BY SUSAN COCKING
scocking@MiamiHerald.com
For nearly 50 years, Jim Hardie got paid to do what he loved most: go fishing.
When ill health in recent years kept him off the water, the retired Miami Herald outdoors writer still kept in touch with local captains, reported on their catches and ran the popular World Cup -- a one-day, worldwide blue marlin tournament.
Hardie was found dead in his Miami home Monday, apparently of natural causes, according to Miami-Dade police. He was 75.
James John Hardie III grew up on a farm in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he developed a lifelong love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors. While a student at University of North Carolina, he wrote freelance outdoors articles, and later was hired as sports editor of The Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News.
He became the fishing writer for The Miami News in 1961, and moved over to the rival Miami Herald seven years later, where he stayed full-time until his retirement in 1988. Until his death, Hardie continued to write the Fishing Forecast that appears Thursdays on the Herald's outdoors page. He also helped with the newspaper's fishing tournament coverage and freelanced for magazines and other newspapers.
As an outdoors writer during the 1960s and '70s, Hardie met and reported on numerous fishing pioneers whose innovations still impact the sport today. Among them: Tommy Gifford, who pioneered the fishing kite and fighting chair; Bob Lewis, who expanded and popularized fishing kites; Bill Hatch, who developed outriggers with clothes-pin releases; and Mike Lerner, founder of the International Game Fish Association.
Hardie wasn't afraid to take on the former Game and Freshwater Fish Commission or the Marine Fisheries Commission about rules and decisions with which he disagreed. He supported fishing bag limits in Everglades National Park, boosted the experimental fish hatchery at the University of Miami, and reported on the plight of deer that were drowning from high water in the Everglades.
In 1984, he won the Metropolitan South Florida Fishing Tournament's most prestigious award -- the Henry Hyman trophy for contributions to South Florida sportfishing. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Big Game Room Hall of Fame at the Miami International Boat Show.
By his own account, Hardie's best memories involved fishing -- a 690-pound giant bluefin tuna caught at Canada's Prince Edward Island in 1970 and three blue marlin caught in a single afternoon in Key West. He and Coral Gables mayor Bob Knight and photographer Joe Rimkus Sr. once caught 47 snook on bucktails in the Shark River near Flamingo.
Hardie's friends remember him for his easygoing manner, chronic lateness and freakish animal encounters.
Al Pflueger told of the time more than 30 years ago that Hardie attended a circus -- Pflueger couldn't remember where -- and had trouble finding a parking spot for his Volkswagen.
''He finally parked outside a tent, but it turned out he had parked where they tied up the elephants,'' Pflueger said. ``The elephants got so mad at his Volkswagen, they stomped it flat as a pancake.''
Fortunately, Hardie was not in the car.
Once at Flamingo, Hardie fished with Miami oral surgeon Lloyd Wruble and the late Florida City mayor Herman Lucerne, who kept insisting that red drum would feed on snakes.
''He didn't believe us; he was giving us [guff] about it,'' Wruble said.
``Then we caught a redfish and took it to the cleaning stand, and I opened up the belly and it had a 24-inch water moccasin in it.''
Flamingo was also the scene of a near-disaster at sea: Hardie and Rimkus Sr. were trying out an experimental boat when it capsized in a storm. They floated in the water for nearly an hour before being rescued.
Veteran Miami flats guide Bill Curtis, 81, claims credit for Hardie's first bonefish and tarpon caught on fly rod in Biscayne Bay.
''We used to have so many bonefish in Biscayne Bay -- that was 30 years ago,'' Curtis said. ``He used to come over to my house on Key Biscayne, and I taught him how to tie flies. Jim and I have always been real good friends.''
Hardie is survived by daughters Amy Neu of St. Louis, Mo., Lisa Joyner of Linden, Tenn., 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
Miami Herald staff writer Evan S. Benn contributed to this report.
scocking@MiamiHerald.com
For nearly 50 years, Jim Hardie got paid to do what he loved most: go fishing.
When ill health in recent years kept him off the water, the retired Miami Herald outdoors writer still kept in touch with local captains, reported on their catches and ran the popular World Cup -- a one-day, worldwide blue marlin tournament.
Hardie was found dead in his Miami home Monday, apparently of natural causes, according to Miami-Dade police. He was 75.
James John Hardie III grew up on a farm in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he developed a lifelong love of hunting, fishing and the outdoors. While a student at University of North Carolina, he wrote freelance outdoors articles, and later was hired as sports editor of The Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News.
He became the fishing writer for The Miami News in 1961, and moved over to the rival Miami Herald seven years later, where he stayed full-time until his retirement in 1988. Until his death, Hardie continued to write the Fishing Forecast that appears Thursdays on the Herald's outdoors page. He also helped with the newspaper's fishing tournament coverage and freelanced for magazines and other newspapers.
As an outdoors writer during the 1960s and '70s, Hardie met and reported on numerous fishing pioneers whose innovations still impact the sport today. Among them: Tommy Gifford, who pioneered the fishing kite and fighting chair; Bob Lewis, who expanded and popularized fishing kites; Bill Hatch, who developed outriggers with clothes-pin releases; and Mike Lerner, founder of the International Game Fish Association.
Hardie wasn't afraid to take on the former Game and Freshwater Fish Commission or the Marine Fisheries Commission about rules and decisions with which he disagreed. He supported fishing bag limits in Everglades National Park, boosted the experimental fish hatchery at the University of Miami, and reported on the plight of deer that were drowning from high water in the Everglades.
In 1984, he won the Metropolitan South Florida Fishing Tournament's most prestigious award -- the Henry Hyman trophy for contributions to South Florida sportfishing. Earlier this year, he was inducted into the Big Game Room Hall of Fame at the Miami International Boat Show.
By his own account, Hardie's best memories involved fishing -- a 690-pound giant bluefin tuna caught at Canada's Prince Edward Island in 1970 and three blue marlin caught in a single afternoon in Key West. He and Coral Gables mayor Bob Knight and photographer Joe Rimkus Sr. once caught 47 snook on bucktails in the Shark River near Flamingo.
Hardie's friends remember him for his easygoing manner, chronic lateness and freakish animal encounters.
Al Pflueger told of the time more than 30 years ago that Hardie attended a circus -- Pflueger couldn't remember where -- and had trouble finding a parking spot for his Volkswagen.
''He finally parked outside a tent, but it turned out he had parked where they tied up the elephants,'' Pflueger said. ``The elephants got so mad at his Volkswagen, they stomped it flat as a pancake.''
Fortunately, Hardie was not in the car.
Once at Flamingo, Hardie fished with Miami oral surgeon Lloyd Wruble and the late Florida City mayor Herman Lucerne, who kept insisting that red drum would feed on snakes.
''He didn't believe us; he was giving us [guff] about it,'' Wruble said.
``Then we caught a redfish and took it to the cleaning stand, and I opened up the belly and it had a 24-inch water moccasin in it.''
Flamingo was also the scene of a near-disaster at sea: Hardie and Rimkus Sr. were trying out an experimental boat when it capsized in a storm. They floated in the water for nearly an hour before being rescued.
Veteran Miami flats guide Bill Curtis, 81, claims credit for Hardie's first bonefish and tarpon caught on fly rod in Biscayne Bay.
''We used to have so many bonefish in Biscayne Bay -- that was 30 years ago,'' Curtis said. ``He used to come over to my house on Key Biscayne, and I taught him how to tie flies. Jim and I have always been real good friends.''
Hardie is survived by daughters Amy Neu of St. Louis, Mo., Lisa Joyner of Linden, Tenn., 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
Miami Herald staff writer Evan S. Benn contributed to this report.