“Mr. Z” Alumni Report…
Is there life after the “Mr. Z?”
Well, for Capt. Darrel Hale, you move on to Captaining your own 41 foot Egg Harbor and fishing off of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale.
Many of you that have fished with us for years and years remember Capt. Darrel Hale working the deck on the original “Mr. Z.” Yep, there was another mate working the pit before Capt. Steve took over, but you will have to go back more than a dozen years to find him! He’s the tall, skinny guy in all the early pics that you can find on the Key West Fish Tales Photo Gallery. There have actually been less than 5 deckhands in the entire 20 year history of the “Mr. Z” and in a business where boats change mates on a weekly basis, that is reallys saying something. So, is Darrel just resting on his Key West fishing laurels after moving to Miami? No way!
On a recent trip off-shore fishing the Gulf Stream between Ft. Lauderdale and Bimini, Darrel and Owner Gary managed to catch this 250 pound Blue Marlin, tagging it and more importantly (at least for us the reading public) got some pretty amazing photos. Can you imagine Capt. Darrel running around the deck, clearing rigger lines, guiding the angler, wiring the fish, and taking pictures with his cell phone? We like to think he learned it all from the back deck of the “Mr. Z” 
As we always say, “If you don’t have a picture, it didn’t happen!”
Pretty work Darrel!
