Conservation Captain Q&A: Livingston Tate

Sweeting’s Cay, East Grand Bahama

Who taught you how to fish and how old were you?

My dad taught me how to fish, and I was like four or five years old. My father was a fisherman and he loved the water. We were always around the water and boats, so that’s really what I grew up doing.

What makes Grand Bahama’s waters special?

Grand Bahama is great because we have like 700 miles of flats here. We don’t have to be on the same flat every day; we might fish on a flat today for bonefish and then a completely different flat tomorrow. And ours aren’t just ordinary flats. We get the shrimp, the crabs, and the stuff the bonefish just love to feed off of. So, that’s what I think plays a big role in the success of our flats.

You experienced first-hand the destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian. How did that impact your life as an angler and as a Bahamian?

Well, the hurricane had a real impact in the Bahamas and really disrupted a lot of people’s lives. Not just me, but a lot of people in the Bahamas. At the end of the day, our whole futures depend on working and taking care of our families. Hurricane Dorian knocked everything out. Everything out. No work, we couldn’t get out there and do fishing. I’m a fishing guy—I love fishing—but I couldn’t do that. We didn’t have no guests, and tourism is the most important industry in the Bahamas. We had no power, no water, no anything…. Hurricane Dorian knocked everything out. Everything… our homes… everything gone. That shook us, and I believe it shook the world. It was horrible.

How did you come to be involved with BTT’s Mangrove Restoration Project? Why is this project important to you and to the Bahamas?

I got to meet a gentleman by the name of Justin Lewis (BTT Bahamas Initiative Manager), and he called me to let me know that BTT had started to plan a replanting with other partners. He explained it to me and he asked me if I wanted to help. And of course I said yes, because mangroves play such an important role in the fishing industry here. With all of those mangroves destroyed, we had a lot of problems in our country. So if we could find a way to start planting those back, that could play a big important role not just for me, but for the generations to come. I was more than happy to get on board. So, the other captains and I, we got everything together to take the mangroves on the boats and then to the flats, and I told him about the tides and everything, and how we needed to get there at certain times like high tide versus low tide. And that’s how we started. It will have a big, big impact on the Bahamas. It’s a great thing. If you look at the mangroves and how they were destroyed by the hurricane, your heart will shake, and you’ll realize how important it is.

Tell us about some of your other work with BTT. How did you contribute to the BTT tag-recapture research to identify the home ranges of bonefish?

I worked on that with BTT for a few years, and for the bonefish research we went around from flat to flat to check them out. At certain times, the bonefish get into these big groups, like right now, and those big groups are spawning. They’re mating. They assemble a pod and go flat to flat. They’re moving fish—you could see some here today, and by tomorrow they’ve gone a couple of miles away, sometimes as much as 20! So, working with them, it taught me a lot. It taught me about how bonefish work, how they move, what they feed off of, and how they work in mangroves. I learned a lot.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to an aspiring angler?

As an angler and a captain, what I always tell a first-time angler is to be patient. Just be patient. I will walk you through, you know, don’t worry about it. There will be mistakes, but don’t worry. We will work on it together like a team, and I’ll be your coach. We’ll take our time, and I’ll show you how to do it right. One thing a lot of anglers think the first time is that they’ll just get it, but then they get frustrated because they can’t do it just the way you showed them. But the one thing I always tell them is not to worry and to be patient. Eventually they get the line maybe ten [feet], fifteen, and then twenty and thirty in one cast, and then, woah—forty feet easily! And when they get the right feel, or even a fish, they start hollering like a child again and start getting excited. So, me, I love to be patient with my anglers because I feel it’s the right thing to do and that’s the right approach. Don’t get frustrated. The bonefish are there, but you cannot put them on your fly. Everything will fall into place, you know?

What makes for the best day on the flats?

Ah, my favorite kinds of days with my guests is when I know that we enjoyed ourselves, we communicated, and we maybe cracked a joke or two. That we got to know each other, you know? We sit down and maybe have lunch and have a real conversation. That communication is key. And with that communication, at the end of the day you see smiles—he was happy, she was happy, and that makes me happy! As long as it’s not a spring tide!

What’s your go-to bonefish fly?

My go-to bonefish fly is a simple fly. It’s a Gotcha. The reason why I love gotcha flies is because—and you might wonder why—I’ve been fishing on the south side and caught bonefish. I’ve been on the north side with the same fly and caught bonefish. It’s a really, really good fly for both areas. You can fish all around our island, and with a Gotcha fly you can do it!