Between her father and her mother, Krissy Wejebe says, she was destined to have a heart for kids. Kids and dolphins, as well as a passion for the Florida Keys, fishing, and conservation. When she was growing up, her mom, Lynne, was the medical director at the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon, Florida, and later, a social worker in Maine.
And her father? In the saltwater fishing world, few stars shone as brightly as Jose Wejebe, the man at the helm of a boat, a television show, and a cultural phenomenon called Spanish Fly. Born in Havana in 1958, Wejebe arrived in South Florida when he was eighteen months old as part of the Cuban diaspora that fled the rise of Fidel Castro. As a teenager, he worked as a tropical fish collector and dolphin trainer at the Miami Seaquarium, then as a fishing guide, befriending the likes of pioneering anglers such as Stu Apte, Flip Pallot, Steve Huff, and Lefty Kreh. It was Pallot who encouraged him to move into television, and the ESPN2 hit Spanish Fly launched in 1995. It made the curly-locked and loquacious Cuban a sensation. The show ran for seventeen years, until fourteen years ago last month, when Wejebe died while piloting a small single-engine airplane that crashed near Everglades City, Florida.
This year will mark several watershed moments for his legacy, many shepherded by the twenty-eight-year-old Krissy. A few weeks ago, Jose was inducted into the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Circle of Honor as its Curt Gowdy Memorial Media Award honoree. In August, he will take his place posthumously in the International Game Fish Association Fishing Hall of Fame. And in June, a new television show that honors his lasting influence, Spanish Fly: Next Generation, is slated to debut on Field & Stream TV.
All that energy is helping to supercharge the Jose Wejebe Memorial Foundation, which Krissy runs out of the Florida Keys. The foundation provides ocean education and experiences to people with life-impacting challenges, including foster children and foster families, people with life-threatening illnesses, and veterans. Customized Florida Keys experiences can include not only fishing trips with local captains but also ecotours and visits with scientists and volunteers working on coral reef restoration projects, at Marathon’s Dolphin Research Center, and on sea turtle rescue and rehabilitation. Since its founding, some five hundred people have been involved in such experiences.
“After Jose passed, a small group of us wanted to do something for someone so important and meaningful to our lives,” explains David Pfeiffer, who recently retired after nearly thirty years as president of Shimano North America Fishing. “One thing Jose loved was helping people with challenges in their lives find ways to enjoy fishing. We thought we could raise a little money in Jose’s honor and help with that. We had no idea that it could grow into the organization it is today.”
Pfeiffer credits Krissy for broadening the foundation’s impact and deepening its ties to the Florida Keys community. “The outreach to foster kids really reflects her passions and her view of what her dad would have appreciated,” he says. “Krissy grew up with this organization, and it’s wonderful to see how it’s taken on her vision now.”
Funding for the foundation comes from events rooted in Jose Wejebe’s passions: the Spanish Fly Music Festival in February; Fish for Jose, an intimate weekend that includes a gala dinner at Square Grouper (his favorite restaurant), an auction, and a dinner party in Jose’s—and Krissy’s—backyard; and the headlining Spanish Fly Shark Tournament in April, a catch-and-release tournament inspired by Jose’s own made-for-television Madfin Shark Tournament.
“My dad was all about something different,” Krissy says. “If it had been done before, he would look for a way to make it more challenging and more educational. He was a little edgy. He loved adrenaline. I wanted to do something that traced back to my father, and the impact of sharks on sport fishing is a hot topic these days.”
Her commitment to carrying her dad’s legacy into the future will take a big step forward with Spanish Fly: Next Generation, which will include best-of content from the original show along with fresh footage featuring Krissy, executive producer James Marko, and a rotating roster of Florida guides and locals.
“When my dad died, it was an extremely lonely feeling,” Krissy says. “I wondered who was going to remember him and who was going to care for what he loved and stood for. Now, it’s been fourteen years since I’ve been able to hug him, and he’s winning more huge awards than he did when he was alive. It’s never been clearer that his impact and his legacy on this industry are not going anywhere.”
T. Edward Nickens is a contributing editor for Garden & Gun and cohost of The Wild South podcast. He’s also an editor at large for Field & Stream and a contributing editor for Ducks Unlimited. He splits time between Raleigh and Morehead City, North Carolina, with one wife, two dogs, a part-time cat, eleven fly rods, three canoes, two powerboats, and an indeterminate number of duck and goose decoys. Follow @enickens on Instagram.
