Captain Gil Ranta

I started my fishing career when I was a very young boy fishing with my grandfather for trout in the lakes of New Hampshire. Back then I would sit on the bottom of the row boat and fish over the side. With each fish I would experience the wide eyed wonder of a fish coming over the side and landing in the bottom of the boat next to me.  At the end of a day of fishing we would take the fish home and my grandmother would help me clean them. 

As I look back, it was more her than me cleaning fish.  But, it was not many years and it was me cleaning the fish willingly. The lessons I learned that only took a caring hand to help me.  And always that night we would sit down to a fresh trout dinner. I can still hear the fish frying in the black iron frying pan and the smell of the fish cooking.

Then, when I was about ten, my uncle introduced me to deep-sea fishing and I have been hooked ever since. We would go out on party boats and I would sit on the stern, wrap my legs around the cleat so I would not fall off and reel in fish. I have had the fortune to have people in my life that helped me learn a skill that I love.  I have had the opportunity to explore fishing all over the world, from Central America to both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.  I have worked charter boats and commercially fished in the Northeast and have fished the Southeast coastline from Maryland to Florida. The one thing that has not changed over the years is my passion for fishing and the enjoyment I get when I help other people catch the fish of a lifetime. 

I wish you all to have the fishing adventures I have enjoyed and the many friends I have made fishing.  May the winds always be at your back.  “Catch’em Up”