Outdoors

Father, son keep their past afloat

The Updegraffs, like a lot of families, forged their strongest connections, memories in the outdoors.

By TERRY TOMALIN
Published September 8, 2006

FORT DESOTO - Another day on the grass flats and the redfish weren't biting. But that didn't bother the Updegraff boys because it gave them a chance talk.

"We don't get many chances to fish together anymore," Dr. Stephen Updegraff said as he patted his father, Ambrose, on the back. "It is just great getting out here on the water."

An avid angler and bow hunter, the 44-year-old ophthalmologist from St. Petersburg owes a great deal to the man fishing beside him: his education, his career and, of course, his love for the outdoors.

"I guess you could say he set the stage," he explained.

Seventy-eight-year-old Ambrose Updegraff is also an eye doctor. As a boy, Stephen often accompanied his father on his rounds. Soon the boy expressed an interest in following in his footsteps, but his father told him to keep an open mind, good advice for everyone, especially fishermen.

The elder Updegraff wasn't born in Florida, but you would never guess listening to his stories about turkey hunting in the woods near Chiefland. Ambrose hails from Iowa, where he was once the AAU flatwater canoe champ.

"He used to try to impress my mom by walking on the gunnels of the canoe," Stephen said of the peculiar talent that passed from father to son.

Ambrose also liked whitewater rivers. He was one of the first to "shoot" North Carolina's Nantahala falls in a canoe, but living in Florida, he had to find another outlet for his paddlemania.

"As long as I can remember he had this old Mohawk canoe that he rigged with a sail," Stephen recalled. "He once entered it in a regatta that the St. Petersburg Yacht Club was sponsoring, and they told him to go home."

Because he grew up in the Midwest, Ambrose didn't know much about saltwater fishing. But like many transplants, he was determined to learn. After a few ill-fated trips in his wooden canoe, Ambrose bought a 16-foot 7-inch Boston Whaler he nicknamed "Mobie."

He and his son started off by targeting silver trout. One morning in 1975, the Updegraffs caught more than 100 fish, which earned them a mention in the St. Petersburg Times fishing report.

"Dad was used to setting the hook hard," Stephen said. "We knew that this was true when he reeled in his hook and it had an upper jaw with a tooth impaled on it."

Ambrose had always taught his son to keep an open mind, especially when it comes to fishing.

"Dad said it was important to know what you don't know and that part of the fun is learning," he said. "We knew we needed help. Enter Irish Brady."

The legendary fishing guide took the Updegraffs under his wing. That spring, Brady took the family tarpon fishing off "The Pink Cake," the hotel we now know as the Don Cesar Resort.

"That is the day I saw my first double hook-up," Stephen said. "My legs were shaking I was so excited. I was hooked."

That summer, the boy became a fisherman, learning to navigate, catch bait and find tarpon on his own. It took a couple of months, but the youngster eventually caught a fish on his own.

"I was so proud that I took the fish to my father's office," Stephen said. "He came out in his white coat and admired our accomplishment."

In the years that followed, the father and son hunted and fished all over the country. Once, when Stephen was as a teenager working as a camp counselor in North Carolina, the two took off and explored all the rivers in North Carolina and Tennessee "worth a paddle."

Looking back, Stephen said he will never forget the lessons he learned from his father in the woods and on the water ...

Like the time they were duck hunting on Withlacoochee River. It was 20 degrees and the wind was howling at 25 knots. But Stephen had left his long johns at camp.

"I was shaking and blue," he said. "But he gave me his warm coat and gloves, hugged me and held me close. He told me to always overdress in the woods - you can take it off - but you can die if you are not prepared."

That was when young Stephen realized that besides being cold and uncomfortable, his mistake had put his "best buddy" at risk.

Be patient. Be prepared. Keep an open mind. And eventually the redfish will start biting.

As the reel screamed and the red ran for deeper water, Stephen lifted the rod tip and turned the fish.

Then he handed the fishing rod to his father and said, "Here, Dad, this one's for you."

[Last modified September 8, 2006, 01:20:32]