She Gone Charters

Growing up in Stuart, FL, I got my first boat at 13 and began exploring the Indian River and the surrounding waters. I soon became obsessed with snook and tarpon fishing and spent every chance I could learning to catch them. My dad owned a fly-rod company he started in 1995 with a friend—Redington Rods. I loved testing new products and even began designing my own model, a 7.5-foot, 10-weight rod. It wasn’t refined for delicate casting; it was built to haul big snook out from under docks. With that rod I caught my first snook over 40 inches on fly, under a dock in the North Fork of the Saint Lucie River.

As I entered my teens, I expanded into offshore fishing. I started by walking the docks, washing boats, and helping with bait rigging when I could. Stuart is home to some of the East Coast’s best sailfish fisheries and hosts a series of sailfish tournaments. My dream was to compete in those events, and in high school I got my chance. That year I won a Junior Anglers Tournament for the most sailfish releases in a day.

I went to college in Pennsylvania so I could work part-time for a fly-rod company; my dad was then managing Hardy’s North America division. Living there, I gravitated toward trout fishing and became obsessed with it.

After graduating, I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to work as a guide on the Snake River and to drive Snow Cats for a local cat-ski operation in Alta, Wyoming. This was a dream come true: I found a job paid to do what I loved. It gave me access to the Tetons’ untouched backcountry and to fish remote parts of the Snake River, reachable only by boat on multi-day trips.

A couple of years later I realized I wouldn’t get ahead with the cost of living, so I accepted a walk-on opportunity to join the crew as first mate on a world-traveling sport-fish operation bound for the Pacific. The fleet included a 150′ mega yacht, a 72′ Merritt sport-fish, and a couple of flats skiffs. I worked there for eight years, traveling the Blue Marlin tournament circuit across the Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Panama, Costa Rica, and the Northeast U.S.

In 2020 I captained my own boat, an 86′ Merritt Sport named Tangaroa. This was the culmination of years of hard work. We travel somewhat less than before, fishing primarily in the Bahamas and South Florida. Now, with two kids, this setup works well: I’m home most of the time and can pursue a second career as a fly-fishing guide in South Florida. I run most trips at night so they don’t interfere with my duties as captain of the Tangaroa, except during tarpon season when I dedicate a couple of months to guiding in Biscayne Bay.