After 50 years, Sarasota's Fish Whisperer Jonnie Walker hanging up his rod

After 50 years, Sarasota's Fish Whisperer Jonnie Walker hanging up his rod

Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune

12/7/2021

Credit: Mike Lang

He never caught A Fish Called Wanda, nor did he ever reel in The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh.

For Capt. Jonnie Walker, they might have been the only two.

Back in 1974, the man whom his daughter calls The Fish Whisperer worked for General Telephone (GTE). Walker’s parents were avid fishermen, and the couple’s only child first had a pole in his hands at age 5. But at the time, the Sarasota resident since 1957 didn’t have his own boat.

But a Longboat Key customer did. One day, the guy asked Walker to use it to take his wife fishing. He started doing it with groups of people, using boats he rented, but Walker did it for free. He did so until the woman he took out said he needed to charge for his services.

“She told her friends and so forth,” said Kellie, one of Walker’s two children. “That’s how it started,” Jonnie said.

It proved the birth of a Sarasota fishing legend

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