InTheBite

Longline Boats Allowed To Fish Florida’s East Coast

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After the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced today its approval of the Exempted Fishing Permit that allows longline boats to fish in Florida’s east coast closed zone, Ellen Peel, President of The Billfish Foundation (TBF) said, “Florida anglers, all anglers who fish off Florida’s east coast and the recreational fishing industry should be irate at the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Office of Highly Migratory Species for not valuing or respecting recreational fishing by their approval of the Exempted Fishing Permit, which allows longline boats to fish inside Florida’s East Coast Closed Zone.

Florida has more anglers than any other state in the nation, 2.4 million, and the related industry generates an economic impact of $7.6 billion dollars (2015/16) and supports 109,300 jobs! This is a slap in the face of all connected to recreational fishing in Florida especially after strong opposition was expressed by the industry and community participants. This decision could have a negative impact on Florida’s wide ranging marine tourism.

Peel added, “she was not surprised, though held out some hope, the NMFS would realize allowing longlines back into Florida’s east coast closed zone to land the conservation benefits accrued over 16 years of closure would be illogical. The NMFS has accommodated the one scientist at NOVA, who filed for the permit, project after project, regardless of prior results or inappropriateness of this project. The hypocrisy of the situation is blatant for the scientist, along with the owner of many of the longline boats that will fish in the zone, were part of a CNN interview in 2012 (see video here), in which they made the argument that longlining was not a clean gear and should be replaced by buoy gear. Now that the scientist and boat owner can sell the conservation benefits their story has changed. The longlines will kill billfish, swordfish, sharks and sea turtles. Be prepared, the NMFS, HMS may issue more restraints on recreational fishing so there will be more fish for the “research longlines” to kill if their illogic continues. Keep in mind that the State of Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission opposed the permit being issued.”

The Billfish Foundation is the world’s leading science-based sportfishing conservation organization that advances research, education and advocacy for responsible management and conservation of billfish (marlin, sailfish, spearfish, swordfish) and other highly migratory fish, including tunas.  

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2017 White Marlin Open Updates- Griffin Leads With 86 lbs. WM

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136 Boats Fishing Today – 353 Boats Entered – $4.97 Million in Prize Money!
 

Local Boat Takes Top Tournament Prize
8/11/17

Within the first 40 minutes on the last day of weigh-ins at Harbour Island, $3 million dollars changed hands.  To win the biggest share of the $4.9 million dollars in prize money, a white marlin would have to top the 86-pound white caught off The Griffin from Palm Beach, FL on Wednesday.  That’s a big white and would have won 36 of the last 43 tournaments.  A closer look, however would reveal that it would have only won 4 of the last 8 events.  Still, Wilmington Delaware angler Mike Donohue had to like his chances to hold onto the $2.6 million-dollar prize.

The scale for the last day of weigh-ins opened at Harbour Island Marina at 4:00 PM.  Waiting at the 3:30 bridge was MR Ducks from OC, Md.  The boat was carrying OC, Md. angler Joe Andrews with a white to weigh.  The digital scale judged Andrews’ fish to weigh 79.5 pounds which didn’t affect Donohue’s $2.6 million, but jumped into 2nd knocking another OC boat, the Berzerker down to third place.

Yet another Ocean City boat, the Wire Nut made the 4:00 PM bridge and cruised toward the HI scale with a quiet confidence.  Angler Glen Frost, an attorney from Stevensville, Md. knew that he had to beat a large white, but the crew felt the measurements indicated that was possible.  When the digital scale read 95.5 pounds the celebrating started.  It was the third largest white marlin ever caught in the 44-year-old event and it was Frost’s first white marlin catch!

So, Frost’s first ever billfish catch earned first place in the 2017 WMO and $1,654,800 in prize money.  That fish cost Donohue $1,400,000 but Donohue and The Griffin still earned $1,525,964 for the 2nd place white.  MR Ducks and fell to third with earnings of $164,673.

The tuna category produced 8 winners including a White Marlin Open record $866,553 tuna payout to Joe Sadler off the Intents both from Jupiter Florida.  Other top tuna winners were $90,380 to James Boynton of Situate, MA fishing aboard the Blue Runner out of Manasquan, NJ for their 67-pound tuna.  The Warden Pass from Cape May NJ carried Buena, NJ resident Kris Rainear who caught a tying 67-pound tuna and earned $52,950.

Tuna also earned big bucks for small boats.   The Lisa from OC Md. carried angler Mike Cutler who hones his billfishing skills in Leawod, Kansas.  Team Lisa won $112,050 for small boat top tuna and small boat big fish.

Jimmy Michael on the Dawg Haus out of OC, Md won $51,300 in the small boat white marlin division with his 58 pound tuna since no qualifying small boat white marlin were weighed.

The money in the Daily Meat Fish division is split between the heavy wahoo and heavy dolphin. The dolphin fishing was the slowest in memory and only one dolphin qualified.  The one dolphin that did qualify, however, took big money.  Ashton, MD angler Andrew Cohen aboard Annapolis based Silly Money weighed the a 23-pound dolphin to win all the daily money for dolphin and earned $74,841.  The 3 wahoo shared the daily prizes and the Hog Wild, G-Force and Karen Marie each won over $25,000 for their fish.

The Restless Lady from Ocean City, MD took $7,091 for the only shark weighed when Frank Snover from White Township, NJ caught a 126 mako shark.

In the Daily Release Point division, the Bar South took first with 735 followed by Fender Bender with 700 points and Weldor’s Ark with 665 pts.  Those same boats took the top three places in the prestigious Billfish Points division.

The top Tournament Anglers who will receive the coveted Master Angler Rings are:  Jack Owens off the Rebel, John Roberts on the Weldor’s Ark, and Kevin Pento aboard the Singularis.

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Dona Lucy Wins USVI Blue Marlin Tournament

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Photo: Top Boat, Doña Lucy, from Puerto Rico. L to R: Bryan Ramos, Jose De Veer, Rafael Caicedo, Efrain Rodriguez, Captain Juan Garcia, and Joselo Hernandez. Credit: Dean Barnes.

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. A total of five blue marlin released in three days of fishing earned Doña Lucy the top boat prize in the 45th annual USVI Open/Atlantic Blue Marlin Tournament (ABMT). Incredibly, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based team scored four of these fish on today’s last day of fishing to take the trophy over A1A, which also released five blue marlin total, but had to settle for second place based on time. Doña Lucy’s triumph was in a Davy versus Goliath-style as the 41’ Ronin sports fisher was half the size of other ABMT competitors.

“We had a team meeting last night and our captain, Juan Garcia, said he had a feeling it would be a good idea to fish the tournament’s last day up off Anegada,” says Doña Lucy angler, Rafael Caicedo. “This is where we released our first fish on Day 1. We fished the North Drop yesterday, with all the rest of the boats, and didn’t catch a thing. The idea was, as the smallest boat in the tournament, we had to break away from the pack. Luckily, we did. We found a small patch of blue water without weed and trolled in that patch.”

The Doña Lucy team raised its first fish of the day late morning, but it wouldn’t bite. Then, barely a half hour later, anglers Bryan Ramos and Efrain Rodriguez hooked up a blue marlin double header and landed both. With barely time to set the baits back out, Rodriguez hooked, caught and released a blue marlin weighing an estimated 500 pounds.

“Two minutes later, Efrain hooked up the big girl. It was about a 650 to 700-pound blue marlin and took 2 hours and 15 minutes to fight and release. It was during that time that A1A almost caught up to us. However, we were the first to reach five when we released that big fish,” says Caicedo.

There were three secrets to the Doña Lucy’s team’s success. One, the skilled anglers successfully caught everything that bit. Secondly, dead bait rather than lures was the team’s preferred fish attracting method. Third, the anglers and crew had a great boat.

“We just finished building the boat and this is only the second tournament we’ve fished,” says Caicedo.

The beautiful little Ronin was the last unfinished hull sitting in the factory when the Ponce, Puerto Rico-based yacht builder closed. Two weeks before the hull was to be sent to the crushers, says Caicedo, he and his fellow fishing team moved it to a small shed and spent five years finishing her. This is the little Ronin’s debut summer.

“It’s the little boat that could and did,” says Caicedo.

A1A, a 72’ Jim Smith based out of Florida, finished in second place in the boat standings with five blue marlin releases. Angler/owner, Bill Waldorf, earned Top Angler, caught and released all five blues. Business Stinks, a 72’ Merritt with Brazilian-based owner/angler Lucas Abud aboard, ended third with three blue marlin in the boat standings.

The 8-boat tournament fleet released a total of 22 blue marlin in the three days of fishing.

Boats competing in the ABMT were A1A, Angela, Business Stinks, Cheeseburger, Doña Lucy, Gulf Rascal, Reel Tight and Sodium.

The ABMT was run this year as a team tournament under IGFA rules only, without the call for competitors to adhere to additional special tournament rules such as the need for anglers to rotate rods hourly.

On land, the 5th Annual MarlinFest concluded with a Shrimp Boil and Caribbean Show in the parking lot of the Red Hook Shopping Mall.

The ABMT and MarlinFest benefit the locally-registered not-for-profit Marine Vocational Program (MVP). The MVP’s goal is to serve as a vocational institution that provide U.S. Virgin Islands youth with a career path into the marine/hospitality/tourism industries. Current MVP programs include learn-to-swim, sailing, scuba diving and small boat handling and operation skills.

Started by Chuck Senf back in 1972, the ABMT has evolved into one of the most competitive saltwater sports fishing events in the world or the ‘Super Bowl of Sports Fishing’.

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White Marlin Winner Appeals $2.8 Million Prize Case In U.S Federal Court

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White Marlin Open Winner Appeals Case in U.S. Federal Court

Ruling that denied $2.8 million prize was based on erroneous assumption and ignored significant evidence

August 02, 2017—Baltimore, MD—2016 White Marlin Open winner Philip Heasley today filed a notice of appeal of last month’s U.S. District Court decision in the case of White Marlin Open et al. vs Heasley, RDB-16-3105.

“We filed today’s appeal because the District Court ruling last month was fundamentally wrong. It became clear that the judge based much of his ruling on a deeply flawed assumption, and discarded facts, evidence and eyewitness testimony that contradicted it,” said Mr. Heasley, owner of the boat Kallianassa. “The Kallianassa crew and I caught the tournament’s only qualifying white marlin fairly, legally and without violating any tournament rules.”

The June 14, 2017, U.S. District Court’s decision is seen by many within the professional fishing industry as demonstrating a lack of understanding of how fishing tournaments work.

Two areas that Mr. Heasley’s attorneys will focus the appeal on are: 

1.  The finding that the Kallianassa put fishing lines in the water early: The judge misinterpreted a statement made in deposition that it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get the lines into the water.  In reality, that preparatory work is done on the deck and the lines are then dropped into the water at the 8:30 a.m. start time, taking one to four minutes.  Dismayingly, the judge clung to this statement and then extrapolated that the boat was at trolling speed because the lines were down, when in fact it was because the baiting of hooks and other preparatory work was underway.  The judge further ignored eyewitness testimony from the captain and mate of a competing fishing boat, who testified that they were in  close proximity to the Kallianassa and that they did not see any lines in the water prior to 8:30 a.m. start time.

2.  The court based its decision on polygraphs, which are generally not admissible in federal court because they are unreliable: The problems with the polygraphs are legion. To touch on a few:

The polygraph examiners who gave the tests admitted they gave a certain type of polygraph, where the polygraph standards referenced in the tournament rules required that a different type of polygraph be given. As a result, the polygraph examiners gave incomplete tests.

One polygraph examiner who administered the test testified in court that he did not understand the rules of the White Marlin Open tournament, nor of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA). As a result, he asked general questions that were so broad, they did not even apply to catching the winning fish.

One polygraph examiner was unfamiliar with the polygraph standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), which are safeguards to ensure that a polygraph is administered properly (even with these in place, there are still reliability issues with polygraphs).

One polygraph examiner used an outdated polygraph technique, called the “Relevant/Irrelevant” test, which has been rejected by the polygraph community as scientifically invalid because it does not have much better than 50-50 accuracy. 

The bottom line is that the White Marlin Open directors did not disqualify Mr. Heasley, nor did any other competitor lodge a single complaint. Instead, the White Marlin Open directors declined to make a determination and sent it to the court despite Mr. Heasley’s several requests to describe the catch and present his boat’s electronic information directly to the tournament directors. The court then based its ruling on a combination of unreliable polygraphs and false assumptions.

“For the first time in my life, my integrity and honesty have been challenged because of a polygraph test,” said Mr. Heasley. “The impact of this incorrect ruling not only has had great emotional impact on me and my family, but also on my professional captain and crew—who are fine, upstanding men and fishermen who are being unfairly branded as cheats. Whatever the outcome of the appeal, I could not let this ruling stand unchallenged. This has become about more than a winning white marlin. We’re honorable people, and we will continue to fight for our reputation and the truth.”

Today’s appeal will send the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia.

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White Marlin Open Winner Appeals Case In U.S. Federal Court

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White Marlin Open Winner Appeals Case in U.S. Federal Court

Ruling that denied $2.8 million prize was based on erroneous assumption and ignored significant evidence

August 02, 2017—Baltimore, MD—2016 White Marlin Open winner Philip Heasley today filed a notice of appeal of last month’s U.S. District Court decision in the case of White Marlin Open et al. vs Heasley, RDB-16-3105.

“We filed today’s appeal because the District Court ruling last month was fundamentally wrong. It became clear that the judge based much of his ruling on a deeply flawed assumption, and discarded facts, evidence and eyewitness testimony that contradicted it,” said Mr. Heasley, owner of the boat Kallianassa. “The Kallianassa crew and I caught the tournament’s only qualifying white marlin fairly, legally and without violating any tournament rules.”

The June 14, 2017, U.S. District Court’s decision is seen by many within the professional fishing industry as demonstrating a lack of understanding of how fishing tournaments work.

Two areas that Mr. Heasley’s attorneys will focus the appeal on are: 

1.  The finding that the Kallianassa put fishing lines in the water early: The judge misinterpreted a statement made in deposition that it takes 15 to 20 minutes to get the lines into the water.  In reality, that preparatory work is done on the deck and the lines are then dropped into the water at the 8:30 a.m. start time, taking one to four minutes.  Dismayingly, the judge clung to this statement and then extrapolated that the boat was at trolling speed because the lines were down, when in fact it was because the baiting of hooks and other preparatory work was underway.  The judge further ignored eyewitness testimony from the captain and mate of a competing fishing boat, who testified that they were in  close proximity to the Kallianassa and that they did not see any lines in the water prior to 8:30 a.m. start time.

2.  The court based its decision on polygraphs, which are generally not admissible in federal court because they are unreliable: The problems with the polygraphs are legion. To touch on a few:

The polygraph examiners who gave the tests admitted they gave a certain type of polygraph, where the polygraph standards referenced in the tournament rules required that a different type of polygraph be given. As a result, the polygraph examiners gave incomplete tests.

One polygraph examiner who administered the test testified in court that he did not understand the rules of the White Marlin Open tournament, nor of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA). As a result, he asked general questions that were so broad, they did not even apply to catching the winning fish.

One polygraph examiner was unfamiliar with the polygraph standards of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), which are safeguards to ensure that a polygraph is administered properly (even with these in place, there are still reliability issues with polygraphs).

One polygraph examiner used an outdated polygraph technique, called the “Relevant/Irrelevant” test, which has been rejected by the polygraph community as scientifically invalid because it does not have much better than 50-50 accuracy. 

The bottom line is that the White Marlin Open directors did not disqualify Mr. Heasley, nor did any other competitor lodge a single complaint. Instead, the White Marlin Open directors declined to make a determination and sent it to the court despite Mr. Heasley’s several requests to describe the catch and present his boat’s electronic information directly to the tournament directors. The court then based its ruling on a combination of unreliable polygraphs and false assumptions.

“For the first time in my life, my integrity and honesty have been challenged because of a polygraph test,” said Mr. Heasley. “The impact of this incorrect ruling not only has had great emotional impact on me and my family, but also on my professional captain and crew—who are fine, upstanding men and fishermen who are being unfairly branded as cheats. Whatever the outcome of the appeal, I could not let this ruling stand unchallenged. This has become about more than a winning white marlin. We’re honorable people, and we will continue to fight for our reputation and the truth.”

Today’s appeal will send the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia.

 

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In The Yard- 44′ Rybovich Restored

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Ten months later and the 44′ Rybovich Mar Sal is restored. Mark and Sally Williamson of Fort Myers, Florida have taken delivery of their dream. “I just couldn’t be happier. I would highly, highly recommend A and J Boatworks for any major restoration. I just can’t say enough about Steve and his team and all of the of the subcontractors,” beams Mark Williamson. “Every contractor did what he said he was going to do and more. Mr. Nguyen of Nguyen Yacht Refinishing and Derek Lynds of Custom Yacht Works who handled all of the carpentry, I was very pleased with the overall quality of his work.”

“We were over time and over budget, but what the hell. I have redone a couple of boats before and knew what I was getting into,” Williamson describes. “Everybody always reads these stories and wonders how much do boat projects cost. The boat was done for about 45% of the cost of a new Rybovich.”

What all went into the overhaul? Just about everything. “We put in new diesels, new generators, new wiring– everything mechanical in the boat is new. From the thru hulls to the electronics to the showers. The outside was all repainted. In fact, the only thing that was not repainted was the forward area. We revarnished and refinished everything- new latches, new fixtures, new shower. We refinished everything, but the structure itself was in very good shape,” says Mark Williamson of his newly finished project.

“Plans now? We’re going fishing, baby! Fishing and cruising with my wife,” Mark explains happily. As he described how the boat came together, we could practically hear his smile over the phone.

Stbd Side. New bow rail, curtains and paint

All new decks, helm chairs, rocket launcher, plumbed live well, cushions

Original hard top

Engine room looking aft port side

engine room looking over port engine

New Cummins QSC, 600 hp

Oct 2016

To check out the article we published during the refit in October 2016 Click Here 

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Top 5 Marlin of 2017- So Far

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Check out this list of the top 5 Blue Marlin weighed in so far in 2017 Captain of the Year Divisions. The IGY Marinas Int’l Division leads with team Flyer, led by Captain Bryce Garvey fishing the Bermuda Big Game Classic who harvested a 871 lbs. Blue Marlin. Pretty work crews!

IGY Marinas Intl’ Division

#1)Capt. Bryce Garvey, Flyer, 600 Points -Bermuda Big Game Classic, Largest Marlin, 500 Pts. 871 lbs.

Costa Sunglasses Gulf Division

#2)Capt. Scooter Porto and Reel Addiction team with 771lb Blue Marlin caught during the 46th Annual Pensacola International Billfish Tournament.

Release Ruler Hawaii Division 

#3)Capt. McGrew Rice on the Ihu Nui II hit big and won the Skin’s Tournament with a 731.5-pound blue marlin and TR release points. Photo courtesy of the Honokohau Charter Desk.

Costa Sunglasses Gulf Division

#4) Capt. Jason Buck, Done Deal, 500 Points- Blue Marlin World Cup, Largest Marlin, 600 lbs.

Billfish Foundation East Coast Division

#5)Capt. Brian Harrington, Run Off, 500 Points -Big Rock, Heaviest Marlin, 533.8 lbs. , 500 Pts.

   

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