InTheBite

CABO SAN LUCAS, BCS, Mex. Oct.19, 2020—The 2020 season of the Bisbee’s family tournaments continues even as the COVID-19 Pandemic swirls worldwide. In the second event of the year, the Los Cabos Offshore marlin tournament shattered both attendance records and the total payout amount.  The two-day event awarded eight of the 127 participating teams with its 769 anglers from around... [Read More...]

Dan Jacobs, Tournament Director, Los Cabos, Oct. 16, 2020—The 2020 Los Cabos Billfish Tournament received 49 teams competing for $742,500 in purse plus trophies and prizes. The fleet recorded 70 billfish catches including 13 blue, three black and 55 striped marlin. The qualified marlin included an impressive 593 black caught aboard Stella June, 312 blue marlin aboard Artemis, 396 black... [Read More...]

The leaderboard is stacked and heavy with notables. Yet a busy weekend has left us with a major shakeup in the Captain of the Year Cup leaderboard presented by Hatteras. Following a first place showing in the release division of the White Marlin Open, Capt. Russell Sinclair and crew aboard Wave Paver were most recently awarded high point boat in... [Read More...]

The MidAtlantic—The final day of the 2020 MidAtlantic dawned sunny though a light breeze kept temperatures cool as the 163 boats headed out on Day Five into calm seas offshore. With a 91-pound white marlin leading the category, admittedly everyone in the tournament acknowledged that number would be hard to beat. In the tournament’s 29-year history only five white marlin... [Read More...]

Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament—Sea Toy didn’t play around. Starting with a nine-fish lead the first day, followed by four more billfish releases on Friday, the 59 Spencer held off challengers to win the 2020 Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament. Capt. Bull Tolson, mates Catlin Peele, Tim Kidwell and anglers David Biggs, Amanda Cofer, Ken Cofer, Dan Stephano, Tommy Fowler and Timmy... [Read More...]

By Captain Chris Sheeder A single hook rig for billfish is not anything new or earth shattering, but in the flyfishing community it is a somewhat new concept and seems to be a hard switch for many. Guatemala was at the forefront of the circle hook revolution and one of the first to push its beneficial results onto the rest... [Read More...]

Jose “Poncho” Brenes and Steven Fallas, now captain on the Reel Fly, have been accustomed to keeping an organized and steady flow of baits when fishing the seamounts off Costa Rica. The following are a few tricks of the trade that worked well in the past. 1. Green ILAND Cruiser Lure over a Small Yellowfin Teaser Poncho and Steven rig... [Read More...]

Chip Byrd is the first mate on Artemis. In addition to being a hell of a fisherman, Chip is well-traveled and innovative in his approach to cockpit work. The following is a list of tackle tips from Chip’s bag of tricks. 1. Cinching your knots with Bert’s Bees—Chip uses chapstick to lubricate his connections, cinching them tightly and securely. Using... [Read More...]

Year in, year out few crews have caught more white marlin or experience more tournament success than Captain Harvey Shiflet and mate Frank Riganto on the Anticipation – a Virginia Beach-based Spencer. Here is some cockpit insight provided by Frank. An Easy Reminder Write the dredge deployment distance on a piece of electrical tape and put near the digital counter... [Read More...]

Quick and Easy Swordfish Squid Captain Ron Rico When making tackle rigs for swordfishing, leave a long tag end on your hook connection. Depending on your squid size, you will need to measure your hook placement and cut accordingly. Insert your hook, as pictured, and push the tag end of the leader back into the center of the mantle. It's... [Read More...]