2024 Inductees

From an early age, Dee was bay and flats fishing guide and duck hunting guide.  Dee did his bay, flats and hunting guiding in between being a boat captain in the oil industry running between Trinidad and Venezuela.  That experience running bigger ocean-going boats lead Dee to jobs on bigger boats fishing up the east coast from the Great Lakes to Florida, crossing the Atlantic to Cape Verde and on into the Mediterranean.

Later he joined James Roberts in Normandy, France overseeing the building of the French Look for Jean Paul Richard, a wealthy world renowned French light tackle fisherman. Living in the countryside on the beach in Normandy in northern France This was the beginning of Dee’s cultural enlightenment.  The project took four years. As captain, he then took the French Look halfway around the world, including from France to Australia and down to Brazil and all in between.  This long journey included some epic international fishing experiences.

In 2002, he made the decision to move back to his hometown, Port Aransas, to become a boat broker, tournament director, weigh master & continue doing what he loves, fishing.  In 2015, Dee entered the Poco Bueno Fishing Tournament as Captain of the Hasta Luego and won first place.

Dee had been officiating for 5 years for the Bahama Billfish Championships in the late 90’s where VHS videos were used to identify catch and release species. With this knowledge and expertise, he was able to bring these skills back to Texas where he has been instrumental for the past 21 years with the Deepsea Roundup Fishing Tournament taking them from Polaroid shots to video recording for catch release identification.

Dee is out sport fishing whenever he is not either selling boats or serving an officiating role for tournaments such as the Dean Hawn Fishing Tournament and Houston Big Game Fishing Club’s Lonestar Shootout Billfish Tournament.  Dee is on the Board of Directors for the Texas Legends Billfish Tournament and has managed that tournament for the last 3 years.  Dee is a member of the Texas Saltwater Fishing Hall of Fame Nominating Committee. He is also on the board of the Port Aransas Ladies Powder Puff Tournament.

Dee also is an official in numerous local Port Aransas tournaments such as the Port Aransas Flounder Tournament, Port Aransas Red Snapper Tournament, Port Aransas Kingfish Tournament, King of the Rip Tournament, Texas Women Anglers Tournament, Outboard Bash and the Ladies Powder Puff Tournament.