Pat Ford

© Pat Ford

Pat Ford has written about, fished and taken photographs at almost every body of water that has been available to him. For the past 35 years, the northern New Jersey native has juggled a full time legal practice in Miami and traveled the world fishing, taking photos and writing.© Pat Ford

© Pat FordHe has accomplished this by treating his recreational activities like his business. “You’ve just got to start out eight months in advance and block out time on the calendar and say, ‘I won’t be here.’ I give it a priority. It’s the way I handle the stress of my practice and recharge my batteries because my practice is kind of like the ocean, you eat what you kill. If I don’t win cases then I don’t make money.”

A 1965 graduate from the University of Notre Dame, Ford was admitted to the New York Bar in 1968 after graduating from law school at Columbia University. Later that year, he joined the Navy Judge Advocate General Corps., and was stationed in Pensacola, Fla. Ford’s “hobby” of being a professional writer and photographer took off when the Navy sent him to Key West.

“They were shocked that someone wanted to go to the end of the Earth,” Ford said. “But, I was in Heaven. The Navy was happy to send me.” It was then that Ford knew he would spend the rest of his life in South Florida. After his discharge in 1972, he moved to Miami and began his law practice, specializing in civil litigation.

© Pat FordAnd, it is also in the Navy that Ford first began to compile the material for his new book, The Best Fly Fishing Trips Money Can Buy. “In the Navy, you’ve got a lot of free time, so I wrote an article for SaltWater Sportsman [then other publications],” he said. “As I traveled to places like Guatemala and Costa Rica, I started writing stories and taking photos.” Over the past few years,

Ford says he was encouraged to compile his photos and stories into a book. “The problem was finding a publisher,” he said. “I sent it to [several] places and they were all interested but nobody ever called back.” Finally, Ford said, he had connections to Judith Schnell at Stackpole Books because he had shot the cover photo for Chico Fernandez’s book, Fly-Fishing for Bonefish. The publishers were concerned that his book was initially designed to be a routine coffee table book. They told him, “What we want is a how-to book for these types of fishing vacations.” Therefore, the book is written for “somebody in Omaha, Nebraska, to show him how to plan the trip to catch that ‘special fish,’” said Ford.© Pat Ford

Two years went into putting the book together. It hit bookstores in the summer of 2006 and includes 15 of his favorite excursions. The premise is that it captures the trips from the angle of how one could recreate the outings for themselves. “No one cares about what a great trip you had,” Ford said. “They want to know how they can have a great trip.” Ford has held more than a dozen International Game Fish Association Fly Rod World Records ranging from a 196-pound tiger shark caught in Florida Bay to a 14.5-pound tiger-fish caught in Zambia, Africa. He is an active member of the IGFA and his travels have taken him to destinations like Iliamna and Katmai, Alaska; the Amazon; Bermuda; Costa Rica and Guatemala; Bozeman, Mont.; Argentina and Bolivia; the Galapagos Islands; and Africa’s Lower Zambezi National Park. He has fished in saltwater and freshwater for bonefish, permit, tarpon, sailfish, salmon, tiger-fish and most every other species that will eat a fly.

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