Captain Clay Shidler

CFSA continues our education on the Gulf of Mexico fishery with Captain Clay Shidler from Hang'em High Sport fishing in Crystal River, Fl.

Cpt. Clay Shidler
I have lived on the water in Crystal River Florida my entire life and have worked very hard to be one of the top producing captains in our area. I especially love to target shallow water species including trout, redfish, snook, tripletail, and cobia. However, between October 1st and December 31st my passion is for one of the tastiest fish in the Gulf of Mexico, the gag grouper. We have one of the best fisheries in the state and I would be happy to introduce you to our area. If you love to fish, want some exciting action inshore, offshore, or in shallow water, then I have the knowledge, ability and equipment to get you and your family on the bite.

I began charter fishing in 2011 right after I graduated high school, and my first three years were part time while I was going to college. Fishing has always been a major passion of mine and I really enjoy getting the opportunity to take people out to see the environment and the ecosystem that I get to enjoy on a daily basis. In 2015 my brother joined me to start guiding as well and he was the first guy that came on board with Hang’Em High Sport Fishing, followed soon after by Hunter Bozeman. Now we have seven guys and 11 boats, and our charters range from shallow water trips in the marsh, catching fish and shooting ducks in the wintertime to fishing 150 miles offshore and guiding in the keys as well in the summertime chasing everything from mahi to daytime swordfish. I was blessed to have grown up under some of the best mentors and guides that anybody could ever ask for in my position, guys like Dan Clymer, Jimmy Long, William Toney all phenomenal captains that gave me advice along the way and showed me the right way to become both a good fisherman and a good businessman and that’s definitely something that I give a lot of the credit to those guys. They helped me out a lot and taught me a lot about the right way to do things. After 13 years of guiding my favorite part of my job nowadays outside of just taking people fishing is watching my guys grow and become better and every season; getting a little bit better at what we do and learning how to become better guides. I have definitely been very blessed to get to take people fishing for a living and enjoy time in nature every day and that’s something that I don’t think that I could’ve gotten from any other career path. I couldn’t be happier that I get to do this. Our Fleet consists of (3) 42’ Freeman Center consoles, (1) 37’ Freeman, (2) Young Boats Gulfshore Bay Boats, (1) Young Boats 27’ offshore center console, (3) Texas style tunnel hull skiffs, these boats are all purpose built allowing us to do so many different things from the backcountry to way offshore. We aim to have an operation that encompasses all of the different fisheries available to us so that our clients can constantly do different kinds of trips based on the different seasons.

6:30 - Member discussions

7:00 - Program start

Monthly raffle - great prizes included trolling rod/reel combo

Tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20

Bring a guest and get a free raffle ticket!