BTT to Honor Tony James and Captain Will Benson

Above: Tony James releases a permit in the Florida Keys. Photo: Will Benson

BY MONTE BURKE

The first time Hamilton “Tony” James, the executive vice chairman of the Blackstone Group, met Will Benson, the well-regarded flats guide, was on a dock in Key West. T James was embarking on a mothership trip in the Marquesas. Benson was put in charge of getting him to that mothership.

Benson left the mothership to pick up James that afternoon and endured an apocalyptic lightning/wind/rainstorm while crossing the open ocean to Key West. “I was pretty shaken up by the time I reached the dock,” says Benson. James hopped on the boat and, just like that, the skies completely cleared and the wind went still. “When we got to the Marquesas, the tide was perfect, and there were fish everywhere, I mean everywhere,” says James. “I turned around and started to get my rod and then saw that Will had a funny look on his face.”

Benson was under strict orders to get James to the mothership right away, with no stops in between. “I had to deliver the asset,” he says.

And, thus, the duo missed out on what promised to be an epic tide.

James and Benson, who now fish together three times a year, still laugh about their first meeting a dozen years ago. It was the “day that got away.” But there have been plenty of days since that didn’t.

At this year’s Bonefish & Tarpon Trust New York City Dinner, Tony James will receive the Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation, which is given to “an individual who has demonstrated an enduring commitment to the conservation of bonefish, tarpon and permit.” And Will Benson will receive the Flats Stewardship Award, given to an individual “who has demonstrated a commitment to the effective management, sustainable use and conservation of the flats fishery.”

It is a happy coincidence—and entirely fitting—that James and Benson are being honored together. They are both staunch conservationists and excellent anglers. And they have found that mysterious guide/client alchemy on the water that can happen when two aligned souls are prepared, persistent and passionate when it comes to a shared pursuit.

James was born in Michigan, but raised in a small town outside of Boston. “There wasn’t much to do were I lived, so I got into fishing,” says James. He started with a spinning rod. When he was around the age of ten, he went to a Christmas fair at his local church and laid eyes for the first time on a fly rod. ”It was a bamboo rod with the tip broken off,” says James. “The guy wanted 25 cents. I negotiated him down to 10 cents and bought it and fixed it up.”It was the first of what would be many business deals conducted during his life.

He then went to his library and checked out a book about fly tying and began to tie and sell his creations at a local hardware store. “By that time, I was all in,” he says.

Trout and bass were his first targets. Bigger rods and bigger fish—striped bass—came next. Eventually, he found his way to the southern salt. His first trip, in his early 30s, was a doit-yourself jaunt to South Caicos Island for bonefish. Soon afterward, he would discover tarpon and then permit. “I could never get enough and I loved expanding my horizons,” he says. While he still fishes for bonefish and tarpon, permit have become his main focus.

Along the way, of course, James was putting together an impressive business resume. He worked at Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette before becoming the president and COO of the Blackstone Group. But he always managed to fit in flats fishing with his demanding work. “The only way I coped with my business life was fly-fishing,” he says. “Out on the flats, you can’t think about anything else if you’re zoned in on the fish. For me it’s all absorbing.” James says the anticipation of upcoming trips often got him through some difficult days at work. “Whenever I had to put up with crap at the office, I’d console myself with the thought that I would be on the flats sometime in the near future.” He says he does bring a phone on the boat, but only in case of emergency. “I think talking business on a flats boat brings some bad juju,” he says.

Along the way, too, James became deeply involved—as a board member and financial backer—in many conservation organizations like the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and, of course, BTT, which he has supported for many years. He tends to keep a low profile, in both his business and philanthropic lives, but has made an exception for the BTT award. “I care passionately about the environment, both as someone who worries about the world and as a sportsman,” he says. “Passing on a love of fishing to my son and three-year-old grandson, allowing them to have the same incredible experiences that I’ve had, is the best gift I can give them.”

Captain Will Benson

Photo: Ian Wilson

Benson, born and raised in the Keys, has been guiding since he was 19. He says that when he started his career, conservation wasn’t at the top of his mind. “I was just trying to catch as many fish as I could.” But that changed in 2005 with the dredging of the Key West Harbor, which devastated the sea life in the harbor and beyond. “I saw the impact that it had on the fishing and something sparked in me that said, ‘whoa, wait a second,’” he says.

Benson says he was spurred into acting on that awakening by the late Dr. John Ain, a permit fanatic who was on the board of BTT. Ain visited him one day and persuaded him to get more involved with the Lower Keys Guide Association and in lobbying and organizing effort on behalf of conservation.

Benson says he was a little reluctant at first. “I had been making fly-fishing movies at the time, and had gotten some weird pushback,” he says. “Some people didn’t seem to like that I was doing that.” But he decided to ignore the noise and get involved again, anyway. He dove in, and became the association’s representative on the advisory council of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary at the age of 32. There, he was put in charge of a new project, called the Blue Star Fishing Guides program, which recognizes guides who practice sustainable and responsible practices. “This was the federal government [through the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration] acknowledging the important role that fishing guides play in conservation,” says Benson. “It was pretty cool.” In 2018, Benson won the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary volunteer of the year award for all of his critical work.

Much bigger things could come from this type of program, Benson says. His goal is to “elevate the profession” of guiding so that guides are trained—and seen—as independent business professionals in the ecotourism and the hospitality industries. Benson is also a BTT Conservation Captain. “As a guide, it’s so important to be allied with an organization that produces science, economic reports, that arms us with data about the three species we rely on,” he says. “We owe a ton to their efforts.”

And when it comes to his favorite species to target, Benson says he will fish for “whatever I read in the leaves in the morning.” But permit are the species he’s become known for. And that led him, of course, to James.

The duo has had some fantastic days on the water together. They’ve had a grand slam. They’ve boated five tarpon in one morning. “But we’ve also had some horrible days, with weather and rain and wind,” says James. “One of the things I admire about Willie is how he conducts himself on those bad days. Everyone feels good on the good days. But on the bad days, it’s incumbent on the guide to stay positive, to keep giving it everything they’ve got. Willie does this. And it makes it all still really fun.”

Benson says that James is the most focused person he’s ever met and that he “always comes to the boat with a lot of difficult questions. When I go fishing with Tony, it’s never your average day of permit fishing. I have to rise to the occasion.”

One afternoon this past season, James and Benson were on a flat, and permit were swimming everywhere. “Tony was having one of those days that everyone has sometimes,” says Benson. “He was missing a little left and a little right on the fish. It just wasn’t happening.”

Benson offered advice and continued to pole and scout. At one point, his pushpole slipped from his hands...and hit James on the head. “You could hear the smack on his skull. I was like, ‘oh shit.’” James took it in stride. He looked up at Benson and said, “I’m screwing up that bad, huh?’”

On James’ very nextshot, he made a perfect cast, stripped once and hooked and landed a permit. As Benson released that fish, he spied another one tailing. “Tony, right there!” he called. James backhanded a cast, stripped twice and hooked and landed another permit. Says Benson: “Ever since then, I’ve told people that if you really want Tony James to produce, all you have to do is hit him on the head.”

Monte Burke is the New York Times bestselling author of Saban, 4th And Goal and Sowbelly. His new book, Lords of the Fly: Madness, Obsession, and the Hunt for the World-Record Tarpon, is available now. He is a contributing editor at Forbes and Garden & Gun.