Скачать или смотреть Bonefish and Tarpon Trust Circle of Honor Inductions

Bonefish and Tarpon Trust's Annual Florida Keys Dinner & Circle of Honor Inductions. Celebrating fishing legends Bob Branham and the late Bill Curtis.

Circle of Honor
BTT's Circle of Honor is prominently housed in the Florida Keys History and Discovery Center, located in Islamorada, Florida, and features an annually rotating exhibit on those honored as well as educational content about the significance of the flats fishery. Each year, the Circle of Honor Selection Committee chooses a living legend for induction and one or more individuals for posthumous recognition. Past recipients of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust’s Lefty Kreh Award, Curt Gowdy Media Award, and Flats Stewardship Award are recognized in a digital archive maintained as part of the exhibit.

Capt. Bill Curtis
Innovator, prolific guide, and passionate conservationist, Captain Bill Curtis was born in eastern Oklahoma in 1925. He piloted F-7s for the Army Air Corps during World War II, had a successful career as an advertising photographer, and then had a life-changing encounter with bonefish on the flats of Miami's Biscayne Bay in the early 1950s. By the late 50s, he was guiding anglers to prodigious catches of bonefish, tarpon and permit. Curtis is credited with developing the first poling platform for flats skiffs in the 1970s, now standard equipment throughout Florida's inshore waters. He also created the Bimini Twist and Curtis Connection fishing knots. As his reputation grew, he received the attention in 1960 of then U.S. Interior Secretary Stuart Udall and Commerce Secretary Luther Hodges who hired him to guide them in the Bay. From that fateful trip, and under Curtis’ subtle conservation influence, momentum built to establish Biscayne National Park, protecting the bay’s fish-rich waters from what would have been a disastrous petroleum refinery on its shores.

Capt. Bob Branham
An early proponent of banning nets in Biscayne Bay, Branham joined the board of the Florida Keys Fishing Guides Association, and soon became a well-regarded liaison between its members and BTT, engaging those guides in the organization's conservation and research efforts. Gradually, guides realized the importance of BTT's mission to protect the flats "big three" and became actively involved. As a member of the BTT board, Branham has donated his time on the water to guide scientists on tarpon tagging expeditions and to collect bonefish for brood stock in the organization's bonefish spawning research.