Anyone who knows Huff knows he tells it like it is. He was gracious enough to share some thoughts on South Florida fishing and Everglades restoration with the rest of us.

Those who know South Florida fishing know of Captain Steve Huff, who has been called the “best fishing guide alive.” Huff is a humble man, though, and quickly dismisses that reference. He doesn’t frequent fishing expos, or post on social media, or star in television shows. But for decades, he’s been out on the water. He simply heads out at dawn each day, poles his boat with practiced grit, and makes damn sure his clients catch memorable fish – even now in his so-called retirement. He’s fished professionally from the Lower Keys up through Florida Bay and the southern reaches of the Everglades, including Ten Thousand Islands. TRCP asked Huff about his thoughts on South Florida fishing, Everglades restoration, and the importance of clean water. We’ve chosen to simply share excerpts of his own words on issues, rather than couch them in our own.

(Warning: Some people may find the language in this post offensive.)

I started guiding 56 years ago in the Keys, and the target species at that time were, for me at least, bonefish, tarpon, and permit. Snook were very available in the Flamingo area on the north side of Florida Bay, and around the bridges in the Keys. I guided some people to numerous world records for permit. But it’s impossible to compare fishing today to back then because it’s almost non-existent now compared to what it was. The permit fishing in the Lower Keys, Key West, has virtually collapsed.

The terminology people use “back in the day,” well, back in the day I would go permit fishing out of Key West with a good angler and we’d get 50 opportunities sometimes to cast to a fish. Today, a really good guide might get three to five shots a day. The permit are virtually gone now.

The Everglades down to the Keys is still a beautiful, gorgeous, viable area. But it’s suffering from poor water quality. Even though water pretty much looks like regular water coming south, it’s not the same if it’s full of nutrients that are damaging to the environment. I’ve been fighting environmental battles in Florida my whole adult career trying to raise awareness and curtail pell-mell bulldozing and all that stuff. It’s all about tax bases, build houses, raise revenue. More schools, more folks, and nobody gives a shit about a snook or a permit. They don’t care. But a golf course? It’s a given. Having spent a lifetime crusading for the South Florida watershed, I frankly think it seems like a hopeless cause. But I challenge the conservation community to prove me wrong.

The way I see it is you really have to support conservation groups if you want a chance at all. Either physically, getting out and working with them to clean the water up, or by giving them money and having them hire people to do it. Just get on something that you think can make a difference.

If you’re a guide and talk someone into catching something it’s an even greater thrill than fishing for yourself because you’re still fishing but you’re fishing through their eyes and trying to guide them into the thrill of a lifetime. That’s what guides do. How cool is that?

It’s a combination of weather and baitfish and angler skill and a whole bunch of different variables that connect, and you go f*#kin’ A! This is what it’s about. Every once in a while you fall into something that fabulous and you hope you’re with someone who appreciates it as much as you do.

The Everglades is still a great place in the world. I get up every day and go out there with the wind in my face. It’s a mysterious place, incredibly mysterious. I always feel like I’m close to the fish of a lifetime even though I haven’t caught one yet, in 56 years. I’ll catch one on the next cast though.

The very first fish I caught in my life was a snook. It weighed about two pounds. I was 10 years old. And I killed it immediately, brought it home. I didn’t know what it was. I just knew it had a stripe on the side. I put it in the refrigerator and my sister’s boyfriend told me it was a snook.

There’s something about the very first fish of significance that you catch. I’ve caught every kind of fish in the world practically, but snook will always be my favorite. They are sneaky. You can be in and around a lot of snook at the time, and they don’t give themselves away. Other fish tend to give themselves away. Tarpon break the surface when they roll. Bonefish stick their tails out of the water. Permit do as well. But snook just lay there, and they feel like they’re gonna stab you in the back if you move the wrong way. I’ll always come home to snook.

The west coast of Florida is suffering from algae blooms, from toxic water events, and it is in a great decline. The snook fishery is in a great decline from Tampa south. I believe it’s because of water quality sweeping down the coast.

The solution to Everglades restoration is clean water coming down from the core of the state, from Orlando south through the Kissimmee, Lake Okeechobee, and delivering clean water to the Gulf and the Shark River system and Florida Bay system. Clean water, viable water to support all sorts of life, with the emphasis on clean, because currently Lake Okeechobee water is notoriously contaminated. If you have high-quality water that’s producing food for the fish, as it enters the Gulf of Mexico it moves south through the Keys and if it’s high-quality water its capable of supporting life other than just the fish – meaning their food source, be it crabs, shrimp, baitfish, everything. Water quality and Everglades habitat considerations are one in the same.

There’s an organization called Captains for Clean Water. A bunch of fishing guides got together and decided they were gonna make an effort, and God bless ‘em, they’re making a big effort and I’ve gone to some of their events and they’re hugely supported. A whole bunch of folks show up. My hat is off to [TRCP partner] Captains for Clean Water. They’re a bunch of great guys and they’re doing the right thing as best they can.

Educating the public and trying to get someone to understand how special this system is and how it definitely influences life on this planet, and whether or not they’re going to be able to feed themselves or their children will be able to feed themselves in 40 years, is so important. We need to change behaviors to attain cleaner water going into the system in the first place. Educating the public that it’s not just water for the fish, but water for our own lives, so we don’t have toxic water. People are always complaining because dead fish are floating in these canals in Naples because nothing can live in the water. Would they like to see it clean? They don’t know what a gamefish is, but they certainly don’t want dead fish floating behind their house.

I think quite honestly the best you can possibly do with any degree of success at all is effective education of the public and the user groups about how valuable an asset the Everglades is. And make them aware, especially the people that are using it, and how not to abuse it when you’re actually there and how to appreciate what a magnificent thing it is.

You tell a kid something when he’s 10 years old and he won’t forget it for the rest of his life. If you can plant that seed, maybe there’s a future for some of these kids to actually see some neat stuff in nature other than a merry-go-round in Disney World. What are the numbers of kids that actually get to experience fresh air and feel something pulling on their line and see a flock of gorgeous birds?

People need to understand how to respect what they have and not take advantage of what they have. Maybe appeal to the youth that this place does exist and maybe not in my lifetime but in their lifetime they can make a difference.

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Click here to support Everglades habitat conservation efforts by insisting that lawmakers continue to provide funding for critical infrastructure work.

All photos, except of Huff with snook, courtesy of Captain David Mangum, co-director of “Huff – The Film”