TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.

Capt. David Mangum

Hometown: Santa Rosa Beach, Florida 
Occupation: Saltwater fly-fishing guide for Shallow Water Expeditions
Conservation credentials: Mangum is a YETI ambassador and outdoor photographer who utilizes his talents to produce media that inspire a spirit of conservation and educate saltwater anglers. He’s also been involved with the fish-tagging efforts of the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust and the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.

Born and raised in the Florida panhandle, Mangum has developed his expertise for finding and catching fish from decades on his home waters. He is widely known as a tarpon specialist (some might say addict) who lands a list of top clients the chance to battle the silver king as well as redfish and other quarry in shallow-water flats and coastal marshes. A passionate fly fisherman with an adventurous soul, he’s guided around North America, from Alaska to Colorado to the Bahamas, and has been featured in an episode of the Millhouse Podcast. Mangum also is an avid hunter, who’s relished many annual winter quail hunts in Arizona. Despite all this, his pursuits aren’t just limited to professional fishing, hobby hunting, and world-class photography. This renaissance (outdoors)man is also an accomplished oil painter whose works center on his saltwater lifestyle and other nature-focused subject matter. Mangum even boasts co-director credits for “Huff – The Film,” a short documentary about another legendary Florida guide and close friend.

Here is his story.

Like many others, I was introduced to the outdoors at a young age by my father, Col. Denny Mangum, United States Air Force. He taught me both upland bird hunting and fishing.

I remember the first time I saw tarpon was with him. I was young and we were fishing in Destin. He didn’t see the tarpon in the water, but several of them “rolled” at the same time and I swore to him I had seen some kind of sea serpent. That memory stuck with me for years until I was older and realized what I had seen. I have often wondered if that was the formative moment that would lead me down the path to becoming a guide, and more specifically, a guide who is known for tarpon.

If I could hunt or fish anywhere, I would return to southern Arizona to chase Mearns quail. I spent many a January with my first bird dog, Bella, in the high desert canyons of the Coronado National Forest.

Conservation is necessary for the places like this, where we hunt and fish. Without the conservation efforts of those before me, I believe our outdoor world would be in desperate shape. Anywhere you look (with a few exceptions), our natural world has taken a toll. Less fish, less animals, fewer places untouched by our human hand. It’s only because of the efforts of those without blinders on that we still have the remaining flora and fauna which we share the world with.

“Freshwater is the lifeblood of everything that lives in the salt. It all starts there.”

I believe the biggest conservation challenge along north Florida’s Gulf Coast is water. The diminished flows and instability of freshwater rivers, with either too much or not enough fresh water, is one of the most influential factors on coastal systems today. The balance has been thrown off. Freshwater is the lifeblood of everything that lives in the salt. It all starts there. Where salt and fresh meet, plankton and zooplankton thrive and start the food web. At the top of that web is one of the most important fish in the sea, the menhaden.

Gamefish, birds, and marine mammals depend on the menhaden as their primary food source. These small filter feeders are essential to ALL creatures in the sea. Without the menhaden everything we see in our coastal ecosystems falls apart.

The simple reason it’s important for me personally to be involved in conservation is that I feel morally obligated to take action when I see problem. We all should! Especially those of us who make a living using the outdoor resources.

“Without the menhaden everything we see in our coastal ecosystems falls apart.“

It’s obvious why conservation should matter to the next generation of hunters and anglers. We just need to ask future outdoorsmen and women this question: What will the world look like if conservation isn’t important to you? Just imagine the current place you live, but without the sounds of birds, of insects and frogs at night. Imagine no fish in the water and no deer in the woods. That’s a world none of us wants, and that’s why we should all be adamantly involved in conservation.

Banner image credit: Jay Riley