Professional Fishing Guides Sharing Their Passion

Guides are often a gateway to the sport of fishing, providing young anglers their first opportunity to experience the excitement that may cement their interest for life. Here, Mississippi guide Sonny Schindler is about to release a large black drum. 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). But, of course, there are thousands of great offshore charter skippers and inshore guides around the United States who might not be nationally 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. 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. Does a “great fishing experience” mean catching lots of trophy fish? 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.