Boy's buoys keep 7-year-old busy

By CATHY DYSON

Jace Jett is a 7-year-old who's got what the old-timers call a "fever" for working the water.

He caught it young.

Jace was 2 the first time he went out crabbing with his father and 3 when he got his recreational license from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. An official there said he's probably the youngest person in Virginia to ever get a license.

By age 6, Jace was getting up before the crack of dawn every summer morning his dad went out to fish the waters outside Colonial Beach for crabs.

At 7, Jace enjoys crabbing so much, he tosses mini pots in the backyard swimming pool and puts real ones in the front yard when his father, Jim, is working his other job, construction.

"He just loves it more than anything," said Roger Hill, a Colonial Beach waterman who crabbed for 47 years. "It's just in his blood, I guess. Once you get that fever for crabbing and working the water, it's something that stays with you, you ain't gonna get rid of it."

Jace's heroes are crabbers, and his best friends are grown men who work the water. He doesn't play video games or watch TV, except the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch."

"When Capt. Phil [Harris] died, it was like a member of our family," Jim Jett said.

Jace, who takes his work on the water seriously, doesn't say a whole lot that's not related to crabbing.

"I like everything about it," he said, quietly. "I get to do stuff, like pull the pots and lift the pots out of the water and shake the crabs out. I like all the different things."

"How about hanging out with your dad?" Jim Jett asked on a recent morning, as the two made their way around Monroe Bay.

"That's one of 'em," Jace answered.

At 4-feet 4-inches, Jace weighs 64 pounds and has such a tiny waist, he has trouble keeping his pants up. He wear suspenders with his "oil slicks," the orange waterproof overalls he wears on the boat, and his sculpted arms stand out against his skinny frame.

"Spring steel and rawhide" is how the Jetts describe him. Other watermen recognize the upper body their livelihood creates.

"Jace is tough," said veteran waterman Nealy Little. "Look at them big muscles on him."

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Crabbing and construction run in the Jett family. Jace Jett's father, Jim, does both, just as relatives did before them.

Jace is a fourth-generation Colonial Beach crabber. His father works in building to supplement his income, but says he loves being out on the water so much, he'd do it for free, if necessary.

There have been times he wasn't far from it. This week, many crabs were thrown back because they were under the legal size of 5 inches. His yield was about 10 bushels, compared to 18 in previous weeks.

Jett used to sell his crabs to a seafood buyer, then he and his wife, Marcie, began to cook and sell their own on weekends at Colonial Beach Volunteer Fire Department. It's more work--after he crabs and does construction all week, he then cooks crabs all weekend--but says the pay is better.

Jett tried to get his first son, Jim Jett III, into crabbing, but he went the construction route instead. He has no interest in the water, just like Jim Jett's father, Sonny, who would rather build than fish. Jim Jett III is 26 and the fire chief at Colonial Beach. Jim and Marcie Jett have another son, Jaxton, who will be 2 in October. Jim Jett plans to introduce him to crabbing, too.

Jace Jett, 7, has collected more than 200 buoys. He has one from each of the dozen or so crabbers in Colonial Beach, and he's always scouring the shoreline for ones that wash up.

Even when the family goes on vacation, to Myrtle Beach, Jace doesn't get away from crabbing. His father, Jim, straps three crab pots to the Nissan Armada and takes them to the beach, where he puts the pots in nearby water. Jace checks them for crabs every few hours.

Date published: 7/10/2010

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