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Dredge Pulling Tricks from the Pros

January 13, 2021 By InTheBite Editor

angler with dredge

Photo courtesy Pepper Ailor

By Ric Burnley

The first time I saw a marlin dredge I had two thoughts. First: that looks ridiculous. Second: that looks awesome! At first, 40 rigged mullet dangling from a web-work of bars and leader looks like a cluster FUBAR waiting to happen. Put the dredge in the water, and dozens of swirling and flashing baits look like a school of bait on the run. Fish cannot resist.

Many anglers had the same experience when they first saw a dredge. We caught up with five pros to find out how they use dredges now, and how they plan to use them in the future.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Stories, Fishing, Tackle Tips, Techniques Tagged With: artificial baits, Bayliss, Dredge Baits, Dredging, natural baits, popular, pulling tricks, Trolling

The Fine Art of Live Baiting

December 7, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

man live baiting fish

Captain Wade Richardson’s long time mate Herbie deploys this bite-sized treat. Perfect for a black, a blue, sailfish, dorado, roosterfish or cubera.

By Elliott Stark

Live baiting is founded on a very simple biological concept. Since the very first time two fish swam in the ocean, the big ones have been trying to eat the little ones. In spite of the simplicity of the precept, live bait fishermen represent one of fishing’s most secret of societies. Fine tuning their presentations, crafting marlin bites that are as intimate as they are spectacular, the captains who have perfected the fine art of live baiting have long been viewed as secretive and mysterious.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Stories, Fishing, Techniques Tagged With: live baiting, live baiting marlin, Offshore Fishing, tuna tubes

Child’s Play: An Expert’s Approach to Fishing with Kids

December 3, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

fin gaddy with his two sons on the qualifier

Fin Gaddy with his twin sons on the Qualifier. Photo courtesy Fin Gaddy

Photos and Story by Scott Kerrigan

For those passionate about fishing, ensuring that your kids enjoy time on the water is a very important—some might say life-altering—consideration. For those who make a living as charter or private boat captains, creating a kid-friendly fishing environment is that much more important. The difference between creating a lifelong angler and a kid that will never fish again can be something as simple as making sure that the tackle and the target species are age-appropriate.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Adventures, Featured Stories, Fishing Tagged With: Charter Fishing, Fin Gaddy, Fishing with kids, Offshore Fishing, scott kerrigan

The Art of Negotiating a Raise

November 19, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

By Jan Fogt

After talking to owners and captains about the best way to ask for a raise, we came away with this startling conclusion: most captains rely on their boss’s goodwill to provide cost of living and merit raises even though such raises usually are negotiated upfront in the business world.

Considering the majority of big game captains today manage hard assets costing well over a million dollars we think being a licensed sportfishing captain should be considered a professional occupation. Yet few captains and owners see the owner-crew relationship quite that way.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Advice, Careers, Featured Stories Tagged With: boat crew pay, boat owners, captains pay, negotiating a raise, offshorefishing

The Best and Worst Fish of My Life

November 16, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

Captain Ricky Wheeler and mate Stephen Bowen

By Keith Bowen

During the 2017 WMO, I fished with Capt. Ricky Wheeler on the Exile 65 Paul Mann out of The Canyon Club Marina in Cape May, NJ. After a classic crashing teaser bite, a plug was pitched on an 80W standup combo and it was ‘game on’ with a decent sized Blue Marlin. I quickly got in my Smitty Built harness and got ready for a fight. Between fishing in Costa Rica and New Jersey, I had caught about 20 Blue Marlin in the past but after one jump, it was clear this was my biggest to date. Everyone was extremely excited during the controlled chaos as there had not yet been a blue weighed in and we were in the right Calcutta’s.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Adventures, Crew, Featured Stories, Fishing, People Tagged With: captain ricky wheeler, fishing advice, Offshore Fishing, White Marlin Open

Capt. Newt Cagle: Forever Grateful

November 2, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

captain newt cagle at helm

By Capt. Jen Copeland

“Forever grateful.”

Aged just seventeen, Newt Cagle left his South Carolina home of Sullivan’s Island. On Captain John Mumford’s Hattitude, he was en route to all the usual new mate, cut-your-teeth destinations. The standard travel circuit seems to continually spit out the good new mates, and swallow up the bad: Florida, Mexico, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and St. Thomas. If you can survive the nighttime antics of this billfish boot camp, you’re usually good. If not, you’re on the first plane home – to grow up.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Crew, Featured Stories, News, People, Young Guns Tagged With: boat captain, boat jobs, fishing jobs, north carolina fishing, young gun

Gallery: The 2020 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

October 30, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

With comprehensive safety measures in place, the 61st annual Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show was underway. Despite anticipation that attendance would be down significantly, everyone we spoke to was thrilled about the turnout. If you weren’t able to make it to this year’s FLIBS be sure to check out some of the highlights from the industry’s leading manufacturers in the gallery below.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Events, Featured Stories Tagged With: blue water chairs, blue water desalination, boat show, casa vieja, castaway, fort lauderdale international boat show, furuno, galati, Garmin, HMY, hooker electric, magbay, MTU, murray ventilation products, neptune boat lifts, scales, valhalla

Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: Ill-Advised Savings Costing in the Long Run

October 30, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

The intersection of sportfishing and money is an interesting one. It takes lots of money to buy a sportfisher, it costs a lot to keep it running. This boat name (NYSE stands for New York Stock Exchange) illustrates the case in point.

By Dave Ferrell

There’s no getting around it…boats cost a lot of money to operate and maintain. Keeping a large sportfisher, or even a small charter boat, up and running through an entire season is akin to walking a tight rope; where any little slip can cost thousands of dollars in repairs and lost fishing time spent in the yard. Some of these nagging problems can’t be avoided. All boats eventually experience issues of one kind or another and the more sophisticated and advanced the systems onboard, the more likely you are going to run into trouble if you aren’t staying on top of things. But let’s face it, even the best captains can’t keep a boat from breaking down.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Boats, Featured Stories, Operations Tagged With: boat maintenance, boat owner, boat repair, charter boat

Returning to the Dominican Republic’s Casa de Campo

October 28, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

Photo courtesy Casa de Campo

As more travel options start to open up, the Dominican Republic has likely been on the radar for many anglers and boaters. The Caribbean country is a well-known hotspot for sportfishing enthusiasts and casual vacation-goers alike with plenty of options for saltwater social distancing. Currently, U.S. citizens are able to travel to the tropical haven without the requirement of a negative COVID-19 test for entry.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Caribbean, Featured Stories, Places Tagged With: Casa De Campo, Casa De Campo Billfish Tournament, covid 19, Dominican Republic, international travel

A Thorough Introduction to Billfish on the Fly

October 27, 2020 By InTheBite Editor

Photos and text by Captain Dean Butler

Without a doubt, fly rodding for billfish is a great challenge for even long-term fly fishermen. Much of the recent interest in giving it a go arises from anglers, captains and crews from a conventional fishing tackle background. This factor adds another level to the challenge.

As familiar as you may be with the target species, there’s a whole new realm of tackle, technique and IGFA rules to get your head around. This article aims to ease the transition to fly fishing by providing a range of information about aspects of the sport. Beyond the hardware and recommended procedures, though, I encourage anglers to treat every encounter as a part of the learning process – live-action reference data for understanding billfish behavior and for honing new tactics to catch them with a fly.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Featured Stories, Fishing, Techniques Tagged With: billfish on the fly, billfishing, fly fishing, fly fishing tackle

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News

  • Miss Texas Wins Silver Sailfish Derby, Waterman Wins Pelican Yacht Club Invitational

    Miss Texas Wins Silver Sailfish Derby, Waterman Wins Pelican Yacht Club Invitational

    Silver Sailfish Derby  First Place Most Releases Overall: Miss Texas Second Place: Priceless Third Place: Doing It All/Hardway Fourth Place: Gator One Top Individual Angler: Mike Simko with 9 releases Top Meat Fish: George Moss, Lunático, with a 32.8 lb kingfish Top Lady Angler: Carly Desmond, DaySea  Pelican Yacht Club Invitational First Place: Waterman, Capt. Kevin Paul Second Place: Dakeri,... [Read More...]

  • Canceled Plans, More Time Brought New Wave of Boaters, Anglers in 2020, Study Finds

    Canceled Plans, More Time Brought New Wave of Boaters, Anglers in 2020, Study Finds

    Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16, 2020—With COVID-19 transforming Americans' recreational habits, a new study from the Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) has found that millions of new or returning participants have taken up fishing & boating. Particular increases were seen among nontraditional participants, signaling the activities' increasing appeal among new audiences. Titled Who's On Board: Keeping New Anglers & Boaters Hooked,... [Read More...]

  • Captain Chris Sheeder Passes Away After Battle with Cancer

    Captain Chris Sheeder Passes Away After Battle with Cancer

    January 7, 2021—It's with a heavy heart that we announce well-known Hawaii Captain Chris Sheeder has passed away after a battle with pancreatic cancer, according to a public Facebook post from his brother. Sheeder's love for the water began at the young age of 11 when he took his first offshore trip out of Kona. This eventually led him to... [Read More...]

  • 2021 InTheBite Champion's Cup: What to Know

    2021 InTheBite Champion's Cup: What to Know

    Since 2003, InTheBite’s Captain of the Year Cup has celebrated the most successful tournament captains. It is still the world’s only quantifiable metric that ranks captains across five separate and geographically diverse tournament divisions – Florida, Hawaii, International, Gulf of Mexico and East Coast. New for 2021, we are introducing an optional paid entry winner-takes-all prize format awarding teams with... [Read More...]

  • Watch the V-46 Sea Trial

    Watch the V-46 Sea Trial

    Viking just finished wrapping up an early holiday gift – a captivating video of the new Valhalla 46’s first sea trial. Watch the V-46, powered with quad Mercury 450Rs, tear up the water in this fast-paced film that was captured from the cockpit of a Viking 72. Hull No. 1 of the V-46 topped out at an amazing 71 mph while... [Read More...]

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