Captain Key Largo is not a lone operator, and the Poppa Wahoo Collective is not a stranger down the road. They are the same family, fishing the same legacy, twenty miles apart.
It starts with Bob Epstein. For decades he was the Miami Herald's fishing editor, the man who chronicled the captains, seasons, and stories of South Florida fishing, and everyone called him Poppa. He raised his sons on Keys water, and both of them made it their life's work.
Brian runs Captain Key Largo: one captain, one bay boat, and the whole Upper Keys playbook from backcountry to reef, day or night. In Islamorada, the family runs the Poppa Wahoo Collective, a fleet founded in Bob's honor: two big Hatteras sportfishers for serious offshore days, a second bay boat, and a pontoon for sandbar and sunset cruises.
You cannot book the wrong Epstein. Tell either side what kind of day you want and you will end up on the right boat, whether that is Brian's skiff easing across a Florida Bay flat or a 55 foot Hatteras trolling the blue water for wahoo and mahi. Deep sea trips, overnight swordfish, and big-group days run out of Islamorada; backcountry, reef, night trips, and lobster runs live here in Key Largo.
The Poppa Wahoo Collective site has the full fleet, the trips and rates, and the story of Bob himself. If your crew is dreaming about blue water, start there and tell them Brian sent you.
They are the same family: Bob Epstein's sons. Brian guides Key Largo; the Poppa Wahoo Collective fleet runs out of Islamorada.
Backcountry, reef, night, and lobster trips: Brian in Key Largo. Deep sea, overnight swordfish, and big-boat comfort: the Islamorada fleet. Either phone number gets you pointed right.
Bob Epstein, the Miami Herald's longtime fishing editor and the reason both operations exist.
Two Hatteras sportfishers for offshore and overnight work, a Sea Hunt for nearshore and reef, and a Barletta tritoon for sandbar and sunset runs. Rates posted, same as here.