Bob Epstein, the Original Poppa The name on your boat

Bob Epstein spent decades writing about the water you'll fish for the Miami Herald: the captains, the seasons, and the fish of the Florida Keys, all while raising two boys on its docks.

He moved the family down to Islamorada in 1977 and never left, and for the next forty-eight years he made a living doing the two things he could not stop doing anyway: fishing, and writing it down. He was the Miami Herald's fishing editor for the Keys. He wrote a column for Outdoor Florida for twenty-five years. His byline turned up in Saltwater Sportsman, Florida Sportsman, Marlin, an Italian fishing magazine, and a stack of international titles that ran him weekly. Before any of that he shot for the Free Press and for Conde Nast.

Eleven books, and two you can still buy

He published eleven in all, from Africa on a Pin and a Prayer, about wildlife and tribal life a long way from this water, to 43 Bridges to the Florida Keys. Two are still in print and still on Amazon, and both are about the water you'll fish with his sons:

A History of Fishing in the Florida Keys: Angler's Paradise, written with Barbara, traces the fishery from the Calusa and the Tequesta through the guides and the tournaments that built the Keys reputation. Fishing in the Florida Keys, in Arcadia's Images of America series, is the photographic one, thirty habitable islands and forty-three bridges of it.

He fished and photographed with President George H. W. Bush more than once, and with Ted Williams. His line about the work was that reality is stranger than fiction, so you had better take pictures to go with the words. He died on January 14, 2025, at eighty.

His sons did the only thing that made sense: they built a charter operation worthy of his name. Today you can book Islamorada fishing charters on four of their boats, with captains mentored by names like Stu Apte, Flip Pallot, and Lefty Kreh. David is a retired United States Air Force veteran rated 100 percent disabled, so the fleet is veteran owned in the literal sense, family run, and serious about one thing above all: sending you home with a story Poppa would have written up.

As covered by Keys Weekly: "Islamorada brothers honor late father with charter fishing business"

The name on the water

The 55 foot Hatteras carries the name, the 53 carries the sequel, and every trip you take is built on what Bob loved: putting people on fish and telling the story after.