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In action on the flats, Chris
Robinson guides anglers to tarpon, bonefish,
permit, barracuda and the occasional shark.
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An angler since childhood,
Robinson is in his element in the Keys.
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Fishing guide Chris Robinson
(left) and his angler display a permit caught
in Keys waters.
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Robinson's two sons share
his passion for fishing. Shown here are Skyler
Robinson (left) and his big brother Cory
Robinson during a productive day on the water.
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A young Key West bartender
in the 1970s and early '80s, Robinson met
writers, actors and musicians fleeing the “real
world” -- including poet Jim Harrison
and then-struggling singer/songwriter Jimmy
Buffett.
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By Carol Shaughnessy,
Florida Keys News Bureau
Before Chris Robinson became a Lower Keys fishing
guide, he co-owned the All-Breeds Hot Dog Pound,
tended bar for some 20 years at Key West’s
landmark Chart Room and Louie’s Backyard, and
shared adventures with Jimmy Buffett and “gonzo
journalist” Hunter Thompson.
In fact, when Robinson arrived in Key West in 1972,
the 24-year-old from St. Augustine, Fla., found himself
in a renegade seaport town. Politicos ran the government
largely from the Chart Room Bar, hobbyist pot smugglers
were admired as romantic outlaws, and local treasure
hunters drank rum with Pulitzer Prize–winning
escapees from the literary mainstream.
“I got a job at the Chart Room Bar, and Key
West was run out of the Chart Room in those days,” said
Robinson, whose regular customers included the local
sheriff, state’s attorney, mayor and fire chief. “I
was in the heart of everything.”
Tall and spare, with long hair and a luxuriant moustache,
Robinson displays a storyteller’s wit, easygoing
attitude and lively enjoyment of the absurd — valuable
personality traits for both a bartender and a flats
fishing guide.
During his early Key West years, they also served
him well in an offbeat venture begun with buddy Tommy
Hicks. “We opened the world-famous All-Breeds
Hot Dog Pound on Greene Street,” said Robinson
with a characteristic twinkle in his eyes. “Our
motto was We Relish Your Buns.”
The business didn’t last long, but old-time
Key Westers still wax nostalgic about the “pound’s” juicy
hot dogs nestled in soft Cuban rolls.
At that time, Key West’s ramshackle charm and
end-of-the-road atmosphere made it a magnet for writers,
actors and musicians fleeing the “real world.” Among
them were novelist and poet Jim Harrison, “Ninety-two
in the Shade” author Tom McGuane and struggling
singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, who later memorialized
the Key West lifestyle in song and earned enduring
fame.
“He was not a star then — he was just
like you and me,” said Robinson. “He used
to sit with his little guitar and amp and play in the
Chart Room.”
The two became fast friends when Buffett moved into
the apartment above Robinson’s in an old house
on the Atlantic Ocean, next to a bar and restaurant
named Louie’s Backyard.
"As he got more popular, people would be knocking
on the door with a six-pack of beer in their hands
wanting to play music with him,” said Robinson. “Most
of the time they hit my door because it was on the
front.”
When Buffett departed, he loaned his apartment to
writer Hunter Thompson, widely credited with establishing
the gonzo journalism movement. “Hunter was bizarre,” said
Robinson. His tales of the writer include a midnight
boating mishap when Thompson inexplicably fell out
his craft while trying to dock it — leaving it
circling on its own, crashing into nearby boats and
running amok in a local marina.
By 1986, Robinson was tending bar at the Afterdeck
at Louie’s Backyard, an open-air cocktail deck
on the edge of the Atlantic, whose clientele combined
local fishermen, upscale tourists and visiting celebrities.
It was a position he would hold for 18 years.
Yet while he enjoyed the Keys’ partying pursuits,
Robinson also was drawn to life on the water. An angler
since his childhood, he bought a boat shortly after
arriving in Key West and learned flats fishing tips
from author Tom McGuane. Eventually he got his captain’s
license and began guiding. For years, he chartered
part-time while working at Louie’s.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to make a job
out of something that was a sanity break, that I really
loved,” Robinson explained. “If I made
it a job, would it be as enjoyable and fun?”
In 2004, he decided to take the chance. He retired
from Louie’s Backyard and began chartering full
time on his 18-foot Action Craft, fishing the flats
for tarpon, bonefish, permit, barracuda and the occasional
shark. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Robinson
enjoys guiding novice anglers as much as he does seasoned
pros.
“I don’t freak out if they blow a cast
because they’ve never done it before,” he
said. “When you’ve been a bartender for
years, dealing with drunk people, you can be patient
with one or two people on your boat.”
He particularly enjoys watching repeat clients develop
their skills — like Chicago-area youngster Lauren
Thornhill, who grew from a little girl catching baitfish
to a teenager who landed three tarpon in one day. “She
went from Chum Queen to Permit Princess to Shark Slayer
to Tarpon Goddess,” said Robinson, proudly.
Poling through the shallows, he also shares his love
of the diverse and vibrant Keys environment with his
clients — pointing out sea turtles, spotted eagle
rays, stingrays and manatees. “I tell people
it’s an eco-tour with a chance to catch a fish,” said
Robinson.
Just as his father taught him to fish, he handed
down his passion for the sport to his two sons. Grown
son Cory now works as a mate, while preteen Skyler
has already won local tournaments.
It might be a long road from the bartending high
life to the natural realm of the flats, but Chris Robinson
has traveled it with grace — and few regrets.
Some years back, while guiding a Chicago office worker
on a February fishing escape, he realized just how
lucky he was. “It was about 80 degrees, the water
had three different colors and the sky was that big,
high-pressure clear deep blue,” said Robinson, “and
he looks at me and he goes, ‘Nice office’.” |