Recommendations

We enjoyed three great days of tarpon hunting with a young guide named John Stark south of Chokoloskee in May. We had a pretty good conversation about the advantages of Orvis endorsement as we pushed around the 10,000 Islands (all of them, it seemed.)

He fishes out of nearly-new Hells Bay Skiff, knows the 10,000 Island like he knows his child’s face. His back yard includes the waters around Naples and Marco, so he has the Gulf side of South Florida pretty well covered (Pete Villanni’s old stomping grounds). He has a fisheries biology degree from Wake Forest , where he played soccer on a scholarship. After trying to make it professionally in the European football world, he returned to his fishing roots to chase snook, redfish, and tarps. He is trilingual English, Spanish, and Flyfishing. He’s also fully prepared to fish conventionally on windy days and with the flyfishing impaired.

On our trips he was unfailingly on time, in a good humor, and he always let the day burn away well past the appointed time to return to the dock. He didn’t seem to care about the clock.

We are planning on returning to fish with him again next spring and my fishing partner on the trip (the president of Boaters World and Ritz Camera) has already booked Stark for a day in September as an escape from a required wedding appearance.

Joe Evans

PropTalk Magazine

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