That was the last time anyone saw what is left of Curtis, who invented the poling platform for skiffs and the Bimini twist knot, spotted fish for Jimmy Buffett and Ted Williams, and inspired characters in the novel “Ninety-Two in the Shade.”

“It’s like losing my father twice,” Nancy Curtis Bacon said about her father, who died Oct. 24 at 91.

Bacon said her father wanted his ashes spread at Curtis Point, the seaward reach of Old Rhodes Key in Biscayne Bay that bears his name. She was planning to hold a memorial service there when the weather cleared. She never got the chance.

Curtis was one of the fathers of saltwater fly-fishing. He valued the respect and admiration from his fellow guides and would laugh each time he caught sight of them peeping at him through binoculars, studying his skills and trying to figure out his next big move.

In 1975, he invented the poling platform, which is above the engine at the stern and used to stand on and propel a skiff boat across flats and sight fish. Fellow guides initially made fun of Curtis, saying the platform looked like a fish-cleaning table. He would laugh and say it was a shade to keep his engine cool. The platforms are now standard equipment on fishing skiffs.