Flip Pallot (1942-2025)

August 28, 2025

News broke late yesterday afternoon that Flip Pallott passed on Tuesday after complications of surgery.

Flip Pallot was a master angler, hunter, outdoorsman, and conservationist and it is hard to overestimate both his impact on generations of outdoor enthusiasts and the gravity of his loss. He was, in the words of Hells Boat Company, which he founded years ago, our North Star.

It is difficult to memorialize a man I never met, but yet idolized still the same. But I’m a historian and that’s what we do. And since many of you come to me from beyond the outdoors world, perhaps it should be me that tells you of him. Because Flip Pallot was a man you would want to know and be proud that you did.

Flip was born in south Florida, between the waters of Biscayne Bay, the Everglades, and the Florida Keys. It was here that his love of fishing emerged and from here that he would pass it on to so many of us. He graduated from the University of Miami before serving as a linguist for the Army in the 60s. After his honorable discharge he worked as a banker for a time before realizing his calling was on the water. We talk about following your path on this substack—Flip did.

After working as a guide for years he eventually transitioned to the host of Walkers Cay Chronicles, which ran for 16 years. But perhaps his greatest legacy—aside from his marriage to his wife Diane and their family—is the countless numbers of people he inspired to hunt and fish in the outdoors and to do so as ethical stewards of the land and water. He mentored so many other generational greats in our world, including Jose Wejebe (taken from us too soon in 2012), Rob Fordyce, and others.

Seeing his posts pop up on Instagram was always a delight. And while I never met him, we exchanged messages a few times and I remember fondly as he got on my account one night and liked a bunch of my posts. I think a lot about the performative nature of social media and if something I say might disappoint one of my heroes. Heather Richardson is one. Annette Gordon-Reed is another. But in this world, it was always Flip.

If you’re into podcasts, and would like to know Flip better, check out this one he did with Mill House, in my opinion the finest fishing pod in the world. I’ll watch it again this weekend.

Here’s the link for you listeners. It is a fascinating story of his life and that of Florida itself.

I’ll miss this man I never met. I know so many of us will. And I hope that if this post finds its way in front of someone who knew and loved him, that that person knows we loved him, too.

See you on the water in the next life, Flip. Tight lines.

Jason