Owner of D’ville boat that burned seeks fishing gear items

January 25, 2023

Captain Billy Wyatt, who has fished the Rappahannock River for more than 60 years, appreciates the support he’s received from the community after his Sundancer II boat burned. (Contributed)

Drop off donations at Cafe by the Bay, Hurds or M&M

Captain Billy Wyatt, whose boat Sundancer II burned on Dec. 29, 2022, is in the midst of filling out the endless amounts of paperwork associated with filing an insurance claim for the fire that took his lifelong dream, said his daughter Ashely Wyatt last week. “Everyday is another memory of the hard work and effort and money he put into the boat that took almost 14 years to achieve,” she said.

Wyatt, 78, of Topping, lives to fish and as he looks for another boat, his daughter is setting up boxes around Deltaville and Hartfield to collect used fishing gear. “If you have any fishing tackle that you are willing to donate like tackle boxes, hooks, line, weights, inline sinkers, swivels, umbrellas, etc, it would be greatly appreciated,” she said. All of his Rockfish gear was on the boat along with his rods and reels and were lost in the blaze.

“Billy (Wyatt) is beyond grateful for the support from his fellow fishermen, family and friends. He would not have been able to navigate these troubled waters without all of you.”
Daughter Ashely Wyatt

The Wyatts thank “some great local businesses . . . we want to give a huge thank you to the support, the Southside Sentinel for sharing our story, WIGO-FM 104.9 for airing the story, Sandra from Creative Designs of Virginia in Irvington for the signage, Sammie and Jack from Hurd’s Hardware, Mike and Santana from Cafe by the Bay in Deltaville, M&M in Hartfield for allowing us to set up a drop-off place for these donations.”

Also, there will be containers with paper near the drop-off boxes for anyone who would like to leave a short fishing story or words of encouragement for Captain Billy during this difficult time, she added.