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91 THE BEGINNING
I
was in my office in Fort Lauderdale when I received a call from the owner of Intrepid Boats, John Michele. Deona and I were publishing a monthly boating and fishing magazine named the Southern Star, a very successful publication. But John was calling for our other company, Diamond Advertising, a special full service advertising and marketing agency that specialized in the marine trade. He had a customer named John Jones, a contractor from Georgia, who was having him build a 30’ Intrepid rigged for king fishing. John informed me that he was doing some innovative features to the boat and he wanted to get both aerial shots and d feature featu e shots for his next brochure.. It was at the plant where I first met John and after spending the morning looking at the boat we went to lunch and of course the topic of conversation turned to fishing, my blue water tournament experience and his kingfish exploits. Frankly, I only knew kings as fish who would take my baits while work12
ing a tide line looking for sailfish. But, fishermen are fishermen and we had a lot in common. Later, back at the plant, John invited Deona and myself to join him in Jacksonville and fish with him in the Greater Jacksonville KMT. I felt it was in my best interest to oblige him, thinking that John’s boat might draw some significant business for Intrepid. July came and we found ourselves racing north in search of baitfish. We had never seen so many boats in an event. We finally somewheree up the beach stopped somewhe h Top of page: Our top prize for the Angler of the Year which was won by Clayton Kirby and the Mercury service trailer. Center: Our registration booth at Donnie Griffin’s Sun Fun Tournament. Bottom: Joe Bruce ran a 31’ Fountain in ’91 and was sponsored by Intertrim, a marine metal fabricator.
www.FishSKA.com
ANGLER | February 2010