History:
The following is an excerpt from
an interview with Boca Grande
fi shing legend Capt. John “Tater”
Spinks. He has been around; he
has seen a lot and is a huge part
of this community’s history.
Mary calls him “My salty dog, redneck
fi sherman.” It’s an affectionate nickname
that only a wife could get away
with calling a husband of 40 years. That fi sherman
is John Spinks, better known as “Captain
Tater.”
Colorful nicknames started young for John
when a couple of his older sisters started to call
him Tater. “I was very small, and it just stuck with
me. And then it just stayed with me,” laughed
Tater.
It all reads like a story from Mark Twain or
Charles Dickens; an earnest young man sets sail
on the Gulf of Mexico in search of adventure.
In this case, it’s not far from the truth. Tater
Spinks truly is a walking, talking Mark Twain
character who set sail on the Gulf of Mexico as
a teen ... except this Mark Twain character has
a delightful Panhandle accent with a dash of
Cajun thrown in for spice.
Born and raised in the Panama City area in
a small town on St. Andrew’s Bay, Tater started
working at the age of 11, cleaning fi sh and
working on the docks.
“I was like 10 or 11 years old and I cleaned
fi sh on the dock for the tourists,” he said. “I
worked for 75 cents or 50 cents an hour, and
64 GASPARILLA MAGAZINE • January/February • 2022
Tater fi shing a tournament aboard the Añejo.
that was lots of money back then to a kid my
age.”
By the time Tater reached the ripe old age
of 12 he could do what he was yearning to do
– work on a boat. This was about the time they
tore the old dock down.
“They tore down that old dock to build a big
marina and we had to go out to Panama City
Beach,” he said. “We ended up at Captain
Anderson’s Marina. We fi shed offshore, left at 2
a.m. and carried 40 people. We had two other
deckhands and a fi rst mate in the cabin, and
we’d fi sh that deep water. Caught lots of big
fi sh.”
Young Tater thought he had died and gone
to heaven. “I thought it was like being a buffalo
hunter or something,” Tater said, the excitement
of those days still in his eyes.
When Tater turned 16 he had already logged
more working hours than many retirees.
Tater went to work running charters and
trolling, as well as bottom fi shing and marlin
fi shing, for a man named Joe Knowles.
To say he loved what he was doing is an
understatement.
“It was a new type of fi shery going on and
very interesting,” he recalled, “and I wasn’t really
interested in school. I went sometimes, I didn’t
The Fishing World of
John “Tater” Spinks:
Salty Dog, Redneck Fisherman
By T. Michele Walker
Photos from the Boca Beacon
archives and submitted by the
Spinks family