Executive Committee

The faces of The Snook Foundation

Brett Fitzgerald, Vice President, Regional Director South East FL

Brett Fitzgerald, Chairman

Brett has served as Regional Director (SouthEast) for three years and is also a contributing editor to Florida Sportsman Magazine. He is an special instructor at Pine Jog Elementary in Palm Beach County which promotes an academic curriculum through environmentalism and resource conservation. Brett served in the United States Army in both Intelligence and as a Paratrooper with Special Forces Operations. He attended University of South Florida and holds a Bachelor's and a Masters degree in Communications Sciences and Disorders. He is an expert guitar player, fly tyer, photographer and fisherman. Brett was chosen as Snook Foundation's 2009 Person on the Year, for his accomplishments on behalf of inshore fishing, and in that year he also completed the book, Sportsman's Best: Snook.

Mike Readling, Atlantic Vice-Chair

Mike Readling,  Vice-Chair

Mike Readling was born in Jupiter, FL and grew up fishing the Loxahatchee River and Jupiter Inlet for any saltwater species he could get on the end of his line. When his family moved to Oviedo, FL during middle school, he switched his focus to freshwater fishing. His love for fishing carried through his college years at the University of Alabama and the University of South Florida, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish, in between catching redfish and trout on the flats around Tampa Bay. Mike was a sports writer for 15 years for some of Florida’s largest newspapers; Tampa Tribune, Miami Herald and St. Petersburg Times, before he moved on to become the assistant editor at Florida Fishing Weekly, which brought him back to Jupiter. Currently, Mike is the Director of Resource Development for Habitat for Humanity of Martin County and a part-time charter fishing guide based out of Stuart, FL. In his spare time, he freelances for the Stuart News and the rest of the Scripps Newspaper network and squeezes some fishing in whenever possible.

Maria Quasius, Secretary

Maria Quasius, Secretary

Maria Quasius has been catching snook in Southwest Florida for almost 30 years. Originally from Boston that she fled to escape the cold, after raising a family of five and a decade as a golf pro, she joined the staff of Everglades Angler in Naples and began fishing in earnest. A skilled flytier and accomplished fly caster, she has earned several trophies in local tournaments. She served as an officer in the local chapter of the Coastal Conservation Association and on the board of the Naples Fishing Club and Back Country Flyfishers, where she also managed to catch her husband, Capt. Pete Quasius. They moved to Fort Myers and Maria then worked at the Orvis outfitters shop at the Hyatt resort on Estero Bay and later at Lee Island Outfitters near Sanibel.

Over the years Maria helped introduce and outfit countless thousands to snook fishing. She is also a past president and member of the board of Audubon of Southwest Florida and member of the board of Eco-Voice, Inc., an environmental website. A superb Italian cook, she watches for action on the Caloosahatchee from her kitchen windows and has been known to turn off the stove and head to the seawall with her fly rod when a snook (or school of jacks) are working the shoreline. The reason she is smiling in this photo is because after finally catching a salmon in Wisconsin she could head back to sunny Florida.

Capt. Jim Bandy, Treasurer

Capt. Jim Bandy, Treasurer

Capt Jim Bandy is Territory Manager for Port Supply in Southwest Florida and has been professionally involved in marketing Marine Supplies since 1996. He is a graduate of Indiana University in Finance and Personnel Management, and holds a USCG 100 Ton Master License with Towing. He began serving on the Snook Foundation board in 2009, employing his talents and experience in non-profit organization, community outreach and volunteer coordination to assure the future of inshore fishing.

Capt Jim Bandy is Territory Manager for Port Supply in Southwest Florida and has been professionally involved in marketing Marine Supplies since 1996. He is a graduate of Indiana University in Finance and Personnel Management, and holds a USCG 100 Ton Master License with Towing. He began serving on the Snook Foundation board in 2009, employing his talents and experience in non-profit organization, community outreach and volunteer coordination to assure the future of inshore fishing.

Rick Roberts, Executive Director

Rick Roberts, Executive Director

Rick Roberts is an angler and an optimist, whose life theme has been conservation. Rick grew up fishing in the Florida of the late 1950's. He studied at Melbourne High School, Polk Community College and FSU between bass, surf, trout and snook fishing trips. A Viet Nam Vet, he credits his memories of Florida and the joy of fishing for sustaining his sanity during two tours in that conflict. He believes that while the world continues to change, dedicated individuals who take action can keep alive the joy that God intended for us all to have in nature. Rick is gratified to lend a hand in fostering opportunities for many to preserve a natural heritage for the future. His view is that sport fishing does not adversely affect fish populations as long as well informed anglers exercise conservation.