HOLMES BEACH – Longtime Holmes Beach resident and well-respected fishing guide “Captain Scott” Moore spent an hour sharing tales of his 50 years on Anna Maria Island.
He spoke to approximately 70 people in the community room at the Island Branch Library in Holmes Beach on Thursday, Feb. 19, as part of the Friends of the Island Library lecture series.
After being introduced by Friends of the Island Library volunteer Nancy Deal, Moore set sail on a free-wheeling, stream of conscious-style lecture, working without script or a PowerPoint presentation.
Moore said when he was six months old his dad moved the family from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Florida because his dad couldn’t afford the taxes on their Cape Cod home. They eventually wound up in west Bradenton and that’s where he grew up – making many friends on Anna Maria Island along the way.
He said he was standing on the beach one day with his dad watching two fancy charter boats offshore and the men on the boats were whooping it up because they caught a large fish.
“I looked at my dad and said, ‘That’s what I want to do when I grow up.’ And I’ve been blessed to do that,” he said.
He went to Manatee High School but didn’t graduate. He spent time working in some of the Island’s notable restaurants, including Trader Jack’s in Bradenton Beach, the Sandbar in Anna Maria and Pattigeorge’s in Longboat Key. He said he was running the kitchen at Pattigeorge’s in the late 70s when told the owner he was going to get his captain’s license.
“There were no guides that fished the bay. They all fished the Gulf,” Moore said of the charter fishing business at that time.
He said fishing guides have to catch fish, but they also must entertain their clients – and that’s part of what makes a good fishing guide.
He said John F. Kennedy was once on his boat and that’s still among the highlights of his life. Even though he’s semi-retired, Moore still books more than a 100 tours a year.
“It’s a nice living, but it’s hard,” he said, noting his son, Justin, is a successful fishing guide.
He told a story about how he was sitting out on the City Pier one early morning drinking coffee and he saw a big tail come out of the water and all the sudden there was a 40-foot sperm whale splashing around near the back of his boat.
He said he left to go fishing ,and when he returned, some men had tied a rope around the whale’s tail so they could tow it out into deeper water. But, sadly, the next day the ailing whale returned and died.
He discussed the important role clams and oysters play in cleaning and improving the quality of our natural waters and he encouraged people not to use nitrogen-based fertilizers on their lawns.
He talked about how well Anna Maria Island recovered from the back-to-back hurricanes that struck in 2024 and said the three Island mayors did a good job dealing with a scenario they were never trained for.
He said he’d like to see a boat ramp at the old Annie’s/Seafood Shack property now owned by the county and he hopes the county someday buys Rattlesnake Key.
In closing, he expressed his gratitude to have lived on Anna Maria Island at such a special time in the Island’s history.
