Julius Shepard Hodges, 88, a fisherman of uncanny skill

To his buddies at the Sea and Surf Anglers Club of Boston, repeat trophy winner Julius Shepard Hodges was regarded as the Houdini of sport fishing because of his skill in reeling in aquatic prey.

For 45 years, they watched him cast his line in waters off Cape Cod and Bermuda and catch some of the cagiest of fish, almost, they said, as if he could guess what the creature's next move would be. "Julius and his wahoo [a fish found in the tropics] would make you think that Ernest Hemingway's story of 'The Old Man and the Sea' was kids' play," said Horace Shearer of Dorchester, president of the Sea and Surf Anglers, a men's group that has a program to teach youngsters how to fish.

Mr. Hodges, who started fishing as a boy in Georgia and stopped only last year, died April 11 of complications of pneumonia at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in West Roxbury. He was 88 and had lived in Mattapan. He was a craftsman by trade.

The wahoo met its match off Bermuda in 1993 after an epic, hourlong duel with Mr. Hodges. Once hooked, the wahoo dashed around the boat in circles, scrambling from port to starboard and bow to stern, with Mr. Hodges following until it surrendered.

Stories abound about his fishing prowess and his mentoring of countless city youngsters in the art of angling. "Dad loved to teach local kids how to fish," his daughter, Karen Hodges Walker of Canton, said by e-mail. "He said if more kids learned how to fish, there would be less trouble."

He taught the youngsters not only how to bait a hook and cast a line, Shearer said, but about patience and camaraderie. "When fishermen are out on the ocean, they must depend on one another and come to regard one another as mates," Shearer said.

Mr. Hodges also taught the youngsters that there were serendipitous twists in life. Shearer remembered when his friend was teaching a group of neophytes how to catch small fish called porgies off Falmouth and he caught a striped bass without even trying.

"You fish for porgies when the boat is standing still and porgies are all you're going to get," Shearer said. " We were anchored, and Julius was showing the kids how to drop a line in the water. He put his own line over and instead of getting a porgie, he got a 30-pound striped bass. That is almost impossible when a boat is anchored. I called him Houdini."

Among his friend's many fishing skills, Shearer said, was his ability to reel in big fish with the more challenging light lines. He caught the wahoo with a 12-pound test line "while most of these fish are caught on a 50-pound test line," Shearer said. "Julius won trophies for fishing using light lines, many over a period of years and too many to count."

The Sea and Surf Anglers of Boston have fished in tournaments with the Blue Anglers Club of Bermuda. They would fish on Cape Cod and in Bermuda in alternate years. In 2005, Shearer said, Mr. Hodges won his last trophy when the Bermuda and Boston fishermen met in Florida. He took part in his last tournament in Falmouth in 2006.

As well as teaching children how to fish, Mr. Hodges also mentored many younger sports fishermen, like Melbourne Cragwell of Mashpee, vice president of the Boston club. "Julius taught us a lot of tricks, like how to keep the pressure on the fish," he said. "He was a skilled canvas worker and made a canvas fighting belt [for fishing] and used to make canvas Bimini tops for yachts."

For many years, Mr. Hodges owned Hodges Auto Craft is Roxbury, where he did upholstery for cars, furniture, and boats. His daughter said he learned the skill growing up in Georgia and Columbus, Ohio.

"Julius made canvas tops for some of the most expensive boats in the water," Shearer said. "It got to the point where boat owners down at Rock Harbor in Orleans would make appointments to have Julius come down there and make their tops."

Mr. Hodges was born in Statesboro, Ga., one of 14 children of Thomas Watson Hodges and Chloe (Love) Hodges. He did a lot of fishing in Georgia's ponds and lakes to put food on the family table, Cragwell said. With racial discrimination still strong in the South, he moved to Columbus at 17. During World War II, he joined the US Army and served with General George Patton's Third Army in Europe. In the late 1940s, he married Jessie L. (Young), a seamstress, and the couple moved to Boston. Mrs. Hodges died in 1991.

Mr. Hodges also taught his nieces and nephews, children, and grandchildren to fish. "He was a person who had strong opinions and charmed the ladies," said his niece, Claudette Crouse of Carlisle. "He had integrity, courage, and confidence and always said what he thought."

At his funeral in Roxbury last week, fishing rods covered in canvas were arched over his casket.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Hodges leaves another daughter, Cloran Stewart of Savannah, Ga.; a son, Stephen Julius of Medford; a sister, Vonzie Lee Dansby of Columbus, Ohio; six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Burial will be at 4 p.m. Friday in Eastside Cemetery in Statesboro, Ga.