Morris Lewis is considered the main attraction to the Middle Keys for scores of offshore anglers, and for good reason. Lewis has fished as much as 200 days a year for the past 10 years out of the Key Colony Beach Marina. The salty 53-year-old put anglers at the top of the scoreboard in the Keys’ best tournaments. He’s also spawned a legacy of Lewis fishermen, as his sons successfully take over his business, a business built by the well-known name of his Main Attraction sport-fishing vessels.
“We’re aggressive and our clients expect us to catch fish,” Lewis recently said in a telephone interview from his Little Torch home. “My goal is to be the main attraction in the Keys. I strive to have the best catch in the Keys every day. I treat each charter like it’s a tournament whether or not it is.”

Lewis is one of those captains who just plain catch fish. Some get lucky and stay in business but Lewis can be considered a standard to how fishing really is on any given day. If there are not a few slammers on the dock in front of the Main Attraction 2 or a few release flags flying from its tower, then it probably wasn’t a good day for a lot of other boats either. One April day a few years back, Lewis’ anglers caught and released 19 sailfish in one day. Anyone who can fly double-digit release flags puts himself into another class of fishermen. Lewis has pulled that off perhaps 40 times. “Morris goes the extra mile,” said Bob Taute, of the charter boat Cutting Edge. “He’s always out there early to get the live bait, and he burns the extra fuel to make sure his people have a good day fishing.” To get an idea of what drives Lewis, you have to look back to his roots, back to Immokalee. Lewis was born in 1947 in the little farming town up Florida’s West Coast and started hunting like all the other boys did. Lewis learned how to find wild turkey, deer, upland birds and wild boar. He relished the hunt and attaining the goal of taking the wild animals. But as bulldozers plowed old Florida into the fastest-growing state, “posted” signs popped up like weeds. The farm boy felt confined and he started looking for greener pastures. About the time he was 10 his father died. At 14, Lewis started visiting the coast on his own. What he missed in hunting, he found on the water.
“On the water there were no fences, no signs,” said the soft-spoken fisherman. “I found what I was looking for.” He worked out of Naples and Marco Island, guiding part time for tarpon, redfish, trout and snook. All the while, he still lived in his hometown of Immokalee, working full time as a high school business teacher and basketball coach. But the water kept calling as the fields and woods once did. He’d take off summers and weekends and head to the 10,000 Islands, soak up the fishing and listen to tales of even better fishing grounds, like the Florida Keys. A Key West guide and friend, Jim Glass, told Lewis he’d find his promised land south. “He said I’d love the Keys,” Lewis said. “He wasn’t kidding.” Lewis moved his wife and two boys, Reece, now 28, and Marty, now 23, to Little Torch Key in 1980. He found an open slip along the Sadowski Causeway at the Key Colony Beach Marina and started running customers out to the reef and blue water in a 27-foot Seacraft. Later he stepped up to a big Ocean Yacht sportfisher and then settled into a 42-foot Morgan, which he runs to this day. His sons also run offshore boats. Reece pilots the private sportfisher Angelica, while Marty runs another 42-foot Morgan almost identical to his dad’s. Marty’s boat has the name Main Attraction while dad’s is the Main Attraction 2.

Teams work Morris Lewis said he’s going to step from the spotlight in a few years and retire. He’ll pass on the business and the limelight to his sons.
“It’s time for them to build their own names in the business,” said Lewis in his slow-speaking style. “I’m proud of them. They’ll do well.” Reece and Marty are confident fishermen. Marty recently guided anglers to first place in the Holiday Isle Bartender’s Sailfish Tournament out of Islamorada. The younger son has continued to keep one of his dad’s eyebrow-raising policies: No fish, no pay. Since they put it in place in 1997, the Main Attraction vessels have only had to refund money twice among hundreds of charters. “The key is knowing what type of fish to fish for under the right condition,” said Morris. “This is the only reason we can give this guarantee.” Despite his success, Morris Lewis is quick to credit others for helping him attain his goals and build the Main Attraction into a well-respected dynasty. Morris credits Reece for helping him make the transition to a big boat. Reece was running a big boat when Morris was still on a Seacraft. Morris also lauds one of the people who seem to never get the applause or the picture in the papers: his deckhands and mate. Jim Gagliardini of Marathon especially is put on a pedestal by Morris. The captain said he learned more from good mates than from anyone or anything. “This kind of fishing, especially in the tournaments, is a team effort. The angler, captain and mates are all on the same team for the day. On a big boat like the Main Attraction, you need to teach attitude, trust and confidence in that team,” said the former basketball coach. “You have to be a good teacher to be a good guide.”