after giving up alcohol almost a year ago, Greg Brown has joined his son in a new endeavor: capturing iguanas for fun and profit.
"I was working with Cindy Garrison of the 'Get Wild' television show on ESPN2," Danny Brown said. "Things got slow and they talked about how much fun they had catching iguanas in Nicaragua. I said, 'We can catch all you want with a fishing pole.'ââ"
Fashioning a slipknot out of 80-pound monofilament leader, Brown reeled it close to the tip of a stout rod and carried his crew to the Marvin Adams Waterway, known as "The Cut," where iguanas are known to sun themselves.
"I used the pole to ease the slipknot over their heads, then I 'set the hook,' just like fishing," he said. "When they hit the water, they fight just like a fish. That really livened up her show."
When his son came back with the story about catching iguanas in The Cut, the elder Brown began thinking about how the invasive reptiles have become a major pest in the Florida Keys. He says he counted five in his own yard.
"I researched iguanas on the computer and found out there was a bounty offered to catch them on Gasparilla Island near Tampa," he said.
"I made up a few fliers and handed them out at nurseries. A couple of weeks ago, we got a call from a neighbor who had heard about us at one of the nurseries.
"The lady's yard is on the [local garden club's] flower tour. Iguanas were decimating her yard. Her flowers were gone.
"It looked like a lawn mower had gone through her flower beds. She said she also has a 4-year-old son and there was iguana feces all over her yard."
The father and son trapped six iguanas at $25 apiece and say the ones they catch won't come back.
"We eat them," the elder Brown said with a sly smile. "We also give them away to a friend who eats them. But we also try to adopt them out. I don't believe in killing everything without good reason. We catch them humanely. I can't see hurting anything."
Greg and his wife, Susan, have three children: Danny, David, 21,and Teresa, 33, who is married to a Marine and lives in the Pacific. All were more or less raised in the Everglades, out every weekend airboating or riding on swamp buggies.
"Every Friday afternoon when I was in school I would begin looking forward to the bell ringing so we could get out of there and go to the 'Glades," Danny Brown said.
His dad has had a similar bond with the Everglades since growing up in Arcadia near the Peace River.
The Browns recalled times camping under the stars and sitting in hunting blinds waiting for deer.
Greg Brown's yard looks like it easily could be located on a tree island in the River of Grass.
"I've brought the Everglades to me," he said. "I'd live in the 'Glades and visit the Keys if I could. The Everglades is still a frontier."
Trapping iguanas may take the place of some Everglades adventures on days when the Brown captains are not guiding tourists to fish or to explore the backcountry with cameras.
"We want to [trap iguanas] for as long as we can because we get bored very easily," Greg Brown said. "We have to constantly be doing something. We don't make much [money], but we have fun. It took me a lot of years to learn that I'd rather have a lot of fun and a little money."
Invasive reptiles removed