LIVING HISTORY
56
TREASURE COAST BOATING
WHITICAR FAMILY PHOTOS
The Whiticar Fleet was one of the largest charter fishing businesses north of the Palm Beaches.
1,000 pounds of fish. Eager to test the waters, he began
handline commercial fishing the ocean reefs. It was too good
to be true. Amazed, he quickly loaded the box with Spanish
mackerel and bluefish.
“My father had two spreader lines — they were like little
outriggers — and they had a line attached to each one of
those,” Curt recalled. “And then he had a straight line. He’d
get into the fish out there, which were plentiful at that time,
and they would start hauling. They shortened up the lines, so
they were only maybe 15 feet behind the boat. As long as the
lure was in the water, the fish would grab them, and they just
kept busy.”
The fishing was so successful that Captain Add paid off
the Phantom by the next month. He and his family began to
spend winters in Stuart, where he continued handline fishing
and then migrated to Fortescue, N.J. in the summers, where
he charter fished. To Curt and his younger brothers, Jack and
Johnson, boating and fishing was a way of life. Their wardrobe
mainly consisted of four or five bathing suits each, and
they ran around barefooted, just like Florida natives.
THE YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR
Determined, talented and ambitious, young Curt was never
one to shy away from hard work. He was always looking for
creative ways to make money.
Early on, he delivered newspapers and worked as a mate
on his father’s boat. At 10 years old, he made a little workshop
inside his family’s garage and taught himself how to
build wooden fishing rods that he sold to his dad’s fishing
clients. When he was 11, he decided to take a stab at painting
signs on commercial boats and discovered that he was good >>
An experienced boat captain and fisherman, Curt enjoyed spending leisure
time on the water, too.