Mike Conner is pushing the 50-year-old mark, and has been fishing since age 5, when his family moved to Miami, Florida. That’s 44 years of Florida fishing that has taken him from backyard freshwater canals to the Everglades to heralded Keys and Biscayne Bay bonefish flats to blue water and back. When Mike was a pre-teen, his parents, teachers and friends all joked that he had gills hidden under his collar, and that his obsession with fishing would lead him nowhere, a warning that he chuckles at to this day.
Throughout his life, Mike has divided his time between fly fishing and casting artificials with plug and spin gear, mostly over shallow coastal flats and backcountry rivers and creeks. Bonefish, redfish, tarpon and snook are among his favorite targets, and Mike spent 8 years as a pro flats guide, poling anglers on the flats of Biscayne Bay and Everglades National Park.
Sight fishing is his specialty, and while guiding, he also tied saltwater flies commercially. In all, he has tied flies for over 28 years, and ties regularly now for pleasure. Mike went back to college full-time at age 34 to study English at Florida International University in Miami. Meanwhile, he sold feature articles to Florida Sportsman and other magazines, eventually penning Florida Sportsman’s “On the Fly” column starting in 1997. Sportsman hired Mike on as associate editor later that year, and he served as managing editor shortly thereafter.
Mike is editor of Shallow Water Angler magazine, now in its third year. His home water is the Indian River on Florida’s Treasure Coast. When not fishing, he enjoys gardening, exercising, biking, reading and cooking. Mike has served as a chapter officer for Coastal Conservation Association since 1983.
Mike has married to wife Patricia for 28 years and has two grown daughters.
