This issue celebrates three Gulf Coast storytellers, including Jimmy Buffett, an honorary founding board member of Mobile Baykeeper.
Jimmy was born in Pascagoula, grew up in Mobile, and, after having little to no luck in Nashville, went on to chart his own path artistically—forging his own genre of music in the process and spawning an entire cultural movement. He took the Gulf Coast vibe we all know and love and sent it into the stratosphere.
Buffett was an avid fisherman and conservationist—more so than many realize. He and Jimbo Meador, who appears on our cover, were old compadres—long before Jimmy became famous. Jimbo says Jimmy always wanted to fish in places no one else could get to and the two of them enjoyed angling for bonefish in the Keys and Bahamas over the years. Jimmy even name-checked Meador in the song “Mailbox Money,” where he sings about “gigging big fat flounder with Jimbo,” and declares that it’s one of the few pastimes that actually trumps the massive royalty checks he gets for his music.
“We started going on those stand-up paddle boards to get in really skinny water that the guides couldn’t go to,” Jimbo tells Sam Wilkes about his fishing adventures with Buffett. “Did that right up to when he died. He loved bonefishing. I fished with him a lot. We used my design with the Ultimate Native kayak first. Because we wanted to get in that really skinny water, or back in those creeks. But anyway, I sure miss him, he was a helluva good friend and you know he never did forget me. I knew him before he got famous. That’s what most people don’t realize, he was down to earth.”
Jimbo is, among other things, known for designing prototypes for fishing kayaks and paddle-boards, and those contributions loom large in the world of fly fishing, where he remains an icon.
Jimbo’s son-in-law Dale Marston tells us that his eldest son inherited as much as he could from his grandfather. But Dale knows his boy did not grow up with what Jimbo had, and the fact that we’ve seen such a precipitous decline in the health of our waters in the span of one generation is a hard truth to confront.
Rounding out our trio of raconteurs is Don Green. A Delta fishing guru, Don holds court in his Saraland tackle shop and spins tales of the old days, back when the fish hauls ran in the hundreds.
The shop is filled with flies Don makes and sells at or below cost. It’s his way of giving back and getting youngsters into the game, as well as a way to impart the infectious joy of fishing. Like Jimbo, Don possesses a lifetime of knowledge on the water that is crucial to learn from as we work to build a better future for our waters.
Nick Williams interviewed Don for this edition and Don has been a frequent guest on Nick’s podcast for Great Days Outdoors, “The Mobile-Tensaw Delta Fishing Report.” Don was a longtime columnist for Great Days and developed a cult-like following along the way. He is best known for his solunar “moon charts,” which he began making as a young boy, and which appeared in the back pages of the magazine for many years.
When we greet Don outside his shed, just a stone’s throw from Bayou Sara, he’s wearing a purple t-shirt that says “The Rodfather,” which encapsulates his humor and persona to the hilt. It was a meaningful shoot for our photographer Courtney Mason, as Don is her grandfather. She grew up with weekend fish fries and a lot of tall tales around the dinner table. Most importantly, Don taught her about respecting the earth and living in balance with nature, and how, if that rule is followed, everything else will take care of itself.
Jimmy, Jimbo, and Don are engrossing storytellers, and their stories are more than entertainment. They are records of a watershed that has changed irrevocably in their lifetimes. What we take from those stories is up to us.
—Editor’s note, CURRENTS (Fall 2026)
