2008 Inductees

Will L. Ohmstede acquired a deep passion for fishing at an early age and has spent his life pursuing that passion while working to conserve healthy coastal resources for the next generation of anglers.  Born in Beaumont, Will grew up fishing Galveston Bay, the Bolivar jetties and nearby surf with his dad and brothers.  Many of his earliest fishing trips on his father’s 17’ wooden Helton boat with a 22 hp Johnson motor were filled with memorable catches of fish.  Will attributes his fishing skills and deep appreciation and respect for coastal resources directly to his father’s guidance and teaching.  For more than 40 years, Will has fished the inshore and offshore waters of the entire Gulf Coast.  From pursuing blue marling to tripletail, he has embraced all aspects of coastal fishing.  As an owner of the “Adelante”, a Hatteras with Capt. Billy Evans at the helm, Will spent countless hours trolling the offshore waters of the Gulf and was successful in numerous billfish tournaments.  In the last two decades, Will has been a key leader with the Coastal Conservation Association on both a state and national level.  He served 10 years as vice chairman of CCA National and 6 years as the chairman of CCA Texas.  Under his guidance, CCA Texas achieved record fundraising and membership growth exceeding 50,000 members throughout the state.  He was an early board member and key supporter of Texas Sport PAC and is the founding member and chairman of the development committee of the Center for Coastal Conservation.  After years of fishing, Will’s greatest joy continues to be his ability to share his love of sportfishing with his family and friends and to introduce many others to this great sport.  Unquestionably, his greatest fishing achievement is that he has become the fastest human to go from the cockpit to the bridge when a fish strikes, so someone else has to do all the reeling!

Capt. Lloyd A. Dreyer was born in 1924 in Aransas Pass and was brought to Port Aransas by boat a few days later.  He has been a lifelong resident of Port Aransas and began his fishing career running charters at the age of 14.  Captain’s licenses were not required back then.  In the 1950’s his charter boat was a local built Farley boat named “Three Sons” and carried 13 gallons of gasoline.  To run to Hospital Rock they used an extra 30 gallon tank and found the rock with a lead line.  He served on the committee of the Deep Sea Round Up Fishing Tournament for 18 years.  In the early 80’s he won that tournament with two blue marlin, one that weighed 560 lbs.  In his own words, “In 1941, I saw my first sailfish.  We were on our way in; it was late in the evening and Elmer Sowers hooked it on a drone spoon while trolling for kingfish.  It wasn’t landed but gave us a bunch of jumps before he lost it.  Back then, we trolled with cane poles tied to the cabin and gear shifts for outriggers.  Not much had changed after the War—the old saying is, time will take care of everything… We progressed to Aluminum outriggers with all the trimmings; boats with 12-gallon gas tanks became large boats with diesels, which let them fish farther offshore.  Our tournaments here started a long time ago.  I was just a boy.  My brothers and I fished many of them over the years.  During the 50s, I fished up and down the Florida coast and the Bahamas.  In the year 1957, we placed 5^th in the Cat Cay tuna tournament.  In 1958 we placed 3^rd, and in 1959 we won it.  We fished 5 days and had a total weight of 8 fish that weighed 3,330 pounds.  We fished each year through 1964, but the fish had played out and the boss sold the boat.  In the following years, I fished Florida, Cozumel, and Cabo San Lucas.  In 1984, after returning from Cozumel, I went into guiding bay fishing and have been doing that until early last year when my kidneys failed.  I still bay fish with my friends and my sons.  My dialysis has cut my fishing days down a lot, but I am happy.  Eula Mae, my wife of 65 years keeps me on the straight and narrow, that’s me”.