by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
Attorney Randy Crabtree likes kingfishing.
But for him, it’s not about the size of the mackerel he catches. It’s not about the competition. It’s about the getaway.
“I do it because I like being with friends and laughing and joking around,” said Crabtree, “and trying to have a good time to get away from the serious side of what we have to deal with.”
Crabtree is a real estate attorney at Crabtree and Faller. When he’s not handling real estate development work or closing transactions, he can be found on his boat, the Vamoose, with his friends from the Southern Kingfish Association.
“It’s an adrenaline rush,” he said. “There’s nothing else like it and I just really enjoy the company of all the friends I’ve made so far.”
The SKA was formed about 11 years ago, Crabtree said, and it was established to serve as a sanctioning body to set up unified rules for fishing tournaments so everyone would be on the same page.
Divisional tournaments are held in different areas and there are currently 12 divisions. In SKA’s professional tour, anglers fish select tournaments all over the U.S., typically five or six of them set up from North Carolina to Texas. The tournaments culminate with the national championship at the year’s end.
Seven or eight years ago, Crabtree qualified for the professional division.
Qualification is based on earning your way to the national championship by fishing very high in your division, said Crabtree, who has been fishing in the professional division since he first qualified.
About five years ago, Crabtree became General Counsel of SKA and would do things like draft contacts for sponsors and defend lawsuits. Also while General Counsel, Crabtree was instrumental in developing and co-hosting a TV series called, “Fishing the Trail.”
Though he has fished since he was a child, Crabtree, 51, says his love for kingfishing didn’t come about until his late teens. At his parent’s lake house in Welaka, a small town in Putnam County near the St. Johns River, Crabtree would go fishing with his father and his father’s friends. While Crabtree was in law school at the University of Florida, his father became interested in offshore fishing and so Crabtree would make trips back to Welaka on the weekends to go fish with his father. That’s when the love for kingfishing began.
After he graduated from law school in 1983, he worked at several law firms until 1994. In 1995, Crabtree and partnered with Scott Fallar.
Crabtree and Fallar is a real estate firm that closes approximately 200 transactions a month, both commercial and residential. Fallar handles the litigation side of the firm.
“We represent homeowner associations throughout Northeast Florida as well as builders, developers and banks,” said Crabtree.
The staff currently is made up of 18 people. There is a title company upstairs called Fortress Title that does real estate closings. The office was previously located on Baymeadows Road by I–95 until moving to its current location on San Jose Boulevard in 1999.
Crabtree says it’s fishing that helps him balance a stressful work week.
“You go from being totally serious here to where you can joke and kid around there,” Crabtree said, adding that SKA is his form of therapy.
One aspect of the sport that Crabtree really enjoys is the good-natured competition as well as camaraderie it provides among anglers.
“It’s almost like no other sport in that one minute, you can be shaking a guy’s hand and you love him to death, he’s the greatest person in the world and the next minute, all you want to do it beat him and catch a big fish and shake it in his face and say ‘look what I did,’” Crabtree said.
Crabtree also likes the fact that SKA is very family-oriented.
“My son has fished with me and so has my daughter, my brother and my dad, too.”
One of the Crabtree’s well-known boats was called the Litigator, a 40-foot Egg Harbor boat that his father passed on to him before his death. The name was a sort of double entendre for his father, referring to his profession as a lawyer and well as his affection for the Florida Gators.
Crabtree sold the boat a few years ago when he got a new model one. His current boat is called Vamoose and he receives a new one every year from his sponsors.
Though fishing with SKA is his favorite pastime, he enjoys other outdoor activities like hunting and golfing.
“Fishing is hours and hours of boredom and silence broken up by seconds of pure pandemonium,” Crabtree said.
“You can fish all day long for that one strike then all of a sudden, when that fish hits that you’ve been waiting for all day long, it’s panic.”
Currently,Crabtree’s team is ranked 11th in the SKA. His goal is to move up to number one.
“I look at that ranking list everyday. Although it’s tiring it kind of renews my energy to come back in here and do what I do five days a week.”