ABOUT THE CAPTAIN
I grew up on the coast of
Mississippi, living one block from the Gulf of Mexico, until I
graduated from high school in 1962. My early years were spent
swimming, sailing, water skiing and fishing. With my Dad, I spent
countless days fishing for both fresh and saltwater species in the
Gulf and in the lakes, ponds, rivers and bayous in the local area.
Saltwater fishing was mostly for speckled trout and Spanish
mackerel. Some of my most memorable experiences were multi-day
trips to the Chandeleur Islands, trolling for mackerel along the way
and then drifting the grass flats for trout. I was a capable fly
caster by the age of twelve and, at the age of fifteen, won several
trophies and an outboard motor in the annual Mississippi Deep Sea
Fishing Rodeo. After graduation from the University of Georgia in
1968, I relocated to Tallahassee, in part due to the availability of
fishing in the area. My early coastal fishing was done in the areas
of St. Marks/Live Oak Island, Mexico Beach/Port St. Joe and in and
around St. George Island. For several years beginning in the
mid-seventies, I turned my attention to competitive bass fishing.
By the early eighties, it was back to the saltwater environment, and
for nearly fifteen years I concentrated on offshore fishing and
spearfishing out of Carrabelle, FL. As king mackerel stocks began
to increase, my interests gradually shifted to light tackle fishing
for king & Spanish mackerel. Over the years I have won or been “in
the money” in the king & Spanish divisions of several local
tournaments. For several years I held the Big Bend OAR tournament
record for largest Spanish mackerel. I won the king mackerel
division of the Marzuq Shrine tournament in three separate years and
won both king & Spanish mackerel divisions in one of those years.
During this same period I began doing an extensive amount of inshore
fishing for speckled trout, redfish & pompano, and in 1999 began
fishing almost exclusively out of Lanark Village. In the early
spring of 2000, I sold both my flats boat and my offshore boat (23’
Mako) and purchased the 21’ Sea Pro bay boat I currently own. The
Sea Pro’s bay boat design allows me the versatility of going
offshore in pursuit of kingfish & grouper several times a year yet
is still the ideal boat for fishing the bay and on the grass flats,
which is where I now do the majority of my fishing.
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