FROM ANGLING TO ART: Fishing regulations force Hired Gun's Capt. Bill to sell boat and move on (PHOTOS)

Captain Bill Waitzman of Destin has traded in his boat for art supplies, but he’s still dealing with big fish.

After 10 years as owner and captain of the Hired Gun, Waitzman sold his charter boat to Captain Dale Beebe about a month ago. The longtime fisherman and Destin resident said he just wasn’t having fun anymore.

“It was a culmination of everything that’s been building up in the industry,” Waitzman said. “But I would say the main reason I got out of it is the federal intervention into our business.”

Waitzman said he thinks regulations and rules can be helpful, but that the misinformation the government is basing them on is killing fishermen’s livelihoods. Three years ago, Waitzman began to see a decline in his business when fuel prices went up. And things have only gotten worse in the last year, as the early closing of the amberjack and red snapper seasons cut Waitzman’s revenues in half.

But it wasn’t all about the money for Waitzman, who said he’s not the kind of guy to keep doing something that doesn’t feel right.

He just wasn’t satisfied with releasing a lot of fish on short trips. He said he’s always been an offshore, big-game fisherman, and if he can’t do that, he’s ready to move on.

“We’ve got a great fishery here, and I by no means want to come off as saying there’s anything wrong with the fishing industry from the fishermen’s end,” Waitzman said. “This is the best bunch of fisherman in the world here in Destin. I just don’t get along very good when people are telling me what to do. I had to bow out, and best of luck to all the guys.”

When Waitzman first got out of the charter boat business, he said he didn’t know what the future held for him.

But in the last month, a hobby the fisherman had been cultivating for five years has begun to turn into a profession.

Waitzman got interested in art after dating a girl who did watercolors and tile mosaics. He said he always thought her mosaics were cool, and one day out of sheer boredom he asked her to show him how to make them. She gave him a few verbal instructions and left him to work on his first piece.

“I started out with a few stepping stones with some sea life on them,” Waitzman said. “But I wasn’t satisfied with something that small because I have a grandiose mind.”

And his latest pieces are grand.

Almost all measure about eight feet and can weigh as much as 100 pounds. At first, he was just putting his pieces around his own house, but now he has people commissioning him to create works of art for display in their homes. He said that most of the people who have seen his stuff happen to be salt water fisherman, so his work typically features sea life.

“That’s the clincher,” Waitzman said. “I’m still dealing with fish, and I’m still making money off fish. I just don’t have to ice these down.”

Waitzman said setting a price for his artwork is difficult. He considers the amount of time he’s put into, which can be as much as a month for the larger pieces, and how detailed and unique it is. All things considered, he’s been charging about $200 a foot.

And his pieces are getting bigger.

He’s already created a mixture of resin that allows him to paint on tile to get the effects he desires. And he said his next step is to begin creating 3-D mosaics. He said he enjoys perfecting his work and coming up with new ways to capture the deep, beautiful colors he’s seen on live fish in the Gulf in his mosaics.

“I’m always going out on a limb and trying different things,” Waitzman said. “All this tile is trash to most people, but after I’m done they become something beautiful all as one.”

Waitzman isn’t sure how far his art career will take him, but for now he said he’s enjoying the ride. He still spends a lot of time on the water, and hopes to do some freelance fishing. But he thinks his artistic ability is as much a gift from God as his fishing ability — and he wants to pursue it.

“I’m just trying to do the next right thing, and when I do that everything goes fine for me,” Waitzman said. “I’ll always be a fisherman. It’s in my blood. You just don’t feel right if you’re not out there enough. But I’m going to see where my artwork goes. This is an interesting time for me, that’s for sure.”