For those of you who don’t know Skip and Lisa Bradeen, it would be unfair to skip over a little bit of their history in the process of hearing what they are up to nowadays.
Skip Bradeen came down to the Keys on a two-week vacation with a buddy back in September 1964. The oldest of 11 kids from Long Island, what started as a vacation kept becoming a delayed adventure as he got a job as a deckhand for $15 to $20 a day on a charter boat — the Always. He finally told his mom he wasn’t coming back, and in May of 1966 bought the Always and charged $40 for a half-day trip and $60 for a full day.
More recently, people know him for owning Blue Chip Too and the New Blue Chip Too.
Lisa Bradeen also moved to the Keys after first coming on vacation. Through her travel agent, she was given Skip Bradeen’s information. Skip initially called her when she arrived at the Islander. But she stopped by the dock to say hello before the initial plans they made. Lisa Bradeen didn’t know what he looked like, so she was going to check the marina and see what was happening.
“The docks were a circus back in the day, watching what the boats brought in,” she said. “People would be five deep waiting; it was a big deal, and the thing to do was to be at the dock at 4 p.m.
“I spotted this guy with a white shirt, blonde hair, blue eyes,” Bradeen continued. “He was mesmerizing, doing 10 things at once like a real showman. I stood there admiring this man but didn’t realize it was the same person at the time. I had flutterflies as I admired him but had my mind still in my career.”
A while later that same day, when they finally talked, Skip Bradeen brought up that he had just received his divorce papers. They then spent the whole week together; Lisa Bradeen returned to New York and resigned from her accomplished retail career.
“I remember my dad saying, ‘You’re going to move to the Florida Keys with a fisherman?’” Lisa said.
“But I knew Skip was the one, and I moved May 3, 1978 — that was it.”
After analyzing the job situation in the Keys, she found success in the restaurant industry and ended up at Mile Marker 88 for 23 years. Bradeen has also been a long-time wedding officiant and now also volunteers a few hours a week at the Florida Keys History & Discovery Center.
Skip Bradeen is not only known for being a good fisherman; he is even better at entertaining people and making them feel comfortable.
“I get them involved — make them hook their fish, clear the grass, etc. I may even sing and dance a bit too,” he said.
In 1987, he launched his wildly popular and successful live radio show.
“Let’s go ahead and try doing an on-the-water live show,” he said. “We were on the air daily at 9:10 and 4:10 for 30 years. The show went through some radio station channels, and when COVID-19 came, the station went out of business as it was.”
“The 9:10 and 4:10 were so ingrained. I remember going up to Enterprise to rent a car, and while I was at the counter, the associate’s alarm went off on his phone, and he put me on hold to listen to the show and didn’t know who I was,” Lisa said. “People did not go fishing until they heard the report from Skip.”
Skip and Lisa Bradeen credited Wayne Kvadus for all he contributed over the 34 years he worked with Bradeen. Kvadus retired when he turned 63 and had given him six months’ notice.
“Wayne even ran the charters and the radio show when I was on vacation and did a great job.”
“Wayne and Skip saw each other more than I saw Skip,” Lisa said. “They had communication where they just had to look at each other and knew what to do and what was going on.”
Who else remembers Skip’s Piano Bar? The Bradeens rented out the upstairs of the Old Bentleys, now the new second location for Italian Food Company, for a little less than a year in 2010.
“People were rocking and rolling Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and we tried Sunday afternoons for the ladies, but that didn’t work as well,” Skip said.
“Skip would be decked out in his tux entertaining until 11 p.m. while I was the hostess, server, booking the bands, manager, etc. It was a lot of work,” Lisa said.
Semi-retirement came about because the new boat owner decided he didn’t want to be in the charter business any more. Today, Bradeen keeps busy getting booked on other people’s boats and having a fun time on the water with those clients for the day. His 80th birthday is coming up on Sept. 2, and he is also kicking around a few business ideas. But in the meantime, he is happy helping his wife around the house, hitting the gym, reading the New York Post and watching the stock market. He added, “Then 4 p.m. comes around, and it’s time for a cold beer. However, I do miss being on the bridge.”
When asked about some favorite stories, Bradeen says, “Some I can’t tell you about.” But then he shares an incredible story about a client, Pastor Porter, wanting to catch a mako shark while the seas were crazy and everyone was seasick.
“Captain Skip, can I talk to you for a moment? Do you believe in God?” “Yes, very much so.” He took my hands and put a small bible in them. “If you believe in God, there will be a sign, but there will be a sign because of this moment. It could be in the form of doves.”
Moments later, Kvadus called out that a beautiful macaw was on top of the tower, looking down at Bradeen’s face. Then, in the middle of nowhere, a macaw was on the boat. Bradeen and Kvadus tried to catch it, but it flew away. Recently Pastor Porter reached out to say hello and share the Macaw memory.
Another fun story is after fishing in Cuba with Jimmy Buffett in 1983, they went to a town, and a kid came up to Bradeen on the boat. “The boy was maybe 8 years old with a hook catching pilchers one at a time. He laid them out in the sun; flies all over the bait. I returned to the boat as I had a brand new rod and reel and brought it out and gave it to him. He kept calling me ‘Capitan.’ I showed him how to catch more pilchers.
“Fast forward 15 years later, back in Cuba, I had the day off from a tournament and I was walking about town when all of a sudden a good-looking young man all dressed up started yelling from his bicycle, ‘Capitan, Capitan!’ and making a reeling hand motion. We were now 10 to 12 miles from where we first met and happened to cross paths, and he remembered me,” Bradeen continued.
