Fly fishing legend Islamorada’s Billy Pate dies at age 81
By LARRY KAHN lkahn@keynoter.com
Legendary fly fisherman Billy Pate of Islamorada — who, for 21 years, held the world record for the largest tarpon caught on 16-pound tippet — died Monday morning.
“He was a true southern gentleman,” said author Doug Kelly, who just released a book called “Florida’s Fishing Legends and Pioneers” that features a chapter about Pate. “He was extremely hospitable. He wasn’t full of himself. If you went up to him and asked him about tarpon fishing, he would tell you where to go, how to do it.”
Kelly said Pate had Alzheimer’s disease. “He wasn’t in the best of health,” Kelly said.
The Web site www.midcurrent.com posted this on Tuesday: “Pate was an important pioneer in landing big saltwater fish on fly rods and was particularly dedicated to tarpon fishing, although billfishing was also a passion. His 1982 188-pound tarpon world record on 16-pound tippet remained unbeaten for 21 years, and he was the first person to catch a blue marlin and a black marlin on fly. He was also the first angler to catch six billfish species on a fly rod.”
Pate, who was 81, was inducted into the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame in 2003.
Kelly said Pate’s family made a fortune in a carpet business in South Carolina.
“He had, because of that family background, the wherewithal to travel the world and set records for fly fishing,” said Kelly, who lived in Tavernier from 1987 to the mid-1990s but now lives in Clearwater. “Why bother with the minutiae when you can enjoy life to the fullest?”
In addition to the Keys, Pate owned homes in Oregon and Homosassa, among other places, “where he loved to fish for tarpon.”
Pate was also a board member of the conservation group Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited. “I got to know him very well because he was a board member and I was the executive director,” Kelly said.
In addition to his fishing prowess, Pate was a champion water skier, putting on shows at Cypress Gardens in Lakeland. “He was a top-notch water skier until he blew out his knee,” Kelly said.
Funeral services are pending.
Tags: Bonefish, Islamorada, Tarpon
Categories: Bonefish, Fishing, Islamorada, Tarpon Tags: Bonefish, Islamorada, Tarpon
Bonefish Tarpon Trust Aims to Protect Tarpon
BY TIMOTHY O’HARA Citizen Staff
tohara@keysnews.com
tohara@keysnews.com
Springtime means one thing to Florida Keys anglers — the influx of migrating tarpon.
There are few types of angling more exciting than tarpon fishing — from the thrill of the fight to the sound of the gill plates rattling as they leap out of the water, contorting their bodies in an attempt to spit the hook from the their oversized mouths.
The massive fish, which can weigh over 200 pounds, fights like a beast. Anglers liken the battle to snagging a moving freight train.
Tarpon fishing has a long tradition, not only in the Florida Keys, but across the Southern coastal states. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt grappled with them in Aransas Pass, Texas, in the 1930s. Decades later, President George H.W. Bush fought them off Islamorada, a place that has served as an epic battleground for tarpon fishing. Sports greats such as Ted Williams and Andy Mil, and writers such as Thomas McGuane and Jim Harrison, have called on the Keys to face off with tarpon.
University of Miami marine biology professor Jerry Ault and the conservation group Bonefish Tarpon Trust want to ensure that the challenge continues for generations. They have begun work on a federal legislative proposal — the Tarpon Conservation Act — to bring greater protection and more money for research of the species. They are looking for sponsors both in the House of Representatives and Senate. They hope to have something filed within the next year, said Aaron Adams, director of operations and research for Bonefish Tarpon Trust.
The proposal requests that international agreements on tarpon fishing be established — as the fish’s range is from Central America to Virginia — and that the government set aside $2 million for five years for research, Ault said.
International agreements, similar to compacts signed for migrating birds, would offer protection for tarpon outside the United States, where Ault and Bonefish Tarpon Trust are worried about the mortality rates and overfishing. Generally, tarpon fishing is seen as a catch-and-release sport, but there are places, such as Mexico, where the fish are taken to shore and weighed during tournaments. Ault said he saw 6 tons of tarpon, some weighing more than 200 pounds, killed in a three-day tournament in Vera Cruz, Mexico. Those same schools of tarpon migrate to Texas and Louisiana from Mexico, he said.
There also are places in Louisiana where people spear tarpon for sport, Adams said.
Other concerns include the impacts of pollution and development on spawning areas. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill may have seriously impacted the tarpon fishery and migration patterns. Many tarpon, some from Florida, travel to that area of the Gulf of Mexico to feed on medheaden, shrimp and crabs that come out of the Mississippi Delta.
“Making them a catch-and-release fish does not mean they are totally protected; and they are not catch-and-release everywhere,” Adams said.
Ault and Adams have earned international recognition for their research on game fish such as tarpon, permit and bonefish. The two have conducted research throughout the Caribbean and Central America. Ault has written several studies that have shown the economic value of such fish, and documented their migration patterns. The two are actively involved in several game-fish tagging programs, and Adams was in Belize on Friday attaching satellite tags to tarpon for tracking purposes.
The tagging programs have shown that tarpon routinely travel between Mexico, the United States and Cuba. Ault and Adams are working to obtain more information to find out if schools travel from as far Central America to the United States.
Tarpon and other types of sport fishing generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year in Florida, and subsidize economies of the Keys and other coastal areas. In the Everglades alone, recreational fishing is a $173 million a year business, Ault said.
“These fisheries are big business and create a lot of jobs,” he said.
keysnews.com
Tags: Tarpon
FWC Temporarly Prohibits “Harvesting” Snook, Tarpon & Bonefish
FWC responds to widespread cold-weather saltwater fish kills
January 15, 2010
Contact: Lee Schlesinger, 850-487-0554
Executive Order 10-02 (Dead Fish)
Executive Order 10-03 (Snook, Tarpon, Bonefish)
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has issued executive orders to protect Florida’s snook, bonefish and tarpon fisheries from further harm caused by the recent prolonged cold weather in the state, which has caused widespread saltwater fish kills. The FWC has received numerous reports from the public and is taking action to address the conservation needs of affected marine fisheries. The orders also will allow people to legally dispose of dead fish in the water and on the shore.
One of the executive orders temporarily extends closed fishing seasons for snook statewide until September. It also establishes temporary statewide closed seasons for bonefish and tarpon until April because of the prolonged natural cold weather event that caused significant, widespread mortality of saltwater fish in Florida. The other order temporarily suspends certain saltwater fishing regulations to allow people to collect and dispose of dead fish killed by the cold weather.
“A proactive, precautionary approach is warranted to preserve our valuable snook, bonefish and tarpon resources, which are among Florida’s premier game fish species,” said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. “Extending the snook closed season and temporarily closing bonefish and tarpon fishing will protect surviving snook that spawn in the spring and will give our research scientists time to evaluate the extent of damage that was done to snook, bonefish and tarpon stocks during the unusual cold-weather period we recently experienced in Florida.”
Snook season currently is closed in Florida under regular FWC rules, and there are also regular closed snook seasons that occur in the summer. However, the FWC executive order extends the statewide snook closed seasons continuously through Aug. 31 and provides that no person may harvest or possess snook in state and federal waters off Florida during this period unless the fishery is opened sooner or the closure is extended by subsequent order.
The order also establishes a temporary prohibition on the harvest and possession of bonefish and tarpon from state and federal waters off Florida through March 31, unless these fisheries are opened sooner or the closures are extended by subsequent order. The FWC executive order for the snook, bonefish and tarpon closed seasons takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 16.
The other FWC executive order temporarily removes specific harvest regulations for all dead saltwater fish of any species that have died as a result of prolonged exposure to cold weather in Florida waters. It also modifies general methods of taking dead saltwater fish from Florida’s shoreline and from the water to allow the collection of saltwater fish by hand, cast net, dip net or seine.
All people taking dead saltwater fish under the provisions of this order may not sell, trade or consume such fish, and the dead fish must immediately be disposed of in compliance with local safety, health and sanitation requirements for such disposal.
In addition, all people taking dead fish under the provisions of this order are not required to possess a saltwater fishing license, and all fish taken under the provisions of this executive order shall be those that have died as a result of prolonged exposure to cold weather.
This FWC executive order takes effect at 12:01 a.m. on Jan. 16 and will expire at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 1, unless it is repealed sooner or extended by subsequent order.
Tags: Bonefish, Snook, TarponTarpon on Fly in Islamorada’s IGFA Inshore World Championship
With ESPN2 camera crews stalking competitors in the Florida Keys Outfitters IGFA Inshore World Championship this week, ESPNOutdoors.com is able to offer viewers with an exclusive video segment of a successful tarpon catch.
During the first day of competition, Houston’s Carlos Duncan hooked up with a good-sized tarpon, worth 200 points towards his tournament total. Duncan and guide, John Donnell, found a spot filled with roughly 15 tarpon and what ensued was a typical fight, lasting a couple of minutes, and covering a healthy stretch of water.
Interesting was the duo’s persistence in landing this particular tarpon. While the area was clearly a hot spot for the species, Duncan had a hard time getting any to fall for his fly. After working the area for about two hours, he was finally successful. A definite lesson in persistence for fledgling anglers.
The clip also provides insight into the teamwork — between guide and angler — necessary to succeed at a tournament like this. While the anglers are typically the ones that garner the praise, guides play an integral part in finding fish, boat control and effective communication.
Duncan, who was highlighted in earlier article, landed one snook and one redfish Wednesday, completing a three-fish SLAM. In the fly division, that is good enough to be in contention and if Duncan can put some points on the board and satisfy another species category Thursday, he has a reasonable shot at victory.
Tags: Fishing, Tarpon