A business owner well known in the Bay fishing community went missing on the water, and a large number of volunteer boats responded with a grassroots search effort. Three weeks later, the search has come to an end
Lonnie “LJ” Johnson, 65, was last seen leaving the Chesapeake Beach Inlet in Calvert County, according to friends, around noon on Thursday, Nov. 13. When fellow charter operators couldn’t reach him, they discovered Johnson and his boat were missing, and his trailer was still at the launch ramp he had used. His boat later turned up empty across the Bay near Taylors Island.
UPDATE: On the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 4, Maryland Natural Resources Police (NRP) announced that Johnson’s body was recovered in the waters of Dorchester County near Taylors Island. Sadly, it’s the same location where the search for him began. NRP was still carrying out a search for Johnson three weeks after his disappearance. It was the agency’s helicopter that spotted the boater’s remains during an aerial search.
Search efforts lasted 21 days and were aided by Maryland State Police, United States Coast Guard, Civil Air Patrol, Anne Arundel County Fire Department, Charles County Dive Rescue, Calvert County Rescue Dive Team, Baltimore County Police Department, Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department, Saint Leonard Volunteer Fire Department, and countless other allied agencies, volunteers, and good samaritans.
A number of Johnson’s friends and connections in the fishing community searched as well, and didn’t give up hope that Johnson’s body would be brought back to his family. Dortenzo said, “NRP deeply appreciates the fishing community’s outpouring of support and is grateful for the volunteer efforts that have been conducted.”
Johnson was the owner of G-Eye Jigs, a fishing tackle company specializing in jigging. His products are sold up and down the East Coast. He was also a charter captain and Maryland guide who offers family fishing charters. The name is a play on “GI”, as Johnson was an Army veteran who spent 25 years in the Old Guard Fire and Drum Corps. He followed his love of fishing to Chesapeake Beach in 1998.
We spoke with Todd Riggs, a fellow military veteran who owns fishing apparel company Hawgfin Apparel in Kent Island. Riggs told us that he and Johnson have been fishing together for seven or eight years, and the entire fishing community is very close. That’s why Riggs, one of his employees, and Walter George of Annapolis Boat Sales didn’t hesitate to set out in search of Johnson when they first heard he was missing. So did Steve Griffin from Griffin Guide Service and Travis Long from Schooled Up Fishing Charters, all friends of Johnson’s. When we spoke to Riggs the day of the disappearance, the boaters had been searching for hours in breezy November conditions.
“I can’t even list all the names [of the volunteers] out searching for him on boats,” Riggs said. “We’re constantly getting on the radio, telling each other which areas we’ve combed.” It was friends from the fishing community who located Johnson’s empty 21-foot Parker center-console Friday morning off Taylors Island, with the engine still running in neutral.
Riggs said from what he knows of Johnson’s fishing habits, he would have been out fishing for rockfish. He believes that if Johnson fell overboard, it was likely between the time he launched around noon Thursday and sunset the same day. “Normally we don’t fish past sunset or at dark. Knowing LJ, he wouldn’t either… especially alone,” Riggs told us.
As friends searched for Johnson that first day, the water temperature was 53 degrees. Riggs shared, “The conditions are getting rougher and our optimism is getting lower,” acknowledging that their search may shift from a rescue effort to a recovery effort. “As a military thing, you never want to leave a man behind. You want to bring him home whether dead or alive.”
Riggs told us he and fellow fishermen didn’t give up on locating Johnson because he wouldn’t have given up on them. “LJ is a really great person, always trying to teach people. He was always doing seminars for Angler’s [Sport Center], educating people…I’m sure if any one of us had fallen out of a boat he’d be the first person out on the water looking for us.”
