Circle of Honor Inductions

Photo Dan Diaz

Matt Connolly

Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation

The positive impact of Matt Connolly’s 30-plus-year conservation career is felt by anglers and hunters across the United States every day.

Connolly began his career as the state ornithologist of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where he later served as assistant commissioner of natural resources, director of conservation services, director of coastal zone management, and director of fisheries and wildlife. Connolly went on to hold leadership positions at Ducks Unlimited (DU), serving as its first director of development and then as executive vice-president. At this time, Connolly also served as the first COO of Wetlands America Trust as well as chairman of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan Implementation Committee. Soon after, he was appointed to the newly created North American Wetlands Council by the Bush and Clinton administrations and elected by the council as its first chairman.

Following his retirement from DU in 1999, Connolly served as the first president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), a coalition dedicated to expanding fishing/hunting access, protecting habitat and advocating for increased conservation funding.

In 2005, he joined the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Board of Directors, where he went on to serve as board president for 10 years.

“Matt Connolly shaped the cause of conservation in our nation,” said BTT President and CEO Jim McDuffie. “His efforts positioned BTT to become an effective conservation organization in Florida and across the range of flats species in this hemisphere.” During Connolly’s tenure, the organization began applying research results to fisheries policy, and witnessed significant growth in membership, revenue, and visibility, the latter including his collaborative role in helping to bring the popular fishing show, Buccaneers & Bones, to television.

Connolly has also served on three corporate boards and on the board of the federal Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. He is the recipient of the Chevron/Times Mirror National Conservation Award and the U.S Forest Service Chief’s Conservation Leadership Award.

Sandy Moret

Lefty Kreh Award for Lifetime Achievement in Conservation

A native of Atlanta, Georgia, Sandy Moret moved in 1972 to South Florida, where he quickly became enamored with the pursuit of bonefish, tarpon, snook, redfish and later, permit on fly. Soon he was participating in tournaments, which gave him the opportunity to learn and share knowledge with many of saltwater fly-fishing’s most talented practitioners. Moret won the Keys’ most prestigious fly tournaments—the Gold Cup Tarpon Tournament and the Islamorada Invitational Bonefish Fly Championship—eight times.

Moret’s prowess on the flats led to his frequent appearances on outdoor television programs, including Walker’s Cay Chronicles, The Reel Guys, and Andy Mill’s Sportsman’s Adventures. In 1989, Moret invited some of his angling friends to join him in a new endeavor—The Florida Keys Fly Fishing School—to provide advanced instruction for flats anglers. Since opening in 1989, the school and its esteemed instructors have helped thousands of men and women to become better anglers. He went on to establish Florida Keys Outfitters in Islamorada in 1992.

Moret has been a passionate advocate for Everglades restoration and fishery and water conservation. He served as President of the Everglades Protection Association and as a member of the East Everglades/Everglades National Park Advisory Board at the appointment of Governor Bob Graham. A founding member of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, Moret reaffirmed his commitment to these causes beginning in 2016 as the convener of the Now or Neverglades coalition, which secured state authorization of a new southern reservoir to store, treat and send water south to Florida Bay. In 2018, Moret was named Fly Fisherman magazine’s Conservationist of the Year and presented with The Orvis Company Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the Now or Neverglades campaign.

Dr. Andy Danylchuk

Flats Stewardship Award

Dr. Andy Danylchuk is Professor of Fish Conservation at University of Massachusetts Amherst and also serves as Director of the Five College Coastal and Marine Sciences Program. He has authored or co-authored more than 45 scientific publications focusing on flats species.

Throughout his life, Dr. Danylchuk has been crusading to ensure that fish species survive for future generations, a passion that led him to pursue his doctoral degree. Soon after moving to Turks & Caicos in 2000, Dr. Danylchuk began conducting research on bonefish for BTT. Upon moving to Eleuthera in the Bahamas, he helped conceptualize, build, and run the Cape Eleuthera Institute. His work here included research on the catch-and-release of bonefish and the first study revealing that bonefish formed large pre-spawning aggregations and then moved offshore to spawn.

Named a BTT Research Fellow in 2014, Dr. Danylchuk has led several BTT-supported projects, including comprehensive studies on the movement patterns of tarpon in the southeastern United States and permit in the Florida Keys. Beyond his scientific work, Dr. Danylchuk has been a tireless advocate for fish conservation. He’s a member of the Science and Policy Committee for the American Fly Fishing Trade Association; member of the International Game Fish Association Scientific Advisory Panel; and board member for Indifly. Dr. Danylchuk has also received a distinguished teaching award at UMass Amherst and an award for Excellence in Public Outreach from the American Fisheries Society.

Chico Fernandez

Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1939, Chico Fernandez grew up fishing with his father. By age six, he was bottom-fishing for snapper and, during his teens, he began to fly-fish, often targeting snook and baby tarpon in the creek mouths near the city. Fernandez relocated to Miami in 1959, and pursued a degree at University of Miami. He soon fell in with other young anglers—including Flip Pallot, Norman Duncan, and John Emery—and began exploring the region’s fishing. He accepted a corporate job after graduation, but continued fishing and experimenting with fly tackle. In 1974 he left his day job to make a life centered around saltwater fly-fishing. Since that time, Fernandez has made his mark. His writing and photography have been featured in more than 700 articles, appearing in major outdoor publications in the U.S. and beyond.

His books—The FisHair Saltwater Tying Guide, Fly-Fishing for Bonefish and Fly-Fishing for Redfish—are essentials in any angling library. He has appeared on numerous TV fishing programs, and has produced five videos. The movie, Chico and the Kids, won the Outdoor Writers’ Association of America’s Award in 1980.

A founding member of Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, Fernandez has used his platform to advocate for flats conservation and BTT’s science-based programs.

He is also a charter member of the Federation of Fly Fishers Board of Governors, advisor to The Snook Foundation; and a representative of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA). He has set several IGFA world records, and was inducted into the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame in 2016. A much sought-after consultant for fishing brands, he continues to teach at the Florida Keys Fly Fishing School, as he has for more than 30 years.

Dr. Gordy Hill

Flats Stewardship Award

Gordy Hill first picked up a fly rod in the 1930s, when silk fly lines and gut leaders were the order of the day. His father and grandfather were both avid anglers and pioneers in saltwater fly fishing, plying the waters of Long Island Sound for striped bass and weakfish. Dr. Hill would follow in their footsteps.

After completing medical school with a specialty in orthopedic surgery, Dr. Hill moved to Big Pine Key, Florida and helped usher in the golden era of tarpon fishing. Dr. Hill was the first angler to explore the waters behind Big Pine Key, and has gone on to fish around the world, landing many species on the fly, including swordfish and marlin. He still holds the IGFA World Record for bonefish on 12-pound tippet (15 lb 4 oz), landed off Big Pine Key.

Over the decades, Dr. Hill witnessed firsthand the decline of the Keys tarpon fishery and the threats faced by the species. He has used his platform to advocate for improved water quality and to raise awareness of the issues impacting the fishery, including overharvest of Gulf and Atlantic menhaden and increased pollution in the Keys commensurate with population growth. He has also advocated for improved tarpon handling practices and keeping the fight time as short as possible to ensure a healthy release.

Dr. Hill is as renowned for his casting prowess as for his catching skills. An International Federation of Fly Fishers Master Certified casting instructor, he has mentored some 340 instructors in 17 countries through IFFF’s Master Study Group. In 2012, he received IFFF’s Lifetime Achievement in Fly Casting Award.

Though a fearsome figure to any sport fish he encountered, Dr. Hill has had an equally storied career in the medical theater. He was among the first surgeons to perform hip replacement surgeries; at one point, he had performed more than any other surgeon. Working with Dr. Roger Haugen, he helped to pioneer a novel process for processing a patient’s own blood for use in infusions. This accomplishment earned Dr. Hill a nomination for the Nobel Prize in Medicine.