Sport Fishing USA — January 2018

8 JANUARY 2018

O

ur fans recently chose

six top captains in the

annual Sport Fishing

Charter Captains of the

Year contest for 2017.

Congrats to captains

Peter and Brian Bacon

(Snug Harbor, Rhode

Island), Rob Crocitto (Staten Island, New York),

Adam Peeples (Destin, Florida), Jay Sconyers

(Murrells Inlet, South Carolina) and Jason Stock

(Anna Maria Island, Florida). (You can read more

about them at sportfishingmag.com.)

But, of course, there are thousands of great

offshore charter skippers and inshore guides

around the United States who might not be nation-

ally recognized for what they do, but who are

recognized day in and day out by anglers who come

to fish with them and leave with great memories.

To all these professionals, I say bravo and offer a

sincere thank you.

You guys are ambassadors to our sport,

and serve on so many levels. Most of you are

conservation-oriented stewards of marine game

fish and the environment, from protecting habitat

to teaching best practices for releasing unharmed

those fish not kept for dinner.

Many of you, at various times, serve as a gateway

to the sport at its best, taking out folks who might

not have fished much or haven’t fished salt water,

or perhaps haven’t ever fished anywhere at all.

While I have fished with guides who were gruff

or irritable, I’ve found those to be exceptions.

Mostly, pros in this game are naturally patient

and are great communicators. After all, if they

don’t enjoy people, they’re in the wrong business

to begin with, since guiding is about people, even

before it’s about fish. Typically, anglers become

captains because they’re passionate about the

sport and want to share that passion.

And, particularly, most of you skippers have

opportunities to take youngsters fishing. That could

well be their first time on a serious fishing outing,

which makes such a day pretty important: A bad

SHARING

THE PASSION

experience could turn off kids to fishing; a great one

could cement their enthusiasm as anglers for life.

Does a “great fishing experience” mean catching

lots of trophy fish? Hardly, especially to young

anglers. I think it has more to do with feeling good

about whatever they catch, and most fishing guides

get that. I’ve seen kids walk away from a guide’s boat

after catching nothing that you or I would think

worth mentioning. Yet a good guide’s enthusiasm

rubs off, so at the end, they’ve learned a bit, and

had a great time and a fun day — and isn’t that what

fishing ’s all about?

I only wish SF could recognize all the great

guides out there, but — I’m glad to say — there are

just way too many. So we’ll just whittle away at

the larger universe of professionals, naming a few

at a time every year. On that basis, I hope lots of

you will be ready to nominate any great captains

or guides with whom you’ve fished when our 2018

Charter Captains of the Year contest opens up for

names next fall.

EDITORIAL

JANUARY 2018 / VOL 33 — ISSUE 1

BY DOUG OLANDER

GUIDING

IS ABOUT

PEOPLE

— EVEN

BEFORE

IT’S ABOUT

FISH.

EDITOR’S NOTE: With this issue, we say farewell to Sam Hudson, SF’s senior editor for several years. At the same time, we welcome aboard Alan Wise as our

new associate editor. You’ll be seeing the byline of this hardcore young enthusiast on our website and in the magazine. DOUG OLANDER