Old Salt: Capt. Brian Phillips

By Carol M. Bareuther, RD

Some people dream their whole life of catching a billfish. Others dedicate their lives to the pursuit of these magnificent creatures, with the best boat and tackle money can buy. Still, others happen into it by accident. That last scenario describes Capt. Brian Phillips from Port Aransas, Texas. It was a life-changing sailfish catch that started Brian down a new career path, one he’s now excelled at for over three decades.

From Under the Hood to On the Helm

Born in Massachusetts, Brian attended first grade in Germany and graduated from high school in Anchorage, Alaska. It was in “The Last Frontier” state that Brian first started fishing. His father was a military man rather than a fisherman, and on the base in Anchorage, family members could rent 15- to 16-foot skiffs. This made it fun and easy for Brian to cast out on lake and river angling trips. Fishing remained recreational for him for the next several years as he married, moved to San Antonio, Texas, began a family and worked as an auto mechanic for what would be a twenty-year career with Montgomery Ward.

“I caught my first billfish by accident,” he explains. “Before I got my own boat, we spent seven or eight years family fishing on drift boats out of Port Aransas. We’d troll offshore, targeting species like kingfish. My first boat was a 16-foot outboard. I was out on it one day when I hooked something. It jumped, but I didn’t know what it was. We threw it in the boat because back then, everything got hung up at the dock for photos. That’s when I found out it was a sailfish. Let’s just say that catch marked the beginning of the end. I knew from that point that I wanted to make my living as a captain.”

The Ocean Calls

Turning recreational fishing into a professional career proved challenging due to Brian’s success as an auto mechanic. He was the No. 1 tech in the country for Montgomery Ward, pocketing over $100,000 annually making training films.

It was 1989 when the tide slowly turned. A friend asked him to fish in the Deep Sea Roundup tournament. The tournament, which started in 1932, continues today as one of the oldest on the Gulf Coast. Brian won with a whopper 440-pound blue marlin. With that success, he focused on figuring out the finances needed to move from under the hood to the helm.

“I had a 25-foot Aquasport with 150 hp Johnsons at the time. It cost more than my house,” he recalls. “The whole transition seemed like it happened in slow motion. I had to consider whether to quit my job or retire after 20 years. I got my captain’s license. I thought about working part-time as a deckhand and freelancing. It wasn’t intentional at first to go full time, but I did by age 36,” he says.

A Captain That Loves Competition

The first boat Brian ran was the 55’ Hatteras, Mo Misery. He spent three years working privately for the owner, who had a roofing company in Waco. One memorable trip was from Port Aransas to Cozumel.

“I was scared to death. It was about a 700-mile trip. It was the early 1990s, and everyone was there. Dave Noling. Scott Murray. Mike Canino. There I was with a 55’ Hatteras built in 1987 next to a whole fleet of new Merritts. It was intimidating. The docks were Med tie at the time, and it was hard to get in and out without scratching the other boats. I felt like I was faking it, but they all helped me. There was a nice camaraderie there among the big diesel offshore boats,” says Brian.

Next came a move onto a Bertram 54, Karat, in 1997. For the next seven years, with Brian at the helm, the boat spent time traveling and fishing.

“We’d go to Cancun, then spend 90 days in Isla Mujeres for fun charter fishing to fill the calendar, then back to the Gulf for all the Texas tournaments in the summer,” Brian says.

Some of these Lone Star State events were local, like the Deep Sea Roundup. Others were bigger, such as the Texas Billfish Classic fished out of Freeport. One was the famous invitation-only Poco Bueno Tournament out of Port O’Connor, Texas. Four blue marlin, which put the Karat in the lead on releases, and three yellowfin tuna, each over 200 pounds, made for a great showing.

“We were very successful. We either won money or scared them 80 percent of the time,” says Brian.

A Stickler for the Rules

He adds, “I’ve won or lost so many tournaments in the last 15 minutes. If we were in the lead, I’d almost miss a heartbeat with any crack of the radio, listening to see if the other boat’s fish was boated or released or it jumped or broke off. I told everyone, ‘If you hear my voice on the radio, then you’d better grab your wallets.’ ”

The minimum length for blue marlin to be boated in tournaments was 86 inches in the late 1980s. Since then, this number has inched up to 92, 94, 99 and now 110 inches minimum.

“It’s a different technique whether you’re going to release or kill a fish, and as a captain, you better know them all. You’ve got to be able to do it all and be able to switch. Now, the money is in the release pot. I read the rules thoroughly; every tournament’s rules are different, and there are tournaments within tournaments. There might be $50,000 for the winner, but the release pot win might be $250,000. I have enough pickle platters. The owner is paying me to win, and reading the rules and understanding them ahead of time is a big part,” he says.

The competition is what Brian likes best about tournaments.

“I don’t drink, so it’s the excitement, the parties, the stories, the camaraderie,” he says.

Seeing the World

Traveling to sportfish has taken Brian all over the world. He’s fished in Cabo San Lucas, including Bisbee’s Black & Blue Tournament in 1999 and more recently. From there, he’s fished to the north in fish-rich Magdalena Bay and to the south off Costa Rica. Brian’s West-East calendar has had him cross the Panama Canal 32 times. In the Atlantic, beyond the Gulf of Mexico, he’s fished off Key West and much longer ago with his uncle off eastern Massachusetts for mackerel and cod. Some of Brian’s best fish stories come out of the Caribbean. In 2006, he helmed the Viking 61, Get Reel, for owner Curt Johnson of St. Martin in ESPN’s Xtreme Release Billfishing Tournament.

“We were fighting a fish in overtime in 7- to 8-foot seas. The rules said if you fish in overtime and land the fish, then you have an hour and a half to get back to the dock. The seas were snotty, so it was slow going. They had already started the awards by the time we arrived. I told Curt we weren’t going to get more than a third, so no sense going to the dinner if he didn’t want to,” says Brian. Johnson passed away later that evening from a heart attack. “That’s why I always carry two defibrillators on board. You never know if you’re out or at the dock and the boat next to you needs one.”

Recent Big Tournament Wins

After Get Reel, Brian captained the 68’ Viking Reel Attitude and then the 58’ Sculley Mojo. In 2012, Brian at the helm and owner Will Lett in Mojo’s fighting chair won the Lone Star Tournament, hosted by the Houston Big Game Fishing Club, with a record 18 billfish releases evenly split between white marlin and sailfish. A year later, Brian and angler Alan Latham celebrated the Fourth of July in style aboard Mojo by winning the one-day Gulf Cup Marlin Classic with a 501-pound blue marlin.

Next came captaining the 74’ Spencer, Smooth Move, for Porter Trimble. The 2018 summer of Texas tournament fishing proved incredible. First up was the Poco Bueno.

“We hooked up a big marlin and ended up fighting it several hours. At first, I thought we had plenty of time, but the longer we fought it, the less time we had left to get back to the dock. Finally, at five hours and 20 minutes in, I knew angler Brad Goodrich was either going to break the line or catch the fish. We caught it and made it back with five minutes to spare. It weighed in at 720 pounds, the tournament’s winning fish,” says Brian.

The winning streak continued for two more weeks. First, Smooth Move’s angler, Matt Reed, reeled in a 206-pound yellowfin tuna in the Texas International Fishing Tournament. The catch set a tournament record. Then, Smooth Move, with Brian at the helm, earned Top Boat in the Texas Legends Billfish Tournament with six blue marlin caught and released, a tournament record.

2020 was just as successful, with Smooth Move crowned the Grand Champion of the Texas Triple Crown Billfish Series.

Looking Forward & Backward

Brian officially retired in April. “I didn’t quit fishing,” he says. “But now I fish with who I want, when I want.”

Looking back, Brian says two of the people he admires most are Bill Hart and Bob Flood.

“When Bill Hart spoke, I listened,” he says of the captain who ran a sportfishing boat in the 1930s and 1940s. “He said bait is what fish eat. Fish eat fish. They don’t eat plastic. I repeat that today. Sure, lures have a place but are not as consistent. So I fish with bait, dead or alive.”

Flood, Brian says, was a retired U.S. Air Force pilot who loved to fish. “He’d use lures, but I’d be sure to listen to him too. It was always Ma’am and Sir. He had a professional mechanical background and showed me how to change the filter on a pump.”

What’s It Takes to Be a Great Captain?

“It’s 100 percent about being in the entertainment business,” he says. “You’re not in it for yourself. You have two to three crew and four to six guests. You need to be sure they are fed, have drinks and are comfortable going out and coming back. Win, lose or draw, it’s all about making sure they have smiles on their faces all day long.”