Feather & Fin Guide Co. in Jacksonville, Florida

I’m Capt. Charlie and my entrance to the world of fishing started when I first discovered the wild characteristics of redfish in the muddy, fiddler-crab-crawling, grass laden marsh of North Florida. I started chasing Jacksonville redfish with live shrimp and mullet, throwing them off my aunt and uncle’s dock on the St. John’s River, catching bull redfish in the late hours of the night. My passion for catching redfish grew, as did my techniques, and before long I was swinging the fly rod around every oyster bar and mud bank I could find. I graduated high school and headed south to St. Petersburg Florida to begin my college career, leaving behind the marsh and oyster bars and trading them for mangrove shorelines and turtle-grass flats. My path crossed with snook and tarpon and my passion for catching redfish was now rivaled with the feeling of watching a snook blow up on a topwater or a 100+ pound tarpon slurp a 3” black and purple fly. I finished my year there and transferred to West Palm Beach to start a new academic path.

Within my first year there I had bought my first skiff and began exploring the vast network of South Florida’s waterways. From Naples down to Chokoloskee, through Whitewater Bay, down to Flamingo and Florida Bay, down to Islamorada. As my skiffs and gas tanks grew in size my range and exploration grew too. I learned to navigate the backcountry of the Everglades without a navigation unit committing turns, trees, coves and spots to memory. I traveled frequently back and forth from Jacksonville and West Palm and added to my cranial arsenal of spots St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and Amelia Island, allowing me more flexibility while planning trips and working with tides. While I still have much to learn and learn something new every time I’m on the boat, I look forward to sharing what I know with you and am confident a day on the water with me will be a day you’ll not soon forget.