My grandfather and my dad took me fishing for the very first time when I was 5 in the Northern Canadian fresh water lakes. It was love at first catch. I loved it so much that I begged my grandfather to take me fishing every weekend whether it was ice fishing in the winter or catching the snow melts in the spring where the lakes would be higher, and the fish would be hungry after a harsh, cold winter with very little food for them to feed on. By the age of 15, my parents decided to move our family to Miami Beach, Florida near the Haulover Marina. I spent all my weekends, holidays and summers working as a deckhand on the Kelley Fishing Fleet drift boats. One summer day, as I was walking down the dock, an ‘Old-timer’ by the name of Captain Smitty Barnyard, owner of The Angler, a sport fishing charter boat at Haulover since the 30’s, waved me down and said, “Hey kid, I’m booked this afternoon, and I want you to be my mate”. I quickly jumped at the opportunity; it was from that moment my career as a mate on a sportfishing charter boat began. From there I got a job as a mate aboard the New Moon III ran by Captain Terry Guthrie. I quickly absorbed as much of the information and knowl...

My grandfather and my dad took me fishing for the very first time when I was 5 in the Northern Canadian fresh water lakes. It was love at first catch. I loved it so much that I begged my grandfather to take me fishing every weekend whether it was ice fishing in the winter or catching the snow melts in the spring where the lakes would be higher, and the fish would be hungry after a harsh, cold winter with very little food for them to feed on. By the age of 15, my parents decided to move our family to Miami Beach, Florida near the Haulover Marina. I spent all my weekends, holidays and summers working as a deckhand on the Kelley Fishing Fleet drift boats. One summer day, as I was walking down the dock, an ‘Old-timer’ by the name of Captain Smitty Barnyard, owner of The Angler, a sport fishing charter boat at Haulover since the 30’s, waved me down and said, “Hey kid, I’m booked this afternoon, and I want you to be my mate”. I quickly jumped at the opportunity; it was from that moment my career as a mate on a sportfishing charter boat began. From there I got a job as a mate aboard the New Moon III ran by Captain Terry Guthrie. I quickly absorbed as much of the information and knowledge this ‘old-timer’ had to offer, as I knew not many Captains knew better than he. It didn’t take long before I worked my way up to a Captain myself, where I fished all across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the Caribbean and the Bahamas.