Capt. Everett (Porky) Francis, a familiar figure on the Edgartown waterfront where he had fished nearly all his life, died Saturday after a long illness. He was 80.

For 25 years he ran Capt. Porky’s Bait and Tackle shop on Dock street with his wife Carol, dispensing his trademark dry humor along with lures, rods and reels, as well as running a charter fishing business on his boat Whitewater.

He was born on the Vineyard, the son of a fisherman. His uncle Roy Campbell, who captained the legendary dragger Roann, put him in a dinghy at a young age with a hand line and a hook.

“That’s how I learned to fish,” he told the Gazette in a 2018 interview. “And I never forgot.”

He was trained as an electrician but he would fish in the summers, and go scalloping and quahaugging in the off season. As a charter captain, Porky knew where to find the fish, and a tidal island off Chappaquiddick where he fished often is named for him.

But if you asked him where the fish are, he would simply say: “In the water.”

With his deadpan humor, he was especially a mentor to children learning to fish.

Porky and Carol sold the tackle shop in 2018 to Peter and Melissa Sklikowski, who own Larry’s Tackle Shop in Edgartown.

“Porky’s an icon,” Mr. Sliksowski told the Gazette.

He is survived by his wife, three children, four grandchildren and two siblings.

A celebration of life is planned for springtime.

An obituary appears on the Gazette obituary page online.