I recently joined Rob on the Fly Fishing Consultant Podcast to talk about my new novel, Poontown, and the journey from practicing law in New York City to chasing tarpon in the Florida Keys.
We covered everything from tournament fishing and the changing Keys to urban fly fishing, flats boat gear, and why hooking your first tarpon can change your life.
We also discussed the real-world experiences that inspired Poontown, a story of five teams competing over five days in the fictional Sabalo Cup Invitational.
Thanks to Rob for a great conversation❗
Lawyer by trade and angler at heart, Mark Weeks joins the show to share his journey from a Western upbringing to practicing law in New York City, and ultimately becoming a tournament-winning tarpon bum and novelist in the Florida Keys. Rob and Mark dive into his latest book, Poontown—a story following five teams over five days during the Sabalo Cup Invitational in the Tequesta Isles.
Rob and Mark further discuss how the Keys have evolved over the decades, urban fly fishing in New York, essential flats boat gear choices like fishing gloves and socks, and how jumping your first tarpon completely alters your life trajectory. Rob would like for Mark to recorded a second podcast and discuss fly fishing in Japan.
🔗▶️ Click here to listen to the full episode
FIVE TEAMS. FIVE DAYS. ONE LEGENDARY FISH.
The Sabalo Cup Invitational is the most prestigious tarpon fly-fishing tournament in the world, attracting an unforgettable collection of obsessives, oddballs, and glory-chasers to the sun-scorched backcountry and turquoise ocean of the Tequesta Isles. For five brutal days, elite guides and determined anglers battle giant tarpon, sharks, weather, rivals, aging bodies, and their own stubborn ambitions in pursuit of victory.
“On the surface, L. M. Weeks’s delightful POONTOWN is a thrilling look at the zaniness that goes into the preparation for, and participation in, a high stakes fishing tournament, and all that is lost and all that is gained along the way. What lies beneath, however, is something more powerful: a portrait of human nature in a world in which the tipping point for our fisheries and ecology is nigh.” —Monte Burke, Author of Saban, Lords of the Fly & Men of Troy








