Dan Clymer

Captain Dan Clymer, known on Florida's Nature Coast as the Legend, lived and fished Crystal River and Homosassa his entire life. A grouper wizard and one of the finest fishermen on the west coast, he was also a conservationist who led the Homosassa Guides Association, championed fisheries research, and took local kids fishing every year. Clymer passed away in 2022, but his teaching lives on. In his In The Spread video, he breaks down shallow-water gag grouper fishing on the Nature Coast.

Instructor's videos

On the Nature Coast of Florida, Dan Clymer was simply known as the Legend, and he earned every bit of that name. Captain Dan lived and fished the waters around Crystal River and Homosassa his entire life, and few people have ever understood a fishery the way he understood his. He passed away in early 2022, but his knowledge, his conservation work, and the thousands of memories he made on the water endure, including in the lessons he left behind at In The Spread.

Clymer was one of the very best fishermen on Florida's west coast, and a genuine wizard when it came to grouper. What set him apart was not just where the fish were, but why. He read atmospheric and tidal conditions instinctively and knew how each one moved fish, and he knew the shallow live bottom and rock piles of the Nature Coast intimately. Offshore he chased gag and red grouper. Inshore he put clients on trout, redfish, snook, and a long list of Citrus County species, all from a comfortable custom boat he designed and had built to handle both the flats and the offshore seas.

But Clymer was more than a great guide. He was a leader and a steward of the fishery he loved. He served as President of the Homosassa Guides Association, and when he and his fellow guides saw sheepshead numbers slipping, he led them to voluntarily cut their take to nearly half the legal limit, well before the state lowered the bag limit to match what the guides were seeing on the water. He supported the Florida Friendly Fishing Guide program and partnered with University of Florida scientists on fisheries research, even helping a graduate student study the range expansion of snook. In 2018 he was named a Nature Coast Champion.

He gave back to the next generation too. Every year, Clymer organized a free fishing day for the entire fifth grade at Homosassa Elementary, recruiting fellow guides and their boats so that dozens of kids, some of whom might never otherwise get the chance, could spend a day on the water. That was the measure of the man. He treated every angler like an old friend and was as generous with his knowledge as anyone in the business.

That generosity lives on in his In The Spread video, where Clymer breaks down shallow-water gag grouper fishing on the Nature Coast: bottom fishing with dead bait, working lures on the troll and the cast, chunking chum, and positioning the boat to drift baits into the rocks where the grouper hold. It is a chance to learn from a true Nature Coast legend, in his own words, on his own water. His knowledge, like his memory, endures.