Yesterday's conversation with Captain Bouncer Smith — Miami legend, fifty-two years full time guiding, Billfish Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, IGFA Legendary Captain, and part of over seventy world records — covers how he built his career from a fishing pier at 14 to one of the most respected names in South Florida sportfishing. We sat down at his home overlooking Miami Beach Marina to talk about growing up when sand covered the paved roads in Hallandale, working two jobs at once as a teenager, the dream he set at 15 to become a flats guide at Bud and Mary's, and how he still fishes six days a week at 70 years old.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page, or scroll back up to watch.
Captain Bouncer Smith is a Miami-based fishing guide with fifty-two years of full-time experience. He has been part of over seventy world records, received the Billfish Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, and was inducted into the IGFA Legendary Captains and Crew. He is known for his work ethic, fishing six days a week at age 70, and his strict superstitions including no bananas on the boat.
Bouncer's father was an avid outdoorsman who moved the family from Michigan to Miami in 1956 when Bouncer was seven years old. He grew up fishing the piers and beaches of South Florida when Hallandale was still covered in sea oats. At 14, he worked on a fishing pier. At 15, he worked on head boats and charter boats. At 15, he visited Islamorada, saw the muscular flats guides with raccoon eyes at Bud and Mary's, and decided that was what he wanted to do when he grew up.
Bouncer moved to Islamorada to guide at Bud and Mary's in March 1976. He was the low man on the seniority list, so he sat around the tackle shop answering walk-up questions and booking night trips after the store closed. He became known for fishing more night trips than anyone else because he had nothing to do all day while the senior guides were booked solid.
Bouncer believes Goliath grouper need some level of controlled harvest but that the solution is complex. He points out that by nature, Goliath grouper eat crabs and lobsters, not fish, but they are opportunity feeders who will grab a hooked fish. He notes that the population was decimated by a freeze around 2010 that killed juveniles in the 10,000 Islands, and scientists halted all harvest discussions for five years because it takes five years for Goliath grouper to reach spawning maturity. He supports science-based management but says in his area off Miami, interactions with Goliath grouper are rare.
Bouncer targets Kubera snappers at night using live lobsters as bait. The technique was pioneered by Bob Lewis in the 1950s and 1960s. Bouncer fishes specific wrecks during spawning aggregations, often running long distances offshore. On recent trips, he caught multiple fish over 50 pounds, including two he estimated at 20 and 25 pounds that actually weighed 33 and 37 pounds. He notes the fishery is under heavy pressure now, with 15 boats fishing one wreck on a recent Friday night, compared to years ago when he was often the only boat.
Bouncer guided Marty Orostegui to the first swordfish ever caught on fly. Marty rigged his own rod, tied his own leader, tied his own fly with a small Lunker Light inside it, and cast repeatedly for about an hour at night while drifting. When he hooked the fish, it stayed in line with the boat for the entire fight, so Bouncer never touched the helm. The swordfish measured 46 inches, one inch under the legal keeper size, so they measured it, photographed it, and released it. Bouncer calls it the greatest angling accomplishment of all time because he had almost nothing to do with it — Marty did everything himself from a dead boat.
Bouncer believes bananas are bad luck on a fishing boat, not because they actually cause problems, but because superstitions divert mental focus. If he believes bananas are the problem, half his brain is thinking about the banana instead of being 100% focused on how to catch fish. He once convinced the vice president of sales for Fruit of the Loom to remove the banana from the company logo after a disastrous trip where the executive was onboard wearing Fruit of the Loom. Within a year, the banana was gone from all Fruit of the Loom promotions.
I started guiding in Key West in the early nineties, and there was a very short list of people I paid attention to. Steve Huff, Harry Spear, Robert Trosset, Ralph Delph in the Lower Keys. And then I always heard these names from Miami. Bouncer Smith was one of them. If I saw an article with Bouncer's name on it, if I saw a DVD he had done, I stopped and paid attention because there was always good information. He was already a legend when I was a young guide trying to figure it out.
The other reason Bouncer mattered to me is his work ethic. I thought I worked hard, but Bouncer worked on a head boat from 5 PM to 1:30 AM and a charter boat from 7 AM to 5 PM every day except Monday when he was in his late teens. He did that for years. Today, at 70 years old, he still fishes six days a week and calls that semi-retirement. That is not normal. That is a different level of commitment to the craft, and I wanted to understand where that comes from.
I also wanted to hear the Bud and Mary's stories from the 1970s. That was a different world. Hard men, strict hierarchy, you had to earn your place. Bouncer showed up as a Miami guy in March 1976 and had to sit at the bottom of the seniority list while every senior guide got first shot at every charter that walked in. He made his living booking night trips after the store closed and sitting around answering questions for walk-ups. The way he tells that part of his story — patient, humble, persistent — is worth hearing in his own voice.
Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page, or scroll back up to watch.
I have always been fascinated by people who have seen an entire world change around them, and Bouncer is one of those people. His family moved from Pontiac, Michigan to Miami in January 1956 when he was seven years old. His dad got an all-expenses-paid job offer right before Christmas. Bouncer got double-bladed ice skates for Christmas. His older sister got her first pair of boot skates. They were in the car heading to Florida on January 6.
The Florida they moved to does not exist anymore. No air conditioning. No roads. Hallandale Beach Boulevard had a swing bridge and a lagoon with water skiing on one side. The paved road north of Hallandale was covered with beach sand. Sea oats everywhere. You drove into a pocket in the sea oats to park. That was the beach. Bouncer and his older sister called it "our beach."
Then they tore down the swing bridge, built a drawbridge, built the Diplomat Hotel on their beach, filled in the lagoon and put in a department store. Then they tore down that drawbridge and built a bigger one. Tore down the Diplomat and built a bigger Diplomat. The sea oats are gone. The sand pockets are gone. Bouncer has lived through all of it, and the way he describes it — matter-of-fact, no nostalgia, just the facts — is the voice of someone who has watched an entire ecosystem get paved over.
His dad was an avid outdoorsman. Fishing, collecting butterflies, collecting walnuts, fly fishing for trout, bow hunting deer in Michigan. If it was outdoors, he did it, and he instilled that in all four of his kids. In Florida, they would drive right onto the beach at Marco Island and Sanibel before there were any restrictions, hike all day collecting seashells, cast in the surf for trout and snook. One scuba tank that everybody passed around.
Bouncer was kicked out of the house as early as he could get out. He has been known to leave the house on his bicycle at 4:00 in the morning to ride over to the fishing piers. His mother would blow a conch shell from the front porch when it was dinnertime. That was the signal to come home. Other than that, you were out exploring, and if you were Bouncer, you were fishing.
Bouncer was 15 years old when he went to Islamorada and saw the flats guides at Bud and Mary's for the first time. Muscular fishermen. Raccoon eyes from being on the water every day. Telling tales about their days on the flats. Bouncer was already an avid fisherman by then, but seeing those guys, he made a decision. That is what I am going to do when I grow up. I am going to be a flats guide in Islamorada.
He graduated from high school and went to work on a head boat at Pier 5 that same summer. A guy came down one afternoon and asked if anyone knew how to wrap wire and gaff a fish. Of course. That is not even a question. The guy was Tommy Savanna. He asked if anyone wanted to work the next day. Bouncer said yes. From that day in early September, he worked as a charter boat mate from 7 AM to 5 PM, then worked on the head boat from 5 PM to 1:30 AM every day except Monday. On Sunday night, after the head boat shift ended, he and his buddies would drive to the Keys and fish off the bridges until 10:00 in the morning, then go home and get some sleep before starting the drill again Monday night.
Almost his entire career, he has gone to work at 7:00 in the morning or earlier and gotten home between 10:00 PM and midnight at least half the days. He thrived on it. What could be better than going fishing?
In March 1976, he left Fort Lauderdale and went to Bud and Mary's to fill that dream he set when he was 15. There were 30 flats guides. The senior guide got first shot at every charter that came into the office every single day. A lot of those guys were booked a year in advance for prime season. Bouncer had to wait until all of them were booked before the store would book him. So he sat around the tackle shop answering questions for people who walked up. When everyone else went home at 5:00, he stayed at the marina, caught crabs with a long hand line using fish scraps people threw in the water, and booked night charters when people drove in at 6, 7, 8 o'clock looking to fish the next day.
That patience and persistence and humility are part of what made Bouncer who he is. He did not demand respect. He earned it by showing up every day and going out of his way not to step on anyone's toes. After a year, the majority of the guides were pretty nice. Some never changed. But being recognized by guys like Cecil Keith — one of the true old-timers — was an honor.
I have guided enough to know that the schedule Bouncer kept is not normal. Working two jobs at once as a teenager, coming home after midnight, leaving again at 7 AM. Fishing night tarpon trips four nights a week on top of six or seven day trips. Running Kubera snapper trips that do not even start until after midnight and getting home at dawn. That is a different level.
At 70 years old, Bouncer has cut back. He does not fish Sundays anymore, and he has stopped most of the night tarpon fishing. He calls it semi-retirement. Six days a week, ten hours a day in the office. Sixty to sixty-five hours a week. That is still more than 80% of the working guides out there.
Where does that come from? Part of it is the way he grew up. His dad left at sunrise and got home at sunset. There were times his mom left at 7:00 in the morning and his older sister made dinner every night for the younger kids because both parents were working. They walked the sides of major roads collecting pop bottles to trade at the grocery store for dinner during the tough times. Work was something you did. Period.
But I think the bigger part is that Bouncer still loves it. He still gets butterflies in his stomach when they are fighting a fish. The day he does not get excited fishing, he says, he might as well hang it up. His adrenaline is more controlled now after fifty-two years, but the excitement is still there. You can see it on his face when he talks about it.
Bouncer does not allow bananas on his boat. Not banana boat sunscreen. Not Fruit of the Loom underwear when it still had the banana in the logo. He has cut the labels out of customers' briefs on more than one occasion when someone got a wedgie and the Fruit of the Loom logo was visible.
He knows it sounds ridiculous. He knows other guides — Bob Branham, Nick Stanczyk, Tony DiGiulian — love to send him pictures of themselves eating bananas while fighting fish just to mess with him. But the reason he sticks to it is not because he thinks bananas actually cause bad luck. It is because superstitions divert focus.
If you believe bananas are bad luck and you see a banana on the boat, half your brain is thinking about the banana instead of being 100% focused on how to get a fish to bite. That is how superstitions work. They pull you away from the job. So whether it is bananas or the number 13 — his rod holders go 12, 12.9, 14 because there is no 13 on his boat — the rule is the same. Eliminate distractions. Stay focused on catching fish.
The best story is the one about the vice president of sales for Fruit of the Loom. Bouncer was fishing with two regular customers, Don and Sandy, who came out the last Wednesday of every month. Sandy went to Spain for November, so Don brought a friend named Jack. They anchored up on a wreck, put out baits, started chumming with live pilchards. Could not buy a bite. Bouncer's friend Dennis pulled up in an identical Dusky, caught his bait in the same place, used the same tackle, anchored right next to them. Kingfish, bonita, yellowtails, muttons, kingfish, bonita. Over and over. Bouncer moved to the other side of Dennis. Still nothing. Dennis kept catching. Bouncer could not get a bite.
Finally, Bouncer slapped his hand down on the bench seat and yelled, "Somebody on here has got to be wearing Fruit of the Loom!" Jack fired up like a Polaris missile, spun around, hands on his hips, and said, "What would you say if I was the vice president in charge of sales for Fruit of the Loom?" Bouncer told him he ought to take the banana out of the logo because it is bad for business. Nobody will wear them.
Jack was the vice president in charge of sales for Fruit of the Loom. In less than a year, the banana was gone from the Fruit of the Loom logo and all promotions.
Bouncer guided Marty Orostegui, who holds over 450 world records, to what Bouncer calls the greatest angling accomplishment of all time. A swordfish caught on fly. But the way Bouncer tells the story, he had almost nothing to do with it. That is important. He is not claiming credit. He is giving you the facts, and the facts are that Marty did everything himself.
Marty's grandfather was a swordfish commercial fisherman in Cuba. Marty's son wanted to try to catch a swordfish at night, so they went out on Marty's 35-foot Cabo with Bouncer. They caught one. When Marty saw how they fished at night with a HydraGlow light in the water, he said, "We should be able to do that on fly."
The next trip, Marty brought his fly rod. His brother caught one, Marty caught one, and the fly rod never came out of the rack. Marty said, "We blew it. We should have tried the fly." The next trip, Marty said, "This time we are going to catch one on fly."
Bouncer put out a rigged squid on a float and a live blue runner on a float, both far from the boat. He hung a HydraGlow light in the water. Marty rigged his own fly rod, tied his own leader, tied his own fly. Bouncer suggested tying a small Lunker Light inside the fly. Marty did that. Two-hook fly, piece of mono between the hooks covered with feathers. They cleared away enough feathers to tie the Lunker Light inside.
Marty cast out with a sinking fly line. Let it sink. Let it drift out to 120 feet, the maximum allowed under IGFA rules. He had a wax thread knot tied around the line so he could feel when he reached 120 feet. Then he stripped the fly, let it drift back, stripped it again, let it drift back. Did that for about an hour. Got a solid strike. Rod jerking. Fish tight. It came off. Probably a barracuda or a shark or a dolphin.
He went back to fishing. His son was asleep. The two buoys with the swordfish baits were out there. Marty kept working his fly. Then he hooked up again. The fish ran toward the bow. Bouncer ran up to the helm to maneuver the boat. Marty said, "Hold on. Don't do anything. The fish turned." Bouncer walked back down to the cockpit. The fish stayed in line with the boat for the entire fight. About an hour. Bouncer never went back up to the helm. Never touched the helm the whole fight.
When Bouncer saw it, all he could think to say was, "IT'S GOT A BILL!" Screamed it at the top of his lungs. They pulled it in the boat. Measured it. 46 inches. One inch under the legal size of 47 inches, measured from the tip of the lower jaw to the fork of the tail. They photographed it and released it. High fives. Celebration. Tried to wake up Marty's son, who slept through the whole thing. Then his son caught one on the bait, and they went home.
Bouncer's point: Marty rigged his own rod, tied his own leader, tied his own fly, did all the casting, and caught the fish from a dead boat. All Bouncer did was take him to where he always swordfished and suggest the Lunker Light. That is why it is the greatest angling accomplishment in the history of fishing. And Bouncer was privileged enough to watch.
I asked Bouncer what is important to him at this point in his career. Two things. First, that his people have a good time. That has changed for him over the years. He is not as focused on numbers or size or records as he used to be. He wants people to enjoy being out there. Second, that he shares the responsibility for preserving sport fishing. That is every bit as important to him as his charter fishing.
He promotes circle hooks, leaving fish in the water when you release them, only keeping what you are going to eat, not trying to feed the whole neighborhood. He takes inner-city kids fishing who have never been on a boat in their life. They have an absolute ball even when the fishing is slow. If you take a kid fishing and they enjoy it, they will have more appreciation for the outdoors. If they appreciate the outdoors, they will protect it.
Bouncer's point about hunters being the best spokesmen for maintaining natural preserves stuck with me. Fishermen have to be the stewards for the preservation of fishing and fish habitat because they are the user group. They see it every day. He thinks it is ridiculous for people to lecture boaters about being careful not to harm manatees. Boaters live to see manatees. They may have one named. It is their friend. They are the last ones who are going to threaten it. Same with declining fisheries. Preaching to the choir.
But fishermen have to preach to other people to get them on board with what is best for the future of sport fishing. That is the mission now.
Bouncer Smith is a legend in the truest sense. Fifty-two years full time. Still fishing six days a week at 70 years old. Part of over seventy world records. Billfish Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. IGFA Legendary Captain. He has fished through every era of South Florida sportfishing from the days when you kept everything to the days when catch-and-release is the only way forward. He has seen the fishery change, the regulations change, the culture change, the technology change. He has adapted to all of it and stayed on top the entire time.
What I respect most is the work ethic and the humility. He does not brag. He does not claim credit for things other people did. When he talks about Marty's swordfish on fly, he is very clear: I was privileged to observe. That is the voice of someone who has been around long enough to know the difference between helping and doing.
The article gives you the topics. The Bud and Mary's years, the banana superstitions, the Kubera snappers, the swordfish on fly, the conservation mission. Bouncer gives you the timing, the Miami accent, the way he laughs when he tells the Fruit of the Loom story. None of that translates to text. Press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page, or scroll back up to watch.
Steve Huff · Harry Spear · Robert Trosset · Ralph Delph · Sonny Fisher · Sonny Eslinger · Ken Doubles · Alex Adler · Lee Robinson · Rodney Cohen · Cecil Keith · Marty Orostegui · Martini Orostegui · Bob Lewis · Bob Branham · Nick Stanczyk · Tony DiGiulian · Ron Green · Bob Montgomery · Dennis Roerjoni · Sandy · Don · Jack · Abby Raymond · Tommy Savanna
Captain Bouncer Smith has guided full time in South Florida for fifty-two years. He received the Billfish Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, was inducted into the IGFA Legendary Captains and Crew, and has been part of over seventy world records. He is known for his relentless work ethic, fishing six days a week at age 70, his advocacy for fisheries conservation, and his strict no-bananas-on-the-boat policy. He operates out of Miami Beach Marina aboard his 33-foot Dusky.
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