Page 62 - South Mississippi Living - November, 2024

SPORTS & OUTDOORS
Biloxi Fishing Guide Recounts His Angling Life
story and photos by John N. Felsher
Battered by numerous hurricanes, bolstered by the addition of artificial reefs creating fish habitat, plus increasing coastal population and development, fishing along the Mississippi coast changed dramatically in the past few decades.
Captain Robert Brodie grew up on the northern shoreline of the Back Bay of Biloxi where he spent the first 40 of his 69 years. He grew up
in a fishing family and now guides for Team Brodie Charters out of D’Iberville Marina under the north end of the Interstate-110 bridge.
“I grew up fishing Mississippi waters with my dad, Jimmy Brodie,” the captain recalls. “He was a big fisherman. We lived on the water. Dad always had a big boat. I had my own little boat at six years old. It had a three-horsepower outboard. Growing up fishing these waters, it was a paradise. There were very few homes around and fishing was incredible.”
Theodora “Dodie” Marie Brodie, Robert’s mom, also fished. Now 87 years old, she made a name for herself as a master freshwater angler. She fished the Tchoutacabouffa and Biloxi Rivers for her passion, catching various bream species.
“My mother was also quite an accomplished fisherman,” Robert says. “When she was young, she did a little saltwater fishing and would go on deep-sea trips on our big boat, but her passion was freshwater fishing. She was a legend for catching all different types of bream.”
With that piscatorial pedigree, Robert started writing about fishing for magazines and newspapers. His angling reputation
62 | November 2024