Thirteen years in the shop. A lifetime on the lagoon.
Captain Tanner Severt's East Cape story started before he ever stepped behind a push pole for a living — as a kid on the Mosquito Lagoon, watching boats and chasing fish.
Some stories start on the water. Some start in the shop. For Tanner, it was a little bit of both.
Long before he was guiding full time across the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon, Tanner was a kid spending his weekends fishing the same water he now poles for clients — learning its moods, its fish, its weather, and the kind of patience it demands from anyone who wants to truly understand it.
As a teenager, he crossed paths with Kevin Fenn at the boat ramp. Kevin told Tanner's mom that her son was going to be one of the best fishermen the lagoon had ever seen. Tanner laughs about it now — quick to say it may not have exactly come true — but at the time it meant something. It gave a young fisherman a little fuel. Sometimes that's enough.
"Being a teenager and him saying that, I thought it was great."
By 17, he was working at East Cape after school.
Sweeping floors. Washing boats. Learning gel coat repair. Learning how to vacuum bag parts. The kind of work that rarely makes it into the finished photo, but shows up in every finished craft.
That first job became thirteen years — and in those years Tanner did a little bit of everything. He worked the shop floor. He wet-tested boats. He ran new builds. He watched new models take shape from the inside out: the Vantage, the Fury, the Glide, the EVO series, and the early development that helped shape East Cape's direction as a builder.
"I think I've probably been on more East Capes than anybody else."
There's a difference between knowing a boat from a brochure and knowing one from a lifetime around it. Tanner knows East Cape from the shop floor, from the ramp, from the test runs, from the first rides in new models — and from the water that eventually became his office.
Watch the film — Made Here: an East Cape shortTwo hundred trips a year on the water that raised him.
Captain Tanner Severt guides full time across the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River Lagoon, running more than 200 trips a year. His clients stand on the bow of a 17 EVO V — a skiff he helped shape. Tanner was part of the conversation behind a smaller, technical boat designed for serious poling, wind, tarpon, and the kind of water that rewards control over excess.
"Every time I do, I feel proud that I was able to be part of that design process."
For Tanner, East Cape isn't a brand he used to work for. It's a place where he grew up, built relationships, and where customers became friends who still fish with him today.
"It's almost like a lot of them are family."
As Tanner says in the film: people talk about the old times. But sometimes you have to realize these are the good times. You have to make these the old times — and enjoy them while you can.
Book the lagoon with the guy who knows it best.
Tanner guides from a 17 EVO V — a technical poling skiff built for shallow water, clean control, and long days on demanding flats.