Capt. Mark Wright
If there’s a paradise reserved for fisherman Captain Pat Murphy certainly resides there today!
Pat passed away suddenly on Saturday, April 22 2017 at the age of 53; only a few months after losing his wife Bobbie.
In his wake Pat left many siblings, children and grandchildren. Pat’s first grandchild, Zariyah became his favorite fishing partner and they fished often during her summer visits!
Before Pat took the plunge into the professional fishing arena he mastered the art of snook fishing the central Florida inlets, deep-water mangrove areas and residential canals. He also became well known for targeting and catching tripletail, cobia and tarpon in and around Port Canaveral.
Early in his guiding career Capt. Pat still targeted these areas and these fish. However, he eventually became addicted to sight fishing the shallow waters around Titusville. Pat often fished with Capt. Bryan and me as we scouted the waters for redfish, seatrout and black drum.
Skinny water angling became Pat’s focus and the Murphy family moved from Orlando to Titusville. Over the course of time he gave up his bay boat and the fisheries it included.
Rather quickly in his career of shallow water fishing Pat became enamored with fly fishing and fly tying. For him the only thing better than catching a tailing redfish or black drum was catching one on a fly he personally tied.
Many professional guides in our locale shunned Capt. Pat at first. Being a man of “color” in a profession comprised of nearly all white males tended to make Pat “standout in a crowd”. Of course his uniqueness was best displayed by his painted toenails!
Painted toenails of all things is what I think gained Pat’s acceptance into our local fishing community. Painted toenails gave us all a comical look at an individual who was destined to excel as a professional fishing guide. Painted toenails let the world know that Pat’s view on fishing and life was to not take things too seriously. Life was to be enjoyed!
Indeed one of the very few things he deemed serious was business and I’m proud to say Pat and I both took our website Mosquito Lagoon Guides seriously. So did the guides we featured on the site.
Another passion of Pat’s was cooking. Backyard BBQs were frequent. Ribs were a favorite of the Murphy household with home grown greens, tomatoes and a host of other vegetables raised by Pat’s green thumbs. However, his most famous dish by far is his Classic Cajun Seafood Gumbo.
Team Mosquito Lagoon Guides had great showings at the AFC Gumbo Wars events and narrowly missed top honors. Alas, Team Mosquito Lagoon Guides will not be competing this year.
I’ll miss you greatly my friend and wish for you fair winds and tight lines in Fisherman’s Paradise!
With respect,
Capt. Mark Wright