InTheBite

New 72′ Bayliss Old Reliable—The Cockpit and Beyond

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Nick Smith holding a fly rod

Nick takes InTheBite through his fly rod quiver.

Step aboard the 72-foot Bayliss Old Reliable with a private tour from Nick Smith as he takes us around his new boat, which splashed in July of 2021. The custom-built craft was specifically designed for chasing billfish on fly and was recently prepped for a multi-year Pacific tour.

And the day before Old Reliable shipped out, Nick Smith and Capt. Chip Shafer provided InTheBite with a guided walk-through to talk about the boat’s personal touches and offshore capabilities. It is rare to see a boat so personally customized for one goal and that is chasing and catching billfish on fly.

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Playa Muerto, Panama: A Break from the Rat Race

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playa muerto panama

A sweeping scape of Playa Muerto. Photo courtesy Jessica Haydahl

By Monte Richardson

The Pan-American Highway is something road-traveling adventurers discuss over a few cold beers. The fallacy of its execution lies in one small 60-mile chunk of Panamanian jungle aptly named the Darien Gap.

Save for this small sliver of rainforest, one could theoretically journey on the roadway clear from Deadhorse, Alaska on the banks of Prudhoe Bay all the way to Ushuaia, Argentina, some 30,000 miles of white line fever for the aspiring motorist. This gap in the road, a falling house of cards for someone’s magic bus, is home to Playa Muerto and a keystone civilization of indigenous natives named the Emberá.

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Airmar Announces New SmartBoat System

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Airmae SmartBoat System

MILFORD, NH. (September 23, 2021)—AIRMAR®Technology Corporation, a world leader in ultrasonic transducers and Chirp technology, is pleased to introduce their new SmartBoat® system, a groundbreaking vessel-management solution for all marine-sensor protocols and network types. The NMEA 2000® certified SmartBoat system offers a highly configurable sensor interface, supports a wide range of sensors and protocols, and provides remote discovery, management, programming, and wireless features. These unprecedented capabilities significantly reduce the equipment, protocol-conversion devices, cabling, complexity, and labor costs associated with conventional networking products, saving thousands on every install.

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To Kill or Not to Kill

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a marlin at a kill tournament

By Captain Kevin Deerman

Over the last couple of decades there have been some great debates between tournament committees, competitors and conservationists on whether kill tournaments are good or bad for our sport. Although recreational anglers are legally allowed to harvest billfish, post a photo of your crew with a dead marlin on Instagram and get ready for the keyboard warriors to attack. The truth of the matter is that many of the teams you see bringing fish to the scales probably release over 99 percent of the billfish that they catch.

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Captain Paul Ivey: A Finer Storyteller Fishing Has Never Known

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captain paul ivey with a billfish offshore

Photo courtesy Thomas Kopper

ITB Staff

It’s hard to imagine a more colorful character on the fishing landscape than Captain Paul Ivey. Looking back on a career that spanned Florida, the Bahamas, St. Thomas, Venezuela and the Galapagos, Ivey’s recollections are delivered with characteristic New York flair. If you’re lucky enough to catch up with the old captain over the phone, you might as well be talking on the bridge of an old Bertram fishing Venezuela’s La Guaira Bank in 1988.

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The California Captain

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crew with marlin on boat

Photo courtesy Peter Groesbeck

By Elliott Stark

When it comes to fishing, Southern California is a kingdom all its own. It boasts the US West Coast’s only billfish fishery and its richly abundant waters have been attracting anglers since the days of Zane Grey. The physical dynamics of the oceans and current in many ways define the approach of the anglers and captains who ply its waters. The culture of fishing runs deep—what happened here in the formative days of sportfishing was, in its time, as impactful and profound as any place in the United States.

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Dometic Marine Steering Technology Critical to Fishing Success

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hang em high sportfishing

Clay Shidler’s Hang ‘Em High Sportfishing fleet runs 1,400 charter days per year, taking anglers from across the U.S. and around the world out to enjoy the epic variety of fishing opportunities found off the Florida Gulf Coast. They fish inshore waters for popular species like snook, redfish, tarpon and speckled trout, hit offshore wrecks and reefs for big grouper, mutton snapper and cobia, and chase pelagic wahoo, dolphin and blackfin tuna offshore.  During the months of August and September, they switch to fishing out of Marathon in the Florida Keys. Thousands of hours on the water, thousands of miles traveled and enough fishing action to keep hundreds of customers happy each year.

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Raymarine Announces New LightHouse Charts for Axiom and Element Series Displays

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Whether you’re an avid angler or a weekend cruiser, you’ll want the best charting available to find fish faster, and navigate your vessel safely. The Next Generation of Electronic Marine Charts for Axiom and Element Series Displays is now here.

Explore without limits and take command of surrounding waters with LightHouse Charts. Raymarine has created the most visually stunning, customizable charts with color-shaded depth contours, data-rich points of interest, and superior clarity. This new cartography will give you the ability to uncover every detail of the water around you.
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Captain of the Year and Champion’s Cup Updates

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Photo courtesy Brian Leiser

September 21, 2021—It’s a Wrap! The sanctioned Hawaii tournaments have wrapped up with Capt. Shane O’Brien on Strong Persuader winning the most points with five tags at the It’s a Wrap Tournament. Capt. Tracy Epstein and the Last Chance team brought in a 565-pound blue winning them biggest marlin. This means O’Brien and the Wild Hooker team have won the Hawaii Champion’s Cup for Most Points and Largest Blue Marlin.

The previous weekend was a win with the MBGFC Invitational Labor Day Tournament when team Breathe Easy’s Craig Smith reeled in the largest blue marlin weighing in at 584.2 pounds. This earns the team points within the Champion’s Cup Overall Blue Division and Gulf Division Largest Blue further cementing their spot in first for the Gulf.

Our Captain of the Year also wrapped up in three categories: East Coast, Gulf and International. Capt. Patrick Ivie on the Breathe Easy took first in the FURUNO Gulf Division with 1500 pts. Over in the Release Ruler Hawaii Division, Capt. Shane O’Brien on Wild Hooker blew the other competition out of the water with 3500 points. Finally, for the AIRMAR East Coast Division, Capt. Miles Herring on Glazed won the first place spot with 1000 points. Congratulations to all three captains and their teams. Stay tuned later in the year when we announce the International and Florida COTY winners.

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